Internet users wish for digital administrative offices

Tettnang, 5 November 2008 – email, blog, chat, social networking... these forms of digital communication are already daily routine for the public administration and state facilities.

Email is the most used form of the modern communication in all domains. Still, what is seen as right and handy for the private sphere, is not necessarily regarded as such for the communication of the authorities with companies and citizens.

Neither private users nor the majority of the German companies are taking advantage of all virtual possibilities of the online world, especially when it comes to e-Government. According to a recent survey of Booz Allen Hamilton, 33 percent of the Internet users reject online services of the authorities, seeing them as insecure.

Avira security experts addressed this issue in an online survey on www.free-av.com, where 3,561 respondents answered the following "question of the month": Curse or technology blessing? Email has replaced the letter and fax, communications are now sent and stored virtually. Be honest, do you think that in the future all workplaces will be dependant on the Internet?

A definitive "Yes", from 38% of the visitors, shows they appreciate the time-saving possibilities offered by the Internet. Every tenth respondent, however, considers the traditional interpersonal communication much more important, and prefers face-to-face business meetings to impersonal phone or video conference.

Flexible working hours would be more attractive for 20% of the respondents. They think that working from a home computer with a good network connection is the future trend, at least as long as the modern technology doesn't fail.

Another 18% fear severe consequences for business, in case of a breakdown of modern communication technologies. This opinion reflects in the acceptance of the modern e-Government services by companies. The results of a BITKOM survey show that only half of the German companies has used e-Government applications in 2007. They explained that e-Government offers are less attractive to the economy.

The idea of the digital authorities proved to be far more positive to the private users. One in every six respondents says, that many things could have been digital, long ago, instead of generating loads of paperwork.

"In Germany, e-Government has still to develop, mainly due to the fact, that the online services are not focusing enough on the users", explains Rainer Witzgall, Executive Vice President at Avira. "Moreover, it lacks a unified legal standard." As Witzgall says, it is very important, for the e-Government to prove its full potential, first by highlighting the usability aspect for the users, and second, by creating a communication concept, concentrated on IT security.