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Chapter 5.18 Organisational Challenges of Implementing E-Business in the Public Services: The Case of Britain’s National Mapping Agency Francesca Andreescu University of Greenwich, UK ABSTRACT 8QGHUSLQQLQJ ǧ ELOOLRQ RI HFRQRPLF DFWLY- ity in the United Kingdom, Britain’s National Mapping Agency is a commercialising public sector organisation having trading fund status and existing in the intersection of two different spheres—the public and the private. Recog- nised as a leading participant in the geographic information industry, within which it is forging partnerships with key private sector companies, the organisation has enthusiastically grasped e- business as an all-embracing phenomenon and implemented a new strategy that transformed the way it did business. Drawing on longitudinal data gathered over a period of four years, this article explores the processes of strategic and organisa- tional transformation engendered by e-business implementation in this organisation and discusses the successful elements, as well as some of the challenges to its change efforts. INTRODUCTION A common theme within the management litera- ture in recent years has been the take up of private sector management strategies and practices by public sector organisations, designed to increase HI¿FLHQF\SHUIRUPDQFHDQGFRVWHFRQRP\LQWKH activities they performed. In the United Kingdom, PRUHVSHFL¿FDOO\LQWKHFRQWH[WRIVLJQL¿FDQW changes in their operating environments and SUHVVXUHV WR LQFUHDVH HI¿FLHQF\ DQG DFFRXQW- ability, public sector organisations have been urged to experiment with new organising ideas, 1666 Organisational Challenges of Implementing E-Business in the Public Services structures, and processes and transform the way they do business, by taking the opportunities and meeting the challenges that e-technologies and e-ways of working presented. As a result, public sector organisations have embraced e-busi- ness and have made innovative uses of Internet technologies to invent new business models or to enhance existing practices. E-business has been seen as a way of transforming these bureaucratic, centralised, and reactive organisations and their capabilities. Whilst the Internet created new com- mercial opportunities for public sector organisa- tions, e-business was thus about exploiting those opportunities. 7KLVDUWLFOHGUDZVRQ¿QGLQJVIURPDVWXG\ conducted over a period of four years in a com- mercialised public sector organisation to reveal the processes of strategic and organisational transformation engendered by e-business during the implementation of a complex structural and cultural change programme aimed at reshaping this organisation and rethinking how it provided value to its customers. The discussion will examine W KH G L OH P P D VDQG FRQ VW U DLQW VLGHQ W L ¿H G E\PD Q D J- ers in the interpretation of the e-business strategy concept and why its implementation in practice can be challenging. Whilst the Internet offers a WHFKQRORJLFDOVROXWLRQWKH¿QGLQJVRIWKLVFDVH study suggest that the successful implementation of a wider e-business strategy depends on managing simultaneously a number of projects which cross organisational boundaries and link organisational and technological factors. 7KHDUWLFOHLVGLYLGHGLQWR¿YHPDLQVHFWLRQV 7KH¿UVWVHFWLRQUHYLHZVUHFHQWHEXVLQHVVUHVHDUFK and highlights that studies treating the concept of e-business as an all-embracing phenomenon and analysing in depth its implications are relatively rare. The second section of the article describes the methodology used in the study. Information on the contextual developments within the case study organisation is followed by a discussion of WKHUHVHDUFK¿QGLQJV7KHFDVHVWXG\LVXVHGDV a background for discussing some of the chal- lenges and constraints that this commercialising organisation faces in implementing a wider e-busi- ness strategy. Finally, the concluding discussion highlights key lessons learnt and implications for practitioners. E-BUSINESS AND ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE: REVOLUTION OR E-VOLUTION? Increasing environmental pressures, global economic uncertainties, changes in public and community expectations, and pressures to in- crease public accountability have provided the momentum for British public sector organisations to examine the effectiveness of their management structures, systems, and processes. The empha- VLVLVRQDFKLHYLQJHI¿FLHQF\HIIHFWLYHQHVVDQG economy in the activities performed by public organisations and on developing their ability to compete with private sector organisations. As a result, many public sector organisations are now existing in the intersection