Keywords

1 Introduction

Since the 1990s, government departments have been increasingly using e-government to improve the quality of public services. However, early e-government mainly used fixed, wired information networks to transmit data and provide services electronically. One of the inconveniences of such e-government is that both government staff and government service recipients rely on wired Internet and desktop computer to access government systems. Once step away from the office area, the government staff tends to lose control of the service content and process, which in turn affects the response speed and service effectiveness of certain matters. With the rapid development of wireless communication technology, more and more government departments are providing public services through mobile devices [1], which is also known as mobile government. In the 21st century, the large-scale use of mobile terminals such as smartphones and tablet PCs, as well as the popularization of wireless LAN, have not only made wireless offices possible within government departments, but also made it possible for the public to access convenient mobile government services.

2 The Nature of Mobile Government

Mobile Government (mGov), also known as mobile e-government, is simply an application model of mobile communication technology in government management and service work. It is often regarded as an extension and upgrade of e-government [2]. It uses mobile devices instead of traditional electronic devices and its goal is to provide real-time access to government information and services when and where they are available from any location [3]. According to Ibrahim Kushchu, mGovernment is an e-government service provided through a mobile platform, a strategy and its implementation using wireless and mobile technologies, services, applications, and devices, which aims to enhance the various parties involved in e-government --- citizens, enterprises and government [4]. Mobile Government is considered by Chanana et al. as a public service provided through mobile devices (e.g., cell phones, PDAs, etc.) [5]. In simple terms, mobile government is an application mode of mobile communication technology in government management and service work. Mobile government indirectly solves the problem of time constraint and computer-based space constraint [6], and has shown its strong potential to provide public services “anytime, anywhere”, expand government functions, and improve the quality and efficiency of government services [7], it has been applied in many government departments.

3 The Main Contents of the Five Application Modes of Mobile Government

According to the difference in the nature of the interacting subjects under the contextual theme, mobile government can be divided into the following five modes respectively, mG2G mode, mG2B mode, mG2V mode, mG2G mode and mG2E mode. Among them, the first three can be categorized as external service forms and the last two can be categorized as internal management forms (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Five application modes of mobile government

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3.1 mG2G Mode

Mobile Government to Government, or mG2G for short, refers to the use of wireless network technology and mobile terminals between local governments, government departments at all levels, and their internal agencies to achieve internal management data push and business information processing. mG2G has its own application focus areas at the executive, management and decision-making levels. For the executive level, mG2G is mainly used to execute field operations. The executive can use the mobile government client to collect field data and send it back to the government data platform in real time. For management, the mobile government platform is mainly used to transmit data information to the executive level, for the support and coordination of front-line work. For the decision-making layer, the mobile government platform is mainly used to understand the overall situation at anytime, grasp the real-time statistics, to receive, issue documents, send work tasks even they are out of town. The development of mobile government makes communication between the decision-making layer and the executive layer more convenient and accelerates the speed of information transfer [8], thus improving the efficiency of internal management.

The focus of mobile government services among government departments is: first, to increase the efficiency of the common construction and sharing of government information resources, continuously optimize and improve electronic processes, promote seamless connections between services, and improve management efficiency; second, to promote the transformation of government functions, fully streamline and optimize the administrative approval process, provide quality and efficient management & services to the community, and enhance the overall image of government departments; third, to achieve mutual supervision and power balances among departments at the lowest cost.

3.2 mG2E Mode

Mobile Government to Employee, or mG2E for short, is a mobile government service that enables internal staff of government departments to work online using wireless communication technology. Compared with the mG2G mode, mG2E mainly provides management and service related to individuals and non-confidential management-type services to internal staff. Its content may include personal comprehensive information inquiry, email sending and receiving, internal control document inquiry and browsing, work schedule, work task reminder, online learning and continuing education, etc. Using the mobile government office platform, government staff can receive official information at any time and deal with pending matters in a timely manner without the restrictions of places and equipment. This reduces the government’s administrative expenses and improves efficiency to a large extent [9], and in the meantime, effectively strengthens cooperation and communication among staff members.

