Chapter 3: Research Methodology

In the present study, the philosophy of interpretivism is followed to achieve research

objectives. The philosophy helps in understanding the subjective experience of people

in KSA about the e-government services. Under this philosophy, variables are not

defined but some meaning oriented methodologies are used with a focus on

complexities of human behaviour and experiences (Leedy and Ormrod, 2009).

Further, the study is conducted through qualitative research approach, as the focus is

on understanding human experiences associated with e-government services in KSA.

The qualitative approach helps in collecting the required data in the form of views,

statements and experiences as human behaviour and experience cannot be recorded in

numerical form (Terre and Durrheim, 2006).

In the present study the paradigm of research drives and leads towards qualitative

approach to be followed under interpretive paradigm. This is so as the focus is to

explore and understand the positive and negative experience of citizens about e-

government services in KSA calling for a hermeneutic approach that is holistic

allowing exploration of complex conditions. Such approach will emphasize on

subjective interpretations of the primary study related to behaviour and experience of

people (Bhattarcherjee, 2012).

Therefore, the present study follows the primary study to be conducted through semi-

structured interviews where the actual perception and experience of citizens is

recorded through detailed discussions with them.

Here, the exploratory strategy of research is followed where data is collected through

primary source of information. As discussed, the required data in the current study is
collected through semi-structured interviews where qualitative information is

collected for analysis and finding answers to research questions. The questions of

semi-structured interviews are designed from the information available through

literature review. The critical review of literature explains the questions that have

remained unanswered and requires further investigation forming the basis of

interview questions. The data is collected through a 15 minutes interview with 07

male and 08 female participants (total of 15 respondents) focused on understanding

their actual experience about e-government services, positive and negative

experiences and views to improve the quality of services for the benefit of KSAs

citizens. The interviews are recorded for transcript and analysis.

It is to be noted that the current study is based on data collected through primary

interviews where the answers are categorised under some pre-defined themes as

derived from the objectives of the study. Such a method of data categorization helps

in discovering patterns, concepts and meanings of qualitative data while making it

easy to manage and understand the collected information. Moreover, categorization of

data ensures possibilities of comparisons and contrast between patterns reflecting on

certain critical issues associated with the phenomenon under study.

Finally, in order to ensure ethical conduct of the study, all personal information of

participants is kept confidential. The participants to the study were explained about

the nature of study, need of their participation and contribution of the study to ensure

an informed consent from them. The participants were allowed to leave the study at

any point of time and all participants were asked to fill in the consent form before

actually participating in semi-structured interviews.

Chapter 4: Results and Analysis

The results obtained from interviews are presented under certain themes as derived

from the interview questions and research questions. The themes help in categorizing

the questions and the related answers (like satisfaction with e-government services,

quality of e-government services, Servitization, SDL, suggestions to improve the

services, etc.) obtained during the interview procedure. These themes and the

associated results are discussed under the following headings:

Understanding about e-government Services

The participants to the study were asked about their understanding and expectations

from e-government services. A majority of participants explained that they do

understand the meaning of e-government services as the method of filling forms,

placing requests and getting response through electronic method without the need of

actually visiting the concerned department. The respondents expect these services to

hold high quality in the work processes to facilitate delivery of proper government

services. The mode of electronic services should be able to provide better and

efficient route to get quick resolution and completion of various processes.

On of the respondent explains, This form of delivery should be capable of

simplifying and improving the accessibility of users for the public services.

Some other participants to the interview were of the opinion that e-government

services should reduce the time and effort involved in accessing public services. It is
necessary that system is easy to use and available as and when the users want to

access the public services.

Quality of e-government services in Saudi-Arabia

In relation to quality of e-government services a majority of respondents explain that

the services should be easy to find and websites should be easy to navigate. The e-

government services website of Saudi Arabia is easy to access and navigate making it

easy to complete a transaction. As an interviewee stated, I initially assumed the

process of e-registration to be complicated, but the website is easy to navigate and I

was able to complete the process easily. The site is reported to be informative about

the services, processes and policies of government along with being well-structured

and well-organized in nature. As a respondent stated, the e-government website

makes it easy for me to find what I need and this is my definition of quality online

services. Another respondent says, the site is not at all complex and I found it easy

to find the required information that makes me to use the website for every public

service requirement.

