ABSTRACT
The introduction of information and communication technology (ICT) in administration is not a new topic. In the German-speaking region, which is our home ground, research work has been done and published under the heading “Administration IT” for many years. The leading lights are primarily the publications by Lenk and Reinermann, but also those by Brinkmann (1974) about the early automation of administration, and later by Grimmer (1986). In the wake of the new opportunities provided by the Internet, these technologies have gained a completely new significance. Under the heading of “e-government,” they are now one of the topics most frequently debated in administration. E-government may be regarded as the new guideline for administration IT. In this context, the new concepts are based on existing, sometimes already highly advanced developments in administration. However, what makes e-government different in comparison to previous administration IT? We maintain that in essence, the reason is twofold: for one thing, technology now allows for adaptable applications which were previously not known in this form. Customer-oriented solutions can be established and, above all, maintained in a decentralized manner, at the place where the service is to be provided. The former bot-
tleneck of centralized IT is becoming less important so that the offices’ own initiatives hardly encounter any obstacles. Also, the general framework of conditions is completely different in different administrations. Not the least of these differences was the debate of the 1980s about an increasingly customer-and results-oriented administration (“New Public Management”), which was one of the conditions that paved the way for a new method of employing IT.