The government’s mobile government services for internal staff focus on, first, improving the energy efficiency of internal management and services to support the front-line work; second, implementing whole-process monitoring to continuously optimize and improve work quality and enhance job performance; and third, increasing professional proficiency, improving personal qualities, and promoting team building.

3.3 mG2B Mode

Mobile Government to Business, or mG2B for short, refers to the use of mobile communication technology between government and enterprises to achieve government-enterprise interaction in mobile government. The use of mG2B can further reduce the operating costs of enterprises in dealing with government departments, and can also save the cost of government expenditures incurred in providing public services. mG2B mode is mainly used in electronic license processing, electronic procurement and bidding, electronic taxation, public information consulting services, small and medium-sized enterprise e-services and other fields.

The government’s mobile government services to enterprises focus on: first, creating a good social environment for enterprises and providing easy and low-cost management services, such as open public data; second, building a platform for mutual communication and legal access to public resources for the development of enterprises, such as establishing electronic trading platforms; third, effectively supervising enterprises under the framework of the rule of law to reduce negative effects, such as environmental pollution monitoring.

3.4 mG2C Mode

Mobile Government to Citizen, or mG2C for short, refers to government departments provide services to the public using mobile communication technology. Its main applications include education and training, employment, e-health, social security network, e-tax, social governance and public management information services. The main point of the current construction is to actively push online community service projects and online personal government service matters into the mobile government platform. This has greatly facilitated the two-way interaction between the government and the public, and the characteristics of public service provision centered on public demand are becoming more and more obvious [10], thus enabling “government departments or institutions to truly realize their mission of serving the public” [11] [12].

The government’s mobile government services to the public focus on: first, “all-round” public affairs, government departments should publish all public services and work procedures to the public through the information network, so that people can understand the content of services in a timely manner. Second, “all-weather” government services, government departments should make full use of the mobile government services platform, so that the public can receive 7 × 24 h of service. Third, the “whole process” of supervision, while citizens enjoy mobile government services, they can also evaluate and supervise the service contents and effects in a timely manner to strengthen the supervision of the government by the society.

3.5 mG2V Mode

Mobile Government between government and foreign organizations and visitors, or mG2V for short, refers to mobile government services provided by foreign-related government departments to foreign organizations and personnel using mobile communication technology. The government has a diplomatic function. In the era of globalization, interactions between countries are becoming more frequent, and an open country always has a large number of international organizations and foreigners permanently stationed there. As a result, mG2V is increasingly of interest to modern governments.

The government’s mobile government services for foreign organizations and personnel are, on the one hand, to provide foreign governments and the public with promotional information about various fields in the country, to introduce policies, regulations, finance, environmental and other issues to foreign enterprises and citizens interested in investing in the country, to introduce cultural resources of travel destinations and to explain laws and regulations such as visas and currency exchange to foreign tourists. On the other hand, it also has the function of handling immigration management and immigration services.

4 Conclusion

Technological and management innovations will continue to expand and deepen the content of the mobile government application modes, rather than being limited to those described in this paper. External services in the form of mG2C, mG2B and mG2V, and internal management in the form of mG2G and mG2E, constitute the basic application modes of mobile government. Handling the relationship between these two types is the guarantee of implementing, expanding and deepening mobile government services. First, we must always insist that the fundamental purpose of improving the internal management level of government affairs is to enhance the quality of external services. This is the prerequisite element for building a mobile government service model, otherwise it may lead to the blind introduction of various mobile information technologies, while ignoring the government service itself. Second, the relationship between mG2G and mG2E should be handled well. They are highly interrelated. mG2E directly serves specific “people”, while mG2G directly serves seemingly abstract levels of government, but actually, both of them exist to meet the needs of the public. They ultimately converge in the specific service projects or events provided to the public. Third, mG2C, mG2B, and mG2V are deemed as the fundamental purpose of mobile government, and there is no priority among the three. Especially for mG2V, any free and open country should provide possible, equal and quality wireless government services to everyone in the world.