However, a contrasting feature is related with the technical functioning of the website

affecting the quality of e-government services in Saudi Arabia. An interviewee

claimed that There are several areas proving to be frustrating, as the page generally

loads slowly, the website has a low capacity and gets freeze easily. When there are

several users using the website at the same time, it generally crashes and makes it

difficult to complete the procedures on time. The respondents also explained that

there are several technical errors on e-government website of Saudi Arabia with
several broken links and freezing pages making the quality of these sites questionable.

As a respondent reported, There is a need to make the processes completely online

with efficiency. They can introduce a process of biometric registration where people

can visit the department and get the formalities completed at once.

Experience with e-government services

In next few questions respondents were asked about their actual experience and the

related positive and negative perception about e-government services in Saudi Arabia.

A majority of respondents reported that the positive features of e-government services

in Saudi Arabia include the feature of interactivity and regular communication that

makes the overall experience positive. Moreover there is less processing time

involved in completing a service; as one respondents says, For me, the positive

feature is that I can complete the steps of e-service in very less time. Another

participant says, They give a notification as to when I can expect a response on my

request. This is a very positive feature of e-government services as it makes it easy to

track the status of the service. The services are also provided in personalized manner

allowing choice of language, links to other websites and offering various options of e-

government services. Also, there is complete description of services and easy routes

to help and facilitate the online transactions.

A prompt response and minimal processing time are reported to be the positive

experience while there are some negative aspects of e-government services as

experienced by the respondents. One respondent says, Sometimes I send an enquiry

and there is no reply making it difficult to get the assistance when its actually

needed. The processes are not yet completely online making it mandatory to visit
the department. The lack of responsiveness is clearly stated as the most frustrating

negative experience with e-government services. The responses are delayed, and then

the processes are delayed making it difficult to get the issues resolved and access the

services on time. As an interviewee says, Most of the time these government service

websites have networking issues or some down for maintenance. This is so frustrating

when you are in need of something urgent and there is no one to resolve the issue or

help you to find a way.

Moreover, these sites do not provide a proper point of contact where citizens can get

detailed information about the services and resolve other queries. As one respondent

stated, It will be good if e-government services are equipped with a point of contact

to offer detailed information about the service and the concerned department. This

will improve the overall quality of e-services with efficient and timely response from

the representatives. However, some of the e-government services are reported to be

efficient in this regard, like one respondent says, I made and online appointment with

a government organization, and they even sent me a map to show the way to reach the

concerned department. I really liked this service.

In relation to information exchange too, the respondents find the e-government

services to be dissatisfactory as there are no updates and no responses related to state

of request and way to move ahead in the process of availing e-services. However, the

feedback sent by people to customer portal is responded back by the concerned

officials. As one respondent says, Once I send an e-mail suggesting to make the

navigation of website easy to which I got a reply from the officials that the suggestion

will surely be considered. The response takes a lot of time but participants believe

that the customer portal services are efficient as they do consider the suggestions or
any complaints made by the citizens. The updates on these are regularly sent and

people can even check the status of their complaints on several e-government services

portals. One participant to the interview explains, Whenever I report an issue related

to website or working of some department, I get a ticket number through which I can

easily track the status of my complaint. However, it takes lot of time, sometimes even

months to get positive response resolving your complaint; but at least they consider

our concern.

Motives of using e-government services

Further, respondents were asked about the motive that makes them use the e-

government services such as Absher portal. To this question a majority of respondents

reported that the portal is an efficient way to avail electronic services in relation to

various areas like sanitation, sewage management, visa related services and other

services from Ministry of Interior (MoI). The portal was designed with design

approvals from public opinion polls conducted by the e-services management.

