Citizen Relationship Management

The immense success of information technology and electronic commerce in the private sector leads the expectations from governments to improve their services. When people see efficient systems in the business world, they tend to expect the same from the government departments. With new found ability to do business online (as opposed to in line i.e. waiting in queues), the citizens want not only a much greater level of availability, convenience, and reliability of government products and services, but also a higher degree of accountability from them. On the other hand, governments want to be dwindling, efficient and cost effective. These paradoxical objectives can be accessed through CzRM because it can improve service delivery at lower costs and more efficient ways (Vaxevanidou, 2007).

CzRM is a division of customer relationship management that focuses specifically on how governmental bodies relate to their constituents (Xavier, 2002). It is a method for public authorities to reorient their service operations around citizens (Kannabiran et al. 2004). The essence of CzRM is to change organizations from a bureaucratic structure to a citizen-centric philosophy. CzRM improves government's relationship with its citizens by placing the citizen at the heart of the organization's processes, activities and culture. Citizen relationship management is more than just a software application, it is a strategy for government (Sanad et al. 2010). A citizen relationship management system is a software application that enables government to implement this strategy. It provides the right information, to the right people, at the right time and in the right manner. Through CzRM, public administrations have an excellent opportunity to access and manipulate data to gain an accurate picture of citizen behaviors and requirements (Kannabiran et al. 2004). CzRM is not about getting more information out of people; it is about making better use of the considerable amounts of information that government already collects (Silva & Batista, 2007). CzRM provides (where legally possible) a government-wide view of each citizen service excellence by increasing the efficiency of service and information delivery to citizens, and building and strengthening the links and cooperation between government, its citizens and stakeholders (Schellong, 2005). There are some key differences between CRM and CzRM. The citizen is often legally obliged to use the service of government; government is a monopoly provider of the service. In addition, unlike the private sector, maximization of profit cannot be the objective of government. The citizens, through the government institutions, are ultimately the owners of the administrations. The organization has therefore even more reason to be citizen-oriented (Larsen & Milakovich, 2005; Coleman, 2005 and Sasaki, 2007). Because of the abovementioned reasons, currently many public organizations considered to establish CRM system.

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