E-GOVERNMENT SERVICES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL &

MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN RURAL AREAS: THE RURAL-EGOV

APPROACH

MARIA LAMBROU, THEOTOKAS IOANNIS, NIKOLAOS MARIANOS

Department of Shipping Trade and Transport, University of the Aegean, Greece

2 Korai St, Chios 82 100, Tel. +30-22710-35246. Fax: +30-22710-35299.
E-mail: mlambrou@aegean.gr, gtheotokas@aegean.gr, n.marianos@aegean.gr

AND
GEORGIOS PERRIS

Antena Chios, Chamber of Commerce, Greece

F. Argenti 8, Chios 82 100, Tel. +30-22710-44524. Fax: +30-22710-44332.
E-mail: gperris@keta-ba.gr

ABSTRACT

A recent policy document from the EC (“i2010 – A European Information Society for
growth and employment”, EC, June 2005) outlines the importance of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) in making public services better, more cost
effective, and more accessible. ICT are becoming more widely used and are
benefiting more people. On the other hand, according to this policy document, today
over half of the EU population either does not reap these benefits in full or is
effectively cut off from them. Reinfoncing social, economic, and territorial cohesion
by making ICT products and services more accessible from regions that are lagging
behind, is an economic, social, ethical and political imperative for the Commission.

This problem can be clearly identified when considering public services for
enterprises in rural areas. Away from the central public authorities, such enterprises
(mostly SMEs in such areas) do not have physical access to the public services
required for them to do business with governmental or public agencies (such as
taxation offices, legislative authorities, local authorities, chambers of commerce etc.).
The tools and methods of the Information Society aim to address such problems: first,
by providing the means for public authorities to deploy and offer electronic public
administration services (e-government services); second, by facilitating rural SMEs in
accessing these services from a distance. Key drivers for this are both Regional
Authorities as well as Central Government.

A major barrier towards this direction is the low degree of ICT adoption and use of
online services from rural SMEs, which is being identified by related studies about
rural development (Gelb E., Offer A., “ICT in Agriculture: Perspectives of
Technological Innovation”, European Federation for Information Technologies in
Agriculture, Food and the Environment, 2005). Experience from training SMEs in
rural areas (through initiatives such as the ‘Go-Online Training Support’ in Greece
and the ‘Opportunity Wales’ in UK) has demonstrated that ICT training activities
have to develop (i) a specially designed training curriculum that can convince SMEs
about the benefits they will reap from introducing ICT in their business, (ii)
innovative training models that can combine traditional forms of learning with e-
learning forms (such as blended learning models), and (iii) an online point of
reference which SMEs can continuously access for information and content. These
three aspects are all important when aiming to train rural SMEs on the use of e-
government.

The Rural-eGov project aims to bridge an existing gap in national and European
training systems and practices. Advanced online services are constantly being
developed around Europe. Citizens have to (i) become aware of such services, and (ii)
to get trained on how they can take advantage of them. The proposed approach will
study, collect and categorize such services that can be of particular interest for rural
SMEs in the Rural-eGov Observatory. Moreover, it will propose innovative training
scenarios and e learning content so that professionals of rural areas can get
familiarized with e-government services, understand how they can benefit from using
them in their business practices, and thus become members of the Information
Society.

This paper presents the results of the Greek National Workshop on Rural e-
Government Challenges. One of the main goals of the project is to study the needs of
SMEs in rural areas about governmental and public services, as well as to examine
which of these could be offered online. Moreover, to study the degree of awareness of
rural SMEs regarding existing e-government services. To achieve this, a series of
National Workshops on Rural e-Government Challenges is organized in all the
participating countries. The outcome of every National Workshop will be a report on
knowledge and qualifications of rural SMEs on the use of e-government services. Our
paper presents the report of the Greek National Workshop on Rural e-Government
Challenges that took place in Chios.

Keywords: e-government services, rural training, ICT

1. Introduction

The objective of the paper is to present the results of the Greek National Workshop on
Rural e-Government Challenges that took place in Chios Island. On of the main goals
of the workshop was to study the needs of SMEs in Chios and subsequently other
Greek rural areas about governmental and public services, as well as to examine
which of these could be offered online. Moreover, to study the degree of awareness of
rural SMEs regarding existing e-government services. Our paper presents the outcome
of the Greek National Workshop, a report on knowledge and qualifications of rural
SMEs on the use of e-government services.

Section 2 describes Rural-eGov project and defines the project’s aims and expected
results. Section 3 presents the outcome of the Greek National Workshop and identifies
the ICT and e-government services experience and training needs of rural SMEs in
Aegean islands. The conclusions of the Workshop are presented in section 4.

2. The Rural-eGov Initiative

The Rural-eGov project aims to bridge an existing gap in national and European
training systems and practices. The main aims of the Rural-eGov project are, first, to
study the needs of SMEs in rural areas about governmental and public services, as
well as to examine which of these could be offered online. Moreover, to study the
degree of awareness of rural SMEs regarding existing e-government services. Second,
to review the status of existing e-government services in the participating countries, as
well as the degree in which they could cover the needs of rural SMEs.

Third, to design and develop a web-based observatory, which will include a collection
and categorization of e-government services that can support SMEs from rural areas
(termed as the Rural-eGov Observatory). Fourth, to develop a set of proposed training
scenarios (based on blended learning strategies for vocational training). These will
promote the combination of ICT-based learning (such as digital learning repositories
that support virtual communities) with traditional forms of learning (such as seminars
and learning groups). Their aim will be to train SMEs from rural areas in
understanding and reaping the benefits from e-government services.

Fifth, to develop innovative and relevant e-learning content that will support the
proposed training scenarios, which will be described and stored (in the form of
learning objects) in the Observatory’s repository of digital training objects. Sixth, to
carry out a set of pilot sessions with a number of representative user groups (SMEs
from the participating rural areas) and to evaluate the proposed approach.

Finally, to produce a set of policy recommendations to EU agencies, National

Governments and Rural Administration in order to stimulate the discussion about the
development of e-government services for rural development and the education and
training of citizens (with a particular emphasis on businesses) on how they can take
advantage from such services.

The proposed approach advances the following program objectives:

• “to improve the skills and competences of people, especially young people, in
initial vocational training at all levels, with a view to facilitating their integration
and reintegration to the labour market”
• “to improve the quality of, and access to, continuing vocational training and the
lifelong acquisition of skills and competencies with a view to increasing and
developing adaptability, particularly in order to consolidate technological and
organisational change”
• “to promote and reinforce the contribution of vocational training to the process of
innovation, with a view to improving competitiveness and entrepreneurship, also
in view of new employment possibilities”,
• Rural-eGov addresses the call priority “Developing Relevant and Innovative E
Learning Content”.

3. Identifying the training needs of rural SMEs in Aegean islands

3.1. e-Rural Government Workshop

As we stated previously, one of the main goals of the project is to study the needs of
SMEs in rural areas about governmental and public services, as well as to study the
degree of awareness of rural SMEs regarding existing e-government services. To
achieve this, a series of National Workshops on Rural e-Government Challenges is
organized in all the participating countries.

The “e-Rural Government Workshop” took place in Chios Chamber of Commerce

premises (Chios, Greece) in February 28th, 2007. The participants were SMEs
representatives (owners & staff) as well as special SMEs organisations
(representatives, associations, organisations) and individuals who support SMEs in
their business activities & governmental agencies (KETA etc). The project partners
responsible for the workshop were Chios Chamber of Commerce and University of
Aegean. The workshop’s structure / objectives were the following:

• Outline of objectives of the Rural-eGov project and how it aims to help rural
SMEs;
• Feedback on questionnaire and discussion
• Introduction to basic topics and terms (e-Government service, etc.);
• Demonstration of characteristic e-Government services at a European level, the
possibilities/benefits for rural SMEs;
• The envisaged benefits of using e-Government services for rural SMEs.
• Preparation for the group work and answering the questionnaire:
• Demonstration of characteristic e-Government services at a national, regional
and sectoral level (with a focus on the services that will be used as training case
studies for each country);
• Posing the questions that the workshop aims to answer: do SMEs know about
the presented services, have they ever used them, what are the reasons for not
using them, what kind of training would they consider useful for this purpose,
etc.
• Executing the survey
3.2. Results
From the six representatives that participated to the workshop, three were Lobbying,
two belong to a Governmental Organization and one belongs to a Non-Governmental
Organization. They were questioned in what they believe about rural SMEs and how
rural SMEs are doing with e-government services. They stated almost unanimously
SMEs use relevant e-services though a third party/intermediary organisation. Only
two of them know the existence of an e-government service at the EU level which is
relevant for rural SMEs. They identified www.e-procsee.net. Almost everyone knew
some e-government services at the national level which are relevant to rural SMEs.
They identified www.ika.gr (4), www.taxisnet.gr (4), www.info3kps.gr (1) and
www.kep.gr (4). They all think that SMEs do not use e-government services weekly.

Regarding the usefulness of e-government services they think that the user
instructions on e-government services have been something between fairly easy to
understand and difficult to understand. Two of them estimated that the time having
saved using e-government services compared with the traditional way of working was
over seven hours, two of them say that it was between two and five hours and two
estimated that they didn’t save any time at all. Half of them estimated that rural SMEs
can save up to €100 per year through using e-government services. The other half
estimated that rural SMEs can save over €500 per year.

Regarding the relevance and the significance of the e-Government services they were
given a set of topics and related services and asked to identify their importance for
SMEs. The majority replied that e-government services related to business life events,
like starting or closing a business, are quite important, while e-government services
related to business management (like agricultural policy, banking, taxation etc) and
business development (like funding opportunities, research and development etc) are
very important. Three of the representatives said that an important e-government
service that they think it’s important to become available to SMEs is e-issuing of
certificates by Municipalities.

The total number of participating SME respondents was 22. Only 1/3 of them were
women, while their age varied mainly between 26 and 40, with some being 46 to 55
years old. 19 of them were the SME’s owners. 9 SMEs are agriculture and fishery
related, 5 tourism related and 4 commerce related. 15 of them stated that their
company’s form is trade name. 10 of the participants don’t have any employees and
10 of them have 1-4 employees.

First they were questioned current usage of ICT and e-services. They rated themselves
on PC skills (literacy and competency) varying equally between very good and very
poor (4 very good, 6 good, 2 fair, 5 poor, 5 very poor). 12 of them stated that they
have a lot or great experience in using the internet, while 4 of them had none. Only 9
have broadband connections. They mainly use the internet to search for information,
buy products and as a communication tool. Some of them use it for
advertising/presentation of the company and offering product information, while very
few of them use it to recruit employees. 4 of them don’t use Internet at all.

Only 9 of them have previously used an e-government service. Most of them access e-
government services by internet or by a third party/intermediary organisation. Only
two of them knew an e-government service at the EU level. Two thirds of them knew
some e-government services at the national level. The most recognisable e-
government service was www.taxisnet.gr. 12 of them think that while using e-
government services, the pages have been uploaded on an optimal or acceptable
speed. They don’t use e-government services weekly and when they do, most of them
spent 15-30 minutes. Most of them have been using e-government services for less
than 2 years, while only 1 has been using them for over 5 years.

Most of them are using the PC / Internet, search engines and information services for
their routine duties and tasks. Half of them are using communication and transaction
services and some are using e-government services. Most of them feel that they need
additional training in the use of e-government, communication and transaction
services. The kind of training that they think would help them become more effective
in their business is hands on training (8 votes) while only 1 voted for e-learning. 12 of
them did not answer at all. When they were asked about their preferred method(s) of
learning new skills and knowledge, 12 of them answered one to one training, 8
answered small group discussions and 2 answered tutor-directed study. Regarding
their preferred training times for formal training sessions, most of them prefer
evenings (10), some of them prefer weekends (8), while others prefer training during
working hours (6). The majority (18) prefers the duration of the training to be half
days. According to them, the main barrier to receiving training is the demands on time
outside working hours, while some of them say that there is a lack of financial support
at work.

4. Conclusions

The objective of “e-Rural Government Workshop” that took place in Chios is to study
the needs of SMEs in rural areas about governmental and public services, as well as to
study the degree of awareness of rural SMEs regarding existing e-government
services. A number of interesting conclusions derived from this workshop. First of all
it’s clear that most of the SMEs representatives and organizations that participated to
the workshop believe that e-government services are very important and that SMEs
can benefit from them in terms of both money and time. They think that e-government
services related to business management and development are very important.

Most of the SMEs are using ICT for their routine duties and tasks, but only some of
them are using e-government services. Most of them feel that they need additional
training in the use of e-government, communication and transaction services. The
kind of training that they think would help them become more effective in their
business is hands on training while only 1 voted for e-learning. This shows that at the
time there is a lack in familiarity with advanced ICT use and e-learning practices and
spots a need for a blended learning model. There is a need for innovative training
models that can combine traditional forms of learning with e-learning forms. The
outcomes of the project demonstrate that there is much to earn from introducing and
training of the SMEs to the new world of information and transactional technologies.