• provision of electronic access;

• improvement in citizen service provision and management;

• ensuring that social exclusion does not occur when new initiatives are implemented, and that those in need of help or service actually receive it, rather than those who take most quickly to new channels of access.

The challenges this new direction poses to governments are:

• engaging the external environment after years of inward focus;

• determining what the current situation actually is, before formulating new initiatives;

• establishing the current level of citizen service provision, including the development of acceptable measures and measuring tools;

• identifying where the gaps exist in the service provision;

• directing resources in the most cost effective/prioritised way to improve the service.

Meeting these challenges is made more complex by a number of other factors, including:

• increasing customer expectations, caused by the performance (and perhaps sometimes only the promise) of the private sector;

• the rising numbers of lobby and other pressure groups;

• increased confidence of customers in using the media to put pressure on government for better treatment;

• the need to use new channels of communication and distribution to reach customers who have had problems accessing government services through traditional channels, while ensuring that these new channels can work in an integrated manner with older channels;

• the need to observe the government's sometimes very tough general requirements affecting how customers are managed in either sector, eg data protection law;

• the need to manage new relationships with the private sector service providers who are involved in some way in this change, usually as agents.