Therefore, the features of ease of use, compatibility of new designs and pages with all

systems, faster response and efficient services that free of any hassle are quiet evident

in the usage of portal. As one respondent says, Absher portal is an efficient route for

expatriate workers to get exit and entry visas and placing request for family visas. The

process has become all efficient and so easy for expatriate workers like me. Another

respondent said, The portal gives lot of information and the process of requesting

services is very easy. The response is also quick and there is no need to visit various

government departments physically making the life of citizens here so easy.

Therefore, the key motives of using Absher portal is to fill in the request forms for

various services in les time and getting quick response to the requests. The portal is
reported to be informative, taking less processing time, proving support to citizens

and efficiently responsive to requests and complaints.

Overall satisfaction from Quality

About the overall satisfaction from quality of e-government services, the interviewees

reported some degree of satisfaction as they consider the services to be complicated

with only few portals like Absher to be working in an efficient manner. However,

most of the times people reported the e-government services to be unresponsive and

difficult to avail because of several issues with the websites and wrong contact

information provided on websites.

In relation to the barriers to e-government services in KSA, the interviewees explains

that there are many factors like infrastructure of ICT including the network capacity,

issues of privacy and security, resistance to change to electronic methods, lack of

proper training of officials, lack of programs to motivate people to understand

advantages of using e-government services and some of the social barriers too.

Here, an interviewees said, Everyone is not comfortable with using websites that

provide information in English or Arabic. As we are a developing nation, there are

barriers of lack of education and lack of training to use Internet.

Another respondent explains, Government here dont promote the usage of online

services. People are not made aware of availability of such services, ways of using

these services and how quick the responses can be through online portals. There are

no efforts on promotional aspect of e-government services.

Another participant says, I never heard bout any workshops to make people aware of

e-government portals. No newspaper can be seen talking about it, no news channel

or any other source.

Major barriers to e-government service adoption

Further, people find security and privacy of information as a significant barrier for

implementation and adoption of e-government services in KSA. There is a general

perception that using online portals to transfer any personal information like name,

picture, age, ID number, and credit card details is unsafe and risk to misuse of

information. People are afraid that websites are unsafe and insecure and therefore any

electronic information can easily be transferred or hacked. As one participant said, I

dont trust these e-services. They can always share my personal details to anyone

misusing it.

Another personal said, How can I get the services sitting at home, obviously I have

to meet the concerned person in concerned department to get an assurance that my

work will be done. The response from interviewees also includes some security

issues like virus attacks, hackers, and spam along with trojans that are acting as some

key barriers to adoption of e-government services in KSA.

People also reported that the officials of government department does not seem to be

well trained and qualified enough to take up the complexity of e-government services.

They say this is clearly evident in lack of responsiveness and inability of staff to

resolve the issues quickly and provide the prompt service to citizens. As one

participant said, Staff of government departments lacks computer technicians,

programmers, and engineers and therefore staff does not have strong knowledge to

integrate the use of government services and applications.

Suggestions to improve e-governance services

The ways of improving these services in KSA, respondents explain that several

aspects like ease of use, availability of the system, privacy and security of data,

credibility, personalization, contact and processing times needs to be improved in

relation to e-government services. However, the need of increasing the interactivity

and responsiveness is reported to be the most important factor ensuring efficient of e-

government services. This is so as citizens fine it difficult to get information about the

available services and the way to follow the process of placing a service request and

getting response on their requests. As one respondent said, If these services are to

improve, the most important thing is to give us the correct contact information and

portals be more responsive. Another respondent reported, The e-government

services in KSA lack credibility and direct communication. We have to wait for

months to get a resolution on our request, them what is the use of an electronic

method here.

The respondents also suggest that the e-government systems should be kept simple

with least technical language that will avoid leaving a negative impression on users.

As one interviewee says, E-government services should be such that we start

preferring this route to avail the services. The complexity of language and lot of

technical terms and technical issues makes people demotivated and they prefer other

simple route to access the services.