of two different spheres—the public and the private (Kickert, 7KH\¿WQHLWKHULQWKHVWULFWO\SXEOLFUHDOP of state action nor in the strictly private realm of commercial relationships. They are expected WR IXQFWLRQ OLNH EXVLQHVVHV²WR EH HI¿FLHQW customer-driven, and client-oriented—yet they perform tasks that are inherently public. How to strengthen organisational capabilities in order to confront successfully the competitive pressures becomes, consequently, one of the biggest chal- lenges for these organisations. Research into appropriate e-business models KDVJURZQVLJQL¿FDQWO\RYHUWKHSDVWIHZ\HDUV with authors taking both theoretically and em- pirically based approaches to the development of taxonomies of business models suitable for the new economy. A number of business models focused upon individual business transactions that use the 1667 Organisational Challenges of Implementing E-Business in the Public Services Internet as a medium of exchange, including both business-to-business and business-to-consumer (e.g., Becker & Berkemeyer, 2005; Carlton, 2001; Clay, 2001; Clegg, Chu, Smithson, Henney, et al., 2005; Gao, 2005; Garicano, 2001; Scott Morton, 2001; Smith, 2001). Interest has also tended to focus on new startups (Chaston, 2001; Clarke & Flaherty, 2004; Colombo, 2001) and on tradi- tional organisations moving towards integrating electronic marketing and sales, purchasing, or customer service with their current businesses (e.g., Barnes, Hinton, & Mieczkowska, 2005; Bhaskar, 2005; Chen & Leteney, 2000; Hansen, 2000; Kotha, Rajgopal, & Rindova, 2001; Lee & Wang, 2001), or on the technology itself (Day & Schoemaker, 2000; Smith, 2001). Much research into the use of e-commerce, furthermore, has WHQGHGWRIRFXVRQODUJHU¿UPV'XWWD6HJHY 1999), new business models for digital content (Barnes & Hunt, 2001; Boddy & Macbeth, 2000; Daniel, Wilson, & Myers, 2002; Mahadevan, 2000; Van der Wiele, Williams, Van Iwaarder, Wilson, & Dale, 2002), and the growth and de- velopment of dot-coms (Benoy, Cook, & Javalgi, 2001; Clay, 2001). Further studies revealed how the Internet has made possible types of business models previously very hard, or impossible, to implement (Mahadevan, 2000; Rayport, 1999; Timmers, 2000). A key concern is how strategy can be developed in hypercompetitive markets where the speed of change makes traditional forms of analysis impractical (Hoffman & Novak, 2000; Ordanini & Pol, 2001; Venkatraman, 2000). Eisenhardt DQG<RI¿HDQG&XVXPDQRD 1999b) address this issue with concepts derived from complex systems theory and emergent VWUDWHJ\PDNLQJ(EXVLQHVVKDVDOVRFRQ¿UPHG WKHVLJQL¿FDQFHRIWKHUHVRXUFHEDVHGYLHZRIWKH ¿UP&RPSHW HQFLHVVXFKD VN QRZOHGJHPDQDJH - ment and the ability to integrate complex sets of WHFKQRORJLFDODQGEXVLQHVVVNLOOVDUHLGHQWL¿HG as success factors in a number of case studies (e.g., Feeny, 2001; Harris, Coles, Dickson, & McLoughlin, 1999; Kotha, 1998; Sauer, 1993). Various studies also addressed the risks of Inter- net ventures, barriers to implementation, success factors, and steps needed to manage technology- driven change (e.g., Barua, Konona, Whinston, & Yin, 2001; Eisenhardt, 1999; Kotha et al., 2001; Porter, 2001). In general, existing research has focused on issues related to the digital content provision (particularly online provision) and technologies or technology-based change generically, rather WKDQIRFXVLQJVSHFL¿FDOO\RQWKHRUJDQLVDWLRQDO transformation required for successfully making the change to e-business. This topic is critically important because the majority of organisations are not startups, and many are not solely con- cerned with e-commerce and electronic markets. Rather, most organisations are traditional busi- QHVVHV ZKLFKPXVW JUDSSOHZLWK ¿QGLQJDQHZ architecture to meet the imperative of remaining competitive in an increasingly Internet-enhanced economy. Their concern is the adoption of e-busi- ness as an all embracing phenomenon, in other words, transforming key business processes with Internet related technologies (Deise, Nowikow, King, & Wright, 2000; Symonds, 1999). In par- ticular, within the literature drawn on public sec- tor organisations, the issue of how public sector organisations undergoing commercialisation can successfully make the transition from traditional approaches to e-business by taking advantage of e-technologies has received little attention. Building upon these arguments, this article explores the processes of strategic and organisa- tional transformation engendered by e-business implementation through an in-depth case study of a commercialising British public sector organisa- tion within the geographic information industry. On doing so, the study