e-GOVERNMENT: THE NEXT WAVE

e-Business is fundamentally changing the way we work and how customers and external agencies relate to utilities. It is dramatically changing every aspect of organizations from strategic and long-range planning to real-time operations. Utilities are at a critical crossroads, because they must decide what the Web really means to them, their customers, their sister organizations, their workforces, and then plan to handle the changes.e-Governance takes e-Business to the next level. It includes e-Business (conducting business via the Web), as well as providing support for all other transactions. This includes information requests, public process input, targeted educational information, consumer confidence report, and targeted operational support information. e-Government involves moving all aspects of customer interactions with the utility and municipal environment to the Web. It moves utilities a significant step closer to “the virtual utility.”