trust and security,
and Investment, eff ective,
ff
ultra-fast networks,
effi
cient,
ffi
and transparent
research and innovation
public administration, a
digital literacy and social challenges,
fl avor environment for
fl
digital e-identity,
communication between
e-authentication,
citizens and politicians,
rights management,
cross European services
open source software
(continued)
E-Strategic Management Lessons from Greece 227
Table 17.1 (continued)
Vision
Strategy
Statement
Mission Statement
Australia-2000:
Better services for citizens Supervisor: National Office
ffi for the Information
Government
and enterprises
Economy of the Australian Government (NOIE)
Online
CSFs:
400 digital services online
Enterprise Architecture (AGA)
Government-wide Intranet
Electronic payments
Update: 2002:
Update:
Update:
Better Services,
e-Government
greater administrative effi
ciency,
ffi
Better
for economic
security and trust,
Government
growth
responsive public services
service integration
participation
Japan-2001:
“knowledge-emergent
Supervisor: Prime Minister Offi
ce, IT Strategy Head-
ffi
e-Japan
society” with ICT
quarters
CSFs:
2003: e-Japan II
ultra-high-speed networks
e-commerce
service and information provision
ICT literacy
enterprise architecture program (2004)
Update: 2006—
Update: Inclusive and
Update:
New IT Reform
Innovative Society
citizen satisfaction
Strategy
e-local Government and standardization
health and environmental challenges
aging society
Update: 2009
50 percent of form applications by 2010
i-Japan 2015
Elimination of paper certifi cates by 2020
fi
multi-channel and via three-“mouse clicks” services
Government offi
ces
ffi
e-PO box Digital ID
However, although e-strategies seem to migrate from “service digitization”
to “service transformation” and governments from “modern” to “account-
able,” there is no clear strategic management method that shows how this
evolution is controlled. In this context, this chapter seeks for a strategic
management model that can be applied on e-strategies either at an ex-post
level, so that managers can determine the next steps for “e-evolution.”
In this context, an indicative strategic management method that is based
on the strategic life-cycle is suggested, and it was applied on the Greek
e-strategies in order for the reasons that lead to the selective updates to be
recognized and to be evaluated. The Greek e-strategies can be considered
representative European cases, where governments had to deal with both
the national requirements and with the European goals such as the Lisbon’s
(European Council, 2000).
228 Leonidas G. Anthopoulos, Dimitrios Triantafyllou, and Panos Fitsilis In the background section (Section 2) of this chapter, some useful strategic management methods and tools are presented, and a strategic manage-
ment model is composed. In Section 3 this model is applied on the three Greek e-strategies in order for the updated versions to be compared and for
the reasons that lie behind these updates to be realized.
2 BACKGROUND
Various strategic analysis methods such as the strategy map (Barrows &
Frigo, 2008), the strategic life-cycle (Lysons & Farrington, 2006) and the
balanced scorecard (Creamer & Freund, 2010; Huang, 2009; Kaplan &
Norton, 1996) can be used for realizing, communicating, and visualizing
a strategic plan and for strategic decision making. The strategic life cycle
analyses a strategic implementation in the following phases (Figure 17.1): (a) analysis, (b) synthesis, (c) evaluation, (d) implementation, (e) control,
and (f) review.
2.1 The Analysis Phase
This phase defi
fines the CSFs according to both the external and the inter-
nal environments. Three alternative methods (David, 2011) can provide
with data the strategic analysis: the External Factors Evaluation (EFE)
Matrix, the Internal Factors Evaluation (IFE) Matrix and the Competitive
Profi
file Matrix (CPM). These three tables contain internal and external
CSFs that are obtained according to systematic investigation performed
by the organization.
review
synthesis
analysis
implementation
evaluation
control
Figure 17.1 The strategic life-cycle.
E-Strategic Management Lessons from Greece 229
The EFE matrix stores the external factors together with their significan
fi
ce.
Demographic, environmental, fi
financial, political, and legal could be some of
these factors, whereas some concern chances and others threats. Initially, the
identifi c
fi ation and the classifi c
fi ation of the factors to threats or chances are per-
formed, and then weight values from 0 to 1 are assigned to them. The weight
values refl e
fl ct the signific
fi ance of each factor, whereas the total sum of these
values equals to 1. Later, each factor is characterized with an index value from
1 to 4. The weighted result for each value varies from 4 to 1, whereas the value
of 2.5 is the baseline that refl e
fl cts the organization’s strength or weakness.
The selection of the appropriate strategy is usually based on intuition
and/or on numerical analysis. The IFE matrix aims to close the gap between
intuition and analysis (Mintzberg, 1994) with values subjectively defined
by the strategic team. The IFE matrix follows the same implementation
procedure with the EFE matrix.
The construction of the CPM fi
finalizes the analysis phase. This matrix
presents the strengths and weaknesses of an examined strategy compared to
other strategies. The comparison is based on CSFs, which are evaluated with
values from 1 to 4. The weighted results give the fi
final ranking (David, 2011).
2.2 The Synthesis Phase
Under this phase both the vision and the mission statements are identi-
fi
fied with the use of alternative methods such as (a) the Porter’s Five Forces
model (1996), (b) the Marketing Mix 7p’s (Ivy, 2008; Rafi
fiq & Ahmed,
/> 1996), and (c) the strategy map (Kaplan& Norton, 1996).
In Porter’s (1996) model, five forces defi
fine the organization’s strat-
egy together with its attractiveness and its profi
fitability: (a) the threat
of the entry of new competitors; (b) the threat of substitute products or
services; (c) the bargaining power of customers (buyers); (d) the bargain-
ing power of suppliers; and (e) the intensity of competitive rivalry. From
these forces, only (b) and (c) comply with the e-strategic characteristics,
since substitute products do not exist, while the supplier is the govern-
ment that has no competitors.
The Marketing Mix 7p’s (product, price, place, promotion, physical
evidence, people-participants, process) is based on marketing theory and
refers to the strategic, tactical and implementation’s planning (Ivy, 2008;
Rafi
fiq & Ahmed, 1996). However, this method is diffi
fficult to comply with
the e-strategic characteristics.
The strategy map (Kaplan & Norton, 1996) is a diagram—part of
the Balanced Scorecard—that refl
flects the produced value process of an
organization, and it is constructed with the assign of the strategic objec-
tives to cause and eff
ffect. The strategy map can support the visualization
and the communication of a strategic plan and consists of four pillars:
(a) fi n
fi ancial, (b) customer, (c) internal business process, and (d) learning
and growth. This method was applied in the examined Greek case.
230 Leonidas G. Anthopoulos, Dimitrios Triantafyllou, and Panos Fitsilis 2.3 The Evaluation Phase
The evaluation process compares the strategic results to the strategic objec-
tives (Nag, Hambrick, & Chen, 2007). The strategic evaluation consists of
the ex-ante, the intermediate, the updated intermediate and the ex-post pro-
cedures. The ex-ante evaluation is based on estimates and on suggestions; it is
performed on political and program planning, and it measures the applicabil-
ity and eff e
ff ctiveness of the plan, the availability of resources, and the imple-
mentation’s monitoring according to predefined directives. The intermediate
evaluation analyses the ex-ante results and provides strategic updates, which
compose the updated intermediate evaluation process. Finally, the ex-post
evaluation measures the fi
final results and the strategic impacts and has to be
performed not later than 3 years from the strategic completion.
2.4 The Implementation Phase
The implementation phase concerns the set of actions that makes the strategic
plan a reality (Nag et al., 2007). It can be considered a process that consists
of the communication management between the stakeholders of the plan, the
objectives’ determination and review, the assignment of duties to the responsi-
ble parties, staff t
ff raining, organizational transformations, and the continuous
monitoring of the entire procedure (Lysons & Farrington, 2006).
3 A
STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF THE GREEK CASE
The Greek Government signed the eEurope strategy and developed its plan
for the Information Society by 1998. The resulted e-strategy was called
the “Information Society Framework Programme” (www.infosoc.gr), and
it was supervised by the Special Secretariat for the Information Society
located at the Ministry of Finance giving a clear directive that the national
strategy had to align properly to the European obligations for funding. This
initial e-strategy was funded with €1,150 million, and it mainly focused on
infrastructure installation and to large-scale information systems. More
than 4,000 projects were implemented under the fi
first Greek e-strategy.
The second Greek e-strategy was initiated by 2005, it was called
“Digital Convergence” and it was aligned to i2010 European strategy.
This strategy, funded with €900 million about 2,000 projects, focused
on social cohesion and on regional development and delivered significant
outcomes such as the Greek e-Government portal (Ermis) and the Greek
interoperability framework (e-GIF). This second e-strategy was updated
by 2010 according to the Digital Agenda’s and to U.S. Open Govern-
ment’s visions. This third Greek e-strategy (www.digitalplan.gov.gr) has
not changed title from its predecessor; it has not started its implementa-
tion yet, for the purposes of this chapter it will be called “Digital Con-
vergence II.”
E-Strategic Management Lessons from Greece 231
Each of the above strategic plans was analyzed in pillars, called “mea-
sures” in the Information Society, “fi
fiber actions” in the Digital Conver-
gence, and “horizontal interventions” in Digital Convergence II. Each pillar
focuses on specifi
fic European challenges and objectives.
In this chapter a strategic review of the three Greek e-Strategies is being
performed in order to document a suitable strategic management model,
and to visualize Greek strategic development. In this context, offi
fficial data
from the Greek Special Secretariat for the Information Society websites
has been used (http://www.infosoc.gr and http://www.digitalplan.gov.gr),
which provided with strategic vision, with objectives, with budget alloca-
tion on pillars and projects, with projects’ defi
finition and with implementa-
tion timeframes. Published data concern e-strategic progress monitoring
since 1999 and was collected on summer 2011. The introduced strategic
management model consists of the tools and methods from the strategic life
cycle, which were presented in the previous section.
3.1 The
Analysis Phase
The performed analysis of the external environment in Greece supported
the realization of the trends that aff
ffect the e-strategic planning and of
the CSFs, whereas the investigation of the internal environment lead to
the recognition of the untapped opportunities and of the hidden threats.
Additionally, a comparison between the three Greek e-strategies was
established, in terms of better recognition of the internal and external
factors, as well as of effi
fficiency in serving national vision. Besides, the
primary objectives of strategic management concern (a) the capitalization
of external and internal opportunities and (b) the avoidance or the mini-
mization of weaknesses.
The external and the internal factors that infl
fluence the Greek e-Strate-
gies were initially defined in order to structure and calculate the EFE (Table
17.2), the IFE (Table 17.3), and the CPM (Table 17.4) matrixes for the three e-strategies. Greek strategies recognize the European threats and opportunities and combine them with the national environment in order to defi ne
fi
their visions and missions: For instance, the aging challenge (European
Commission, 2009) concerns a threat, whereas globalization (Laudon &
Laudon, 2002) and economic growth (Drucker, 1985; Porter, 2002) con-
cern opportunities. The
calculation of the weights that were assigned to
each factor was based on the following simple formula:
x + Tx
W =
p
T
where
W repre
W
sents the resulted weight;
x, the number of projects that concern this factor;
p, the total number of projects that ran under the strategy;
T , the budget of the x projects;
x
, t
he total budget of the p projects.
232 Leonidas G. Anthopoulos, Dimitrios Triantafyllou, and Panos Fitsilis The calculation of the factors of the Tables 17.2, 17.3, and 17.4 was based on the allocated funding to the corresponding strategic pillars.
Data for the calculations was collected from the strategic annual reports
(http://www.infosoc.gr/infosoc/el-GR/epktp/proodos_ylopoiisis).
Table 17.2 The EFE Matrix for the Greek Strategies
External Factors
Information Society
Digital Convergence
Digital Convergence II
Opportunities
Weight Rating Results Weight Rating Results Weight Rating Results
Globalization
0,23
4
0,92
0,22
4
0,88
0,022
4
0,088
National
0,22
4
0,88
0,033
3
0,099
0
3
0
Economic
Growth
Supranational
0,018
3
0,054
0,04
3
0,12
0
4
0
Economic
Growth
European
0,043
1
0,043
0,38
2
0,76
0,16
3
0,48
transactions
Schengen’s
0,15
2
0,3
0,02
4
0,08
0,4
4
1,6
membership
Participation
0,018
3
0,054
0,041
4
0,164
0
4
0
in Internet
Governance
Threats
Aging
0,003
2
0,006
0,003
3
0,009
0
2
0
Rising Asia
0
4
0
0,022
4
0,088
0
Public Sector Transformation Through E-Government Page 40