aims to provide fresh in- sights into the internal transformation processes which occurred in an organisation evolving from W K H FOD V V LF D O E X U H D X F U D W LF D Q G F H QW U D O L V H G³ SX E O L F 1668 Organisational Challenges of Implementing E-Business in the Public Services sector model” towards a new organisational form through embracing e-business as a corporate philosophy. We also aim to see whether practice had overtaken theory and, if so, what enhance- ments to existing theory could be learned from WKHSUDFWLWLRQHUVLQWKH¿HOG 7KHGH¿QLWLRQRIe-business adopted in this research takes the view that e-business repre- sents: the way in which organisations can gain value from the Internet technologies and encompasses not only e-commerce—selling and buying over a network, but also the way people within an organi- sation work together, the sharing of information and effective communication, the transactions and connections across a supply chain, between suppli- ers and distributors and consumers, as well as the relationships between individuals and institutions. (Symon, 2000, p. 6) Thus, unlike other authors (e.g., Clegg et al, 2002; Poon & Swatman, 1999) who use the terms more or less interchangeably, this study seeks to distinguish between e-commerce and e-business. E-business is not just the sharing of business information, maintaining business relationships, and conducting business transactions by means of Internet-based technology; it is also about the organisation’s social environment and the relationships between people and technologies. Such a perspective highlights the complex nature of the notion and shows that e-business goes beyond e-commerce, in that when implemented successfully, it transforms an organisation and its capabilities entirely. RESEARCH APPROACH 7KHUHVHDUFKUHSRUWHGKHUHLVGUDZQIURP¿QGLQJV from a four-year study of organisational change in Britain’s National Mapping Agency, carried out between 2001 and 2004. The study adopted a longitudinal perspective on change concerned with the holistic and processual character of organisational transformations over time (Pet- tigrew, 1985, 1990). An inductive research strategy was employed, which was both iterative and developmental. The UHVHDUFKDLPZDVQRWWRFRQ¿UPK\SRWKHVHVEXW to understand the process of e-strategy implemen- tation and the perceptions of those involved and affected. What was important was the process by which the changes were introduced, the reaction by organisational members to those changes, and their perception of them. Data Collection and Data Types The time period for data collection was between 2001 and 2004. This research involved three main types of data: in-depth interviews, documentary data, and nonparticipant observation. Data were collected from the organisation at two time points during the research period to track the internal changes over time: • Time 1 (2001/2002), corresponded to the RI¿FLDO DGRSWLRQ RI WKH QHZ ³EXVLQHVV model”) • Time 2 (2003/2004) corresponded to the incorporation and consolidation of strategic changes, allowing for change to become SDUWLDOO\³DQFKRUHG´LQQHZVRFLDOVWUXFWXUHV and practices A total of 89 interviews were conducted with the main actors involved in the strategic initiative programmes and in the implementation of change, such as deputy chief executive, corporate strate- gists, members of the top and middle manage- ment, other individual organisational members, and management consultants (Table 1). Most respondents had been with the organisation for a considerable period of time. This was supple- mented with analysis of documentary evidence, including board minutes, strategy documents, 1669 Organisational Challenges of Implementing E-Business in the Public Services reports of the steering committee, project teams, minutes of follow-up meetings, business plans, as well as nonparticipant observation. 'XULQJWKH¿HOGVWXG\WKHUHVHDUFKHUKDGDFFHVVWR the main participants, formal and informal meetings, existing minutes, and documentation highlighting some of the historical, processual, and contextual issues relevant to the e-business strategy implementation. In addition, the interviews emphasised both individual and shared interpretations of key participants concern- ing actions, events, views, beliefs, aspirations, and motives. All interviews were tape-recorded. The following section will introduce the case study organisation and present the results. Research Site Britain’s National Mapping Agency (NMA) is a quasiautonomous agency within the geographic information industry with trading fund status. It employs approximately 1,850 staff, 1,350 of ZKRP DUH EDVHG DW WKH KHDG RI¿FH ZKLOVW