Therefore, it is necessary that e-government websites provide support to citizens

using the portals by answering their queries and resolve issues quickly. An interview

explains, I understand that government departments must be getting high volume of

data that takes time to process and respond. But, it is important to improve the

processing capacity to move citizens towards the new arena of e-services.

Another key issue highlighted was the need of improving the security of website and

ensuring privacy for citizens related personal data. As a respondents said, I dont

feel safe when I put my personal details online. Government should do something to

ensure our privacy and ensure that any information will not be shared anywhere else

on online platforms.

Among the respondents almost 50% of interviewees rated the risk factor of using e-

government services to be moderate in nature while another 50% consider it highly

risky to avail services in this pattern.

Quality of Internet service delivery in KSA

Finally, a majority of respondents reported that the Internet service delivery in KSA is

satisfactory and they are enjoying the usage of online platforms in various areas like

online shopping, banking service, social interactions, etc. However, some technical

and networking issues remains while the services providers in the region are reliable

but not responsive as expected. As one respondent reported, Internet service

providers should be more responsive to our needs as well as complaints reported.

They are not serious about customer relationship, they are fine with delivery of

services but when some technical issues arise, it is the customer who suffers.

Another respondent says, I would say that service delivery is fine but they are not

reliable. You cannot expected quick response and adequate bandwidth here.

Therefore, a majority of respondents seems to be satisfies with the new version of

Absher portal and the services offered, but in relation t other e-governments services,

there are several issues that need attention of the KSA government and some of the
key suggestions in this regard are also available from the interview results. In the

following section of the research, these results are further analysed and discussed in

relation to the literature review conducted in earlier part of the research work. The

discussion will help in answering the research questions and check the achieving of

research objectives of the study.

Chapter 5: Discussion

The analysis of results of the primary study as presented in the last section provides

some important themes where the results can be grouped and discussed to understand

the actual situation of e-government services in KSA and the barriers to adoption of

the services widely across nation. The results under the identified themes are

discussed as follows:

E -government services of Saudi Arabia are not responsive and do not provide a

proper point of contact

The results of the study as discussed in last section explains that citizens of KSA have

a negative experience with e-government services in relation to the interactivity and

responsiveness of these websites. They do find the navigation easy and considers the

services to be efficient in making citizens life easy. However, people find it difficult

to get answers to their queries and get the issues resolved on time. They consider such

services to be capable of simplifying and improving the accessibility of users for the

public services, but in KSA e-governance does not reduce the time and effort

involved in accessing public services. The citizens actual experience with some

portals is positive as they find the websites informative about processes, policies and

services. However, the non-availability of a proper point of contact reduces the

responsiveness of these services where citizens are unable to get any clarification

about the processes directly from the concerned department. However, the general

services are prompt when applied through-government websites, but the respond to

queries is delayed or never comes. Such delays are making it difficult for citizens to
actually adopt the route of e-government services in complete form. They know that if

something is urgent, it is good to visit the concerned department physically and get

the work done.

However, citizens are satisfied with the regular changes and modifications made in

the e-government portals as per their suggestions. This is making the services to easy

to use to some extent but the benefits are limited to some people who are enthusiastic

to use the online services. Some of the websites offering e-government services are

also reported to be responsive and quick in their services that is responsible for

generating some trust in e-government services of KSA. However, a majority of

citizens find it difficult to get the expected timely response from these portals.

There is lack of awareness about features, benefits, security and privacy

associated with use of e-government services

Along with the lack of responsiveness and limited interactivity of e-government

services, a key issues raised is the lack of awareness about the features of these

services. Citizens of KSA seems to be unaware about the benefits of using such

services through online portals and the way these can save their time and effort

involved in actually visiting the departments. The citizens remain largely unaware of

the use of these services, their benefits and the way it can change their approach to

government services. A large number of people still believes that government services

cannot come to their home, it is necessary to move out and visit the department to get

an assurance of work completion.

Citizens explain that it is the responsibility of government to make people aware a

well as educate the way of using online services. It is not possible to get a complete

adoption of e-government services with no focus on uneducated class or those who

lack technical capability to use the services. There are no efforts from the government

to create awareness and provide training through regular workshops and seminars.

Therefore, a majority of people in KSA considers these services a threat to their

personal data that they do not want to share without an assurance of privacy and

security. It seems that the e-government services in KSA remains highly technical in

nature without any concern for making them simple to use with support from

government programs on training and awareness.

People fine the e-government services technical with no direct support to

understand the complexities

Citizens of KSA reported several issues related to e-government websites that are

making them difficult to use and acting as barrier to efficient of these services. These

issues are majorly technical in nature as people consider the lack of adequate network

capacity; issues of privacy and security are hampering the efficiency of websites.

Moreover, people consider the staff members involved in the process lack proper

training while there is a lack of dedicated programs to motivate citizens to move

towards online portals for various services.

Along with these barriers, the websites are complex to understand for general non-

technical people who are not well educated or not educated at all. Citizens in KSA

expect the government to promote the usage of online services while considering the
issues of education as evident in any developing nation. Additionally, several

technical errors on portals result in freezing of pages, broken links and regular crashes

of websites making it frustrating for users to avail the services through this route.

Users find Absher portal to be efficient and wants other services to be similar in

efficiency and responsiveness

A strong point coming up from the analysis of results is the efficient of Absher portal.

The portal is commonly used and people find it efficient in availing several different

government services. A key reason for such an efficiency of the portal may come

from the approvals from public opinion pools that were conduct while designing the

e-services management system of Absher. Moreover, the portal has undergone some

significant changes and up gradation making it easy to use, compatible with new

designs while committed to faster response and efficient services making the whole

process hassle free in nature.

The key features specifically the quick response on services is making Absher popular

among citizens where people want other e-government services to adopt similar

elements. Therefore, the key factors assuring success of e-government services is the

ease of use, hassle free process, fast response, regular updates on status of services

request, informative, less time in processing and supporting citizens through

possibilities of interaction and direct communication.

The discussion about Absher portal explains the motives of citizens to use e-

government services. People use these services with the aim of getting more

information about various departments and make their life simple and easy by
avoiding physical visits to avail the government services like sanitation, sewage

management, visa related services, etc. However, the service and efficiency of visa

for expatriates and their families is most appreciated by the citizens making it

necessary for other government portals to follow the level of efficiency as offered by

Absher portal.

People have mixed experience with efficiency and communication with e-

government services

The results obtained from primary study explain that people have mixed views about

the quality of e-government services in KSA. Some of the people have reported their

experience to be positive in relation to response form the department and getting a

ticket number helping them to track their service request status. However, many

others reported the services to be inefficient in terms of response to e-mails sent to

various departments. It seems the issue lies with responsiveness of different

departments and there is a need for resolution in terms of training the staff members

to use Internet services and be more responsive when they receive a service request.

The mixed experience of people makes it important for government departments to

review the e-government portals and services to make delivery of service and

possibilities of communication uniform in relation to every department and every

public service. Such uniformity of experience is necessary to ensure wide adoption of

e-government services as people will share more of positive experience with each

other motivating other citizens to adopt the route of electronic government services.
The Internet service in KSA is satisfactory with some technical and responsive

issues

Despite of several issues associated with e-government services the basic services

from Internet providers in KSA seem to be satisfactory. There are some technical and

networking issues reported but in general people consider the services satisfactory.

This clarifies that the issues are associated with government portals and not with the

general Internet service providers in KSA. There is a need for the government

departments to work towards making the e-government services related portals

efficient in terms of improving their networking capacity. However, it is also required

that overall ICT infrastructure is improved to ensure avoidance of any technical and

bandwidth issues in KSA.

Users expect e-government services to be easy to use and more interactive and

responsive

Another theme as revealed form the analysis of results is that people in KSA expect e-

government services to be easy to use and more interactive in nature. Presently the e-

government service portals are considered highly technical that needs some changes

to make them easy to understand and use like the Absher portal. These services

should also make people aware about the safety o their personal information and the

way the collected data is used by the government departments and the way it is kept

confidential and not shared at any other place. There is a need to have possibilities of

direct interaction with officials on these portals so that people can manage with the

complexities and get timely assistance to avail the services. Moreover, the e-
government services should hold high quality in the processes of work facilitating

delivery of government services in a proper and efficient manner. The lack of quick

resolution makes it difficult for people to consider the services reliable and therefore

e-government services in KSA should be able to simplify as well as improve the

accessibility of users for the public services.

Actual barriers to adoption of e-government services in KSA

The results of the study clarifies that there are some actual and practical barriers

hampering the adoption of e-government services across KSA. These barriers exist in

the form of inappropriate ICT infrastructure across the government departments of the

region posing several security and privacy issues for citizens using e-government

services. Moreover, the lack of training of staff members results in lack of

responsiveness and efficiency through effective communication with citizens through

e-government portals. The, citizen awareness about the benefits of e-government

services and the method of using the service portals efficiently is necessary but not

given much of importance in KSA. Therefore, the actual barriers to adoption of e-

government services in KSA can be categorised as: Technical barriers, ICT

infrastructure barriers, organizational barriers, social barriers and lack of strategic

planning to introduce e-services and ensure its widespread adoption.

The next chapter lists the findings from the study to present a summary of results and

understanding about the answers obtained for research question.

Chapter 6: Conclusions

The main findings of the current study as derived from the discussion and analysis of

the results of primary study are listed as follows:

Efficiency of e-government services in KSA

1. E-government services have the potential to improve the way public services

operates and the way it serves citizens in KSA

2. The quality of e-government services is hampered by delayed response and

non-interactive nature of portals

3. There is a lack of uniform strategic plan to ensure ease of use, flexibility,

timely support and regular communication with citizens through public service

portals

Positive Experience of citizens with present e-government portals in KSA

1. Citizens of KSA have the willingness to adopt e-government services

2. People consider some portals like Absher to be easy to use, informative and

quick in response.

3. Citizens are able to get regular track of their service requests and save time

and effort involved in physically visiting the concerned department to avail a

public service
 Negative Experience of citizens with present e-government portals in KSA

1. The portals of public service have several technical issues making it

frustrating to use these websites

2. There is lack of response on queries and wrong contact details given on portals

3. People find the portals to be complex and difficult to understand the process

with no direct support from officials

Factors influencing citizens adoption of e-government services in KSA

1. Citizens expect the e-government portals to be more responsive with staff

members keeping them updated on requests placed through website

2. Citizens expect easy to use along with direct contact to support the

understanding of processes through portals.

3. The government of KSA should promote the e-government services to ensure

its wide acceptance and adoption

4. There is a need to create more awareness about availability, features, uses and

benefits of e-government services in KSA

Barriers to quality of e-government services in KSA

1. Lack of support and promotion form government

2. Lack of technical expertise of staff members

3. Lack of communication with departments

4. Lack of education and workshops to understand more about e-government

services
 Technical Issues with e-government portals in KSA

1. There is a need to make e-government services in KSA more efficient in terms

of technical and ICT infrastructure

2. The capacity of portals should be increased to handle huge data without

crashing of websites

3. There is a lack of security and privacy of citizens data shard through portals of

e-government services.

Information Exchange through e-government portals in KSA

1. Need to make information exchange between departments and citizens regular

and effective

2. Officials should be trained to support citizens on the ways of navigating and

using portals

Required skills and knowledge for efficient e-government services in KSA

1. Staff members handling e-portals should be trained

2. Officials should be trained to maintain regular communication and updates

3. The government of KSA is required to define and initiate some workshops and

seminars on a regular basis to help citizens understand, explore and adopt e-

government services
Generated theme and conclusions

The summary of findings obtained from the analysis of results explains that there is a

need to make e-government services in KSA more efficient through improving the

technical nature and ICT infrastructure of the departments. However, it is also

important that a collaborative approach is followed by the government to promote the

use of e-government services while arranging special workshops and seminars to

create awareness about the portals and providing training to use these services in an

efficient manner. This collaborative approach needs to incorporate the officials and

staff members of the government department also to help them adopt the online

services and understand the need of being more responsive and easily accessible to

citizens in order to avail the services in efficient manner. The complete approach

should be directed at saving the time and effort in accessing public services while

promoting wide adoption of online services through regular communication and

education.

Limitations of the Study

The current study is based on the views of citizens that is collected through a limited

sample size. The sample considered might not be efficient in representing the views

and experience of all the people using e-government services in KSA that may limit

the generalisation of study results. Further, the study is concentrated on perception

and experience of citizens without giving any consideration to the issues faced by

government departments and staff members in delivering services through online

route when the ICT infrastructure of these departments is not well developed by the
government. Therefore, limiting the analysis to a single party view may also affect the

reliability of the study results. Considering these limitations, future studies are

recommended to explore the experience and issues faced by officials in various

government departments while promoting wide acceptability and adoption of e-

government services in KSA.

Chapter 7: Recommendations

Considering the issues, barriers and challenges faced by citizens of KSA in adoption

of e-government services, certain recommendations are given for the government

organizations to make the processes easy and smooth for early adoption across the

region. These recommendations are discussed as follows:

A strong and modern ICT infrastructure is the foundation of successful e-

government services. Therefore it is recommended that weakness of the

infrastructure and technical barriers be managed as the initial step ensuring

effectiveness of portals.

The critical issues of security and privacy hold high importance and therefore

should be ensured as a high priority during the implementation of e-

government services.

It is also necessary that government employees are given opportunities of

training for increasing their understanding of the e-government model, create

technical awareness and need of their being responsive and available as an

efficient point of contact for citizens using e-government services.

Citizens awareness and training to use e-government services is necessary to

ensure wide adoption of online public services. A regular interaction with

citizens to make them aware about use and benefits of such services should be

ensured through seminars and workshops organized by the government

 It is recommended to focus on professionally build and updated websites to

ensure high level of security for citizens data while making it easy for people

to use all the public services through portals.

It is also recommended that government agencies maintain a high level of

cooperation and collaboration among themselves as well as with the citizens to

ensure early adoption of e-services and resolving any issues or queries that

may be the cause of resistance to such adoption across the region.

Finally, the need is to create a strategic plan that is uniform in nature covering

various e-government projects and websites to ensure successful adoption of

e-government services in KSA. Such strategic plans should be based on

uniform policies, programs, and initiatives to awareness, efficient managers,

regular training and interlinked initiatives to remove barriers to adoption of e-

government services across KSA.

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Appendix 1: Interview Questions

1. How do you understand the quality of e-government services in your

country?
2. What specific criteria you use to assess the quality of the service provided by
e-governments website?
3. Do you consider the e-government website and services offered by Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia hold high level of quality? Please Explain
4. What aspects of using e-government services led you to positive experiences?
5. What aspects of e-government services led you to negative experiences?
6. How would you describe your experience in relation to information exchange
with government through web-based e-services?
7. How does the feedback sent by you managed and responded by the customer
portal?
8. What is the reason or motive that makes you use the e government services as
Absher portal?
9. Describe what value and advantage you see when thinking about customer
portal of e-government services for example Absher portal?
10. What can be some key factors encouraging and discouraging e-government
users to use e-governance services?
11. How will you describe your overall experience and satisfaction about quality
of e-government services?
12. What are some of the major barriers to e-government services in KSA? Why
do you think these factors act as a barrier to efficient e-government services?
13. What the government to improve the e-government services in KSA should
do?
14. How do you rate the risk factor or trust on using such system while using
services or availing services? (rate from 1 to 5) 1 is very low 5 very high
15. What was your level of overall satisfaction with Internet service delivery in
KSA?
16. How reliable and responsive you find the service provider in Saudi Arabia?