The Use of Benefits Management in E-Government Projects

Abstract

The expenses in information systems and information technology (IS/IT) represent a substantial share in organizations' budgets. However, IS/IT investment projects seem to continue to show reduced success rates. The benefits management (BM) has gained relevance as a way, not only to understand these failures, but also as a tool available to organizations to improve the success of IS/TI investments. The objective of this article is to understand how BM can be applied in IS/IT investments in the public administration (PA) and help to leverage the benefits of these investments. A case study was conducted using an e-Government project in the Portuguese PA. The study showed how a BM approach can be applied in this environment and also identified some difficulties that must be considered. Several benefits, which were not foreseen, were identified and evaluated, or proposed some criteria for their evaluation, highlighting, this way, the true contribution of IS/IT investments in delivering services to citizens and increasing public organizations performance.