WKH rest—cartographic surveyors and territorial sales representatives—are dispersed among a network RIORFDORI¿FHVDURXQGWKHFRXQWU\ NMA is recognised as a leading participant in the geographic information industry, within which it is forging partnerships with key private sector companies. Its principal activities are twofold: the maintenance of the National Topographic Data- base by recording and storing measurements of new roads, houses, and so forth, and the creation of products from it, such as paper map series and digital datasets used in geographic information systems (GIS). The organisation offered an excellent opportu- nity to study the organisational change required in transforming a former government agency into an e-business, culturally, commercially, and technically. Confronted by powerful pressures to improve organisational performance under the government modernisation agenda, NMA implemented a complex e-business strategy, combined with a huge investment in technology new product development, which were designed to radically change the organisation’s structure, management, and knowledge processes. To take advantage of the opportunities that e-technologies Table 1. Number of respondents participating in interviews in Phase 1 and Phase 2 Position of Interviewee Number in Time 1 Number in Time 2 CEO Strategy Directors and Strategy Managers Senior Managers Senior Consultants Project Managers Line Managers Individual Organisational Members (Sales and Finance) 1 6 14 3 21 8 2 1 5 8 2 10 6 2 Total Interviews = 89 55 34 1670 Organisational Challenges of Implementing E-Business in the Public Services and e-ways of working presented, NMA charted an ambitious organisational transformation in which e-business was seen as a catalyst for change and e-strategy as a route map. This knowledge-intensive organisation is a particularly interesting example of how a public organisation managed to overcome the constraints of its business context to fashion its own des- tiny. Unlike other public sector organisations with stable, incremental environments, NMA is operating in conditions of low environmental stability, with frequent, rapid changes in geo- graphic information systems technology. Due to the emergence of new digital technology, the geographic information industry is on the verge of rapid growth, particularly in the market for location-based services. The overlay of layers of data to create new views creates good commercial opportunities for NMA, such as in the correlation of geographic, commercial catchment area and sociodemographic data for use in supermarket home delivery services. All of these trends make the geographic in- formation industry very different from the more traditional consumer and industrial markets in which many other public organisations oper- ate. With an increasingly challenging environ- ment, pressures to develop e-business under the government e-strategy in the public sector and emergence of new technologies, NMA is closer WRWKH³UHOHQWOHVVO\FKDQJLQJRUJDQLVDWLRQV´PRGHO of Brown and Eisenhardt (1998) in the high-veloc- ity computer industry. There are these particular ³KLJKWHFK´DQG³HEXVLQHVV´IHDWXUHVRI10$ that make this public sector organisation such an interesting case for management research in general, and for e-business change implementa- tion in particular. Key Facts About NMA • Modern data collection using the geographic positioning system (GPS) and location in- formation. • Turnover from operating activities: £110 millions in 2004; most of the income comes from computerised geographic data, which is used extensively in both the private and public sector, with around £136 billion of Britain’s GDP underpinned by it. • Core markets by 2004: Public sector and utilities (32%); land and property (5%); consumer (12%); commercial markets (mo- bile communications and wireless; large UHWDLOHUVEDQNLQJ¿QDQFHDQGLQVXUDQFH transport and distribution) (51%). • Has operated as a trading fund since April 1999, providing a greater degree of commer- FLDOÀH[LELOLW\DQGLQFUHDVHGUHVSRQVLELOLW\ IRULWVEXVLQHVVSODQQLQJDQG¿QDQFHV$V a trading fund the business has to make a SUR¿WEXWGRHVQRWUHFHLYHDVXEVLG\IURP the taxpayer. • A potential change in status towards a gov - ernment-owned plc. was proposed in 2002 and rejected because it did not deliver the QHFHVVDU\EHQH¿WVWRWKHRUJDQLVDWLRQ,WZDV decided that it was in the public interest for NMA to remain a trading fund. However, HQKDQFHG¿QDQFLDOIUHHGRPVDQGÀH[LELOL- ties have been granted by the government through a revised framework document in 2003. Results External Context The E-government Strategic Framework (April 2001) set out a series of guiding principles for public sector organisations centred upon building s e r v i ce s a r o u n d c it i z en s c ho ic e s , m a k i n g g ove r n - ment and its services more accessible electroni- cally and managing information and knowledge LQ PRUH HI¿FLHQW ZD\V WR HQVXUH HDVLHU RQOLQH access and more effective use of all services. It 1671 Organisational Challenges of Implementing E-Business in the Public Services set a series of e-government policies and targets for quasiautonomous agencies, stating as main objectives that 90% of low-value procurement transactions and 100% of document management should take place electronically by 2004 and that 100% of services should be available elec- tronically by 2005. In order to meet these aims, public sector organisations must innovate within a common framework and manage their services as a business, focusing on cost effectiveness and funding mechanisms. In line with these targets, Britain’s national mapping agency was granted trading fund powers by Pa r l ia m e nt i n 19 99 t o g i ve it d i re c t re s p on s ib il- LW\IRULWVRZQ¿QDQFHVDQGIUHHGRPWRGHYHORS new initiatives. In effect, this meant that NMA would remain obliged to serve the government by providing information across Britain whilst earning revenues in a commercial and increasingly competitive marketplace, reducing dependence on the taxpayer. Such a status provided the organisa- tion with the opportunity to operate and compete commercially by earning commercial revenues for its geographical information in order to be self- funding, as well as be more accountable for the HI¿FLHQF\DQGHIIHFWLYHQHVVRILWVRSHUDWLRQV Internal Context The organisation had a long history of unsuccess- ful reorganisations and frequent changes of Chief Executives. Since 1993, NMA has launched three different reorganisation initiatives under different governments, all of them recognised by managers DQGVWDIIDV³VSHFWDFXODUO\XQVXFFHVVIXO´ Similar to other public sector entities under- going public sector reform in the form of com- PHUFLDOLVDWLRQ WKH HI¿FLHQF\DQGHIIHFWLYHQHVV of management processes were major challenges. NMA was a vertically integrated organisation, with an excessive degree of specialisation, rigid hierarchical divisions, and divided areas of ac- tivity with niches and boundaries that served no useful purpose. Underlying many of the problems RILQHI¿FLHQF\DQGKLJKFRVWVZDVWKHPRQRSRO\ situation that all costs could eventually be passed on to the market. The organisation was also a classic example of public service culture and organisational systems and processes. NMA’s administrative structure based on departments DQGZHOOGH¿QHGMREFDWHJRULHVKDGHIIHFWLYHO\ prevented the organisation from operating in accordance with its own objectives and values. It was realised that, especially in the relationship between NMA’s employees and its customers, too much importance was being given to re- solving bureaucratic issues, to the detriment of customer service. In short, the internal structure worked against the integration of main business processes. Drivers for Change NMA has expanded considerably in recent years into commercial and leisure markets, both in the U.K. and internationally. The environment in which the organisation operated was characterised by emerging opportunities for the rapid expansion of the digital market and, in particular, location-based services offered via the Internet. That sat alongside its activities in the mature market for traditional paper-based mapping. The severe market competition and threat of product substitution through the mass expansion of digital information and the new status of trading fund acted as drivers for revenue maximisation and for placing greater emphasis on increasing the utilisation of geographical data. A key aspect of becoming a trading fund was to move towards performance targets and a culture of measuring, and rewarding achievement linked to the business YLVLRQ 7KLV QHZ ³EXVLQHVV PRGHO´ PHDQW WKDW NMA had to strike the right balance between maintaining consistent and accurate geographical information for the whole of Great Britain whilst ensuring its operations are funded by earning 1672 Organisational Challenges of Implementing E-Business in the Public Services LQFRPHDQGJHQHUDWLQJSUR¿WVIURPWKHOLFHQVLQJ of data to both the public and private sectors. The organisation was also required to make an aver- age return on the capital it employs—on average around £40 million—of at least 5.5% a year and to pay an annual dividend to the government based on each year’s trading results. In response to this challenge, a series of organisation change initiatives began. The Change Agenda: From Bureaucracy to E-Business :LWKWKHDGYHQWRIDQHZ&KLHI([HFXWLYH2I ¿FHU recruited from the commercial sector in September 2000, considerable impetus for change was being evidenced. A reevaluation of the business from the customers’ perspective was completed and the need for the organisation to develop innovative products and services that could be delivered elec- WURQLFDOO\ZDVLGHQWL¿HG7KHUHYLHZXQGHU WDNHQ E\WKHH[HFXWLYHWHDPLGHQWL¿HGWKDWWKHJUHDWHVW hindrance to achieving NMA’s corporate goals were its structures and work practices. Another major change that had to occur was a shift from the old culture of public monopoly to the culture of a market-oriented, customer-focused, and self- ¿QDQFLQJRUJDQLVDWLRQ7KHQDWXUHDQGGLUHFWLRQ of the required cultural shift was a radical change for many employees, who had spent virtually all their careers in the relative security, comfort, DQGFRPSODFHQF\RIWKHROG³SXEOLFVHFWRUHWKRV´ F X O W X U H 7 KH ³ F X O W X U D OL QH U W L D´ D PR Q J W KH P DMRU L W \ of employees, at all levels, was one of the major challenges to management in trying to achieve WKHWUDQVIRUPDWLRQWRWKHQHZV\VWHPRIHI¿FLHQW business operations. Following the review, a new vision formed the foundation on which the organisation could be transformed into an e-business: NMA and its partners will be the content provider of choice for location based information in the new information economy. In October 2000, a cross-functional team from across NMA was established to develop the vision into a new strategy for the organisation. The team used the mission statement as a starting point for designing the structure and process of the change programme and translating it into a new e-strategy. Fundamentally, the e-strategy was about transforming the business commercially, techno- logically, and culturally, by implementing a new business model, combined with a multimillion pound investment in technology and new prod- uct development. The main strategic priorities were: • Commercial revenue—increase commercial revenue from existing assets • Reduce costs and waste • Invest in new brands, infrastructure, and capability • Grow data products and help partners to develop their products • Aggressive marketing for products • Grow partners and enable them to add value to products %XLOG WKH EHVW GDWD WR HQDEOH ³MRLQHGXS geography” The key emphasis was on better knowledge management, focusing on the needs of businesses and individuals, and helping partners to create radically new products underpinned by data maintained by NMA. At the heart of the new strategy was the idea of NMA working together with partners to become the content provider of choice for location-based information. This meant establishing commercial agreements with various partners in which NMA was providing the geo- graphical data and the partners were developing the software required for customising this data in different ways and translating it into innovative products and services under NMA’s brand. A series of objectives were established: • Delivering excellence in all aspects of the business, employing e-business principles 1673 Organisational Challenges of Implementing E-Business in the Public Services to exceed customer expectations • Identifying, developing, and maintaining effective strategic partnerships • Ensuring that the business strategy is clearly understood by staff, customers, partners, and the wider community • Establishing NMA as the centre of excellence for innovation in location-based informa- tion • Developing a business of progressive people with skills appropriate to an e-business • Changing the internal culture $UDQJHRISURMHFWVZHUHLGHQWL¿HGWKDWZRXOG exploit e-business technology and approaches to improve performance. An initial assessment of FRVWVEHQH¿WVDQGWLPHVFDOHVZHUHSUHSDUHG$W the end of the four-week period, NMA Executive and Nonexecutive Directors approved the strategy. More detailed planning and evaluation of imple- PHQWDWLRQFRVWVDQGEHQH¿WVIROORZHGDVGHYHORS- ment work began. A major feature of the e-strategy implementa- tion was the intention to place the organisation at the forefront of the new information economy by embracing cutting-edge technology for supplying geographical data and enhancing the versatility of NMA data. This involved the implementation of a groundbreaking new concept of mapping and the development of new products, by transform- ing the map-making process so that electronic data could be available to customers within 24 hours of being surveyed. The key aim was to replace the traditional paper map products with large-scale electronic mapping, so that most of the products and services offered by the organisation could be delