Development of eGovernment services in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of electronic services that are successfully developed and implemented at the provincial level in Vojvodina (Republic of Serbia). Serbia is an example of a transition economy. The main goal of electronic services development at the provincial level was to achieve improvement of efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of the work of provincial officials. Careful defining of feasible goals, management of adopted implementation plans and strict audit have enabled an accelerated development of eGovernment, even with limited resources. Integration between separately developed software systems was provided by mandatory procurement requirement for interoperability and emphasis on the use of open standards. The problems of putting the systems into use were reduced by providing training, solid benchmark of computer skills and internationally recognized qualification to all public employees. This paper may help decision-makers to plan eGovernment development at the regional or local level in transition countries.

Keywords:

• eGovernment
• strategy
• implementation
• online services
• Vojvodina

Notes on contributors

Milan Paroški holds the degree of M.Sc. in telecommunications obtained from the Faculty of Technical Sciences Novi Sad. He received Ph.D. in Applied Computer Science and Informatics at the University of Novi Sad in 2013. From 1988 to 2000, he held the position senior telecommunication engineer in Electrical Power Industry of Serbia at Novi Sad, from 2000 to 2003 he worked in Public Enterprise for Production of Thermoelectric and Heating Power Novi Sad as assistant to head manager for quality and information affairs, and currently he is with Department for Technical and Administrative Services of Provincial Authorities of the Government of the AP of Vojvodina, where he is taking the position Head of Sector for Information Technologies. His professional experiences cover managerial and technical skills in IT. He published over 40 articles on domestic conferences, 4 articles on conferences abroad and many papers in technical newspapers. He is a reviewer for several scientific conferences and technical journals.

Zora Konjović (full professor) graduated in Mathematics at the University of Novi Sad in 1973. She received M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Robotics at the University of Novi Sad in 1985 and 1992, respectively. From 1992, she was holding the positions of the assistant and associated professor in computing and information systems, and from 2003 she is holding the positions of the full professor and the Head of the Chair for Informatics at the Faculty of Technical Sciences. She is also holding the position of the Head of Centre for eBusiness Technologies and Systems. From 2002 to 2005, she was holding the position of Deputy Secretary for Science and Technological Development of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina when she created project eVojvodina dealing with implementation of eServices for the provincial government. She is author of several monographic publications in ICT field and more than 200 scientific papers. Most of these publications are related to artificial intelligence, knowledge management, library information systems, software engineering and net-centric computing. She is participating the development of the library information system BISIS which is running in more than 50 libraries in Serbia.

Dušan Surla (professor emeritus) is Director of the Innovation Centre for Digital Libraries and Archives at the Faculty of Science Novi Sad. He graduated mathematics (1969), and earned M.Sc. (1976) and Ph.D. (1980) in robotics. He published more than 210 scientific papers in robotics and intelligent information systems that are cited by 359 authors (without auto-citations). He was supervising 20 M.Sc. theses and 6 Ph.D. theses. He is the member of editorial boards of the following scientific journals: The Electronic Library, Computer Science and Information Systems, and Novi Sad Journal of Mathematics. He participated in more than 30 scientific projects and conducted 6 projects. He conducts the development of the BISIS project from its very beginning. Since 2005, he is managing the program eVojvodina which is one of the strategic programs of the mid-term economy development plan of Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. He was teaching a number of courses at undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. level in the topics of Systems Theory and Control, Artificial Intelligence, and Information Systems.

Vesna Popović graduated in Electronics at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad in 1980. From 1981, she works for Goverment of AP of Vojvodina offices as project manager and data base administrator. Currently she is with Department for Technical and Administrative Services of Provincial Authorities. From 2010, she is holding the position of the Head of Department for eGovernment at Sector for Information Technologies. From 2012, she is holding the position of the Manager of eGovernment Group at Sector for Information Technologies. She is coauthor in articles published and presented on domestic conferences, dealing with eGovernment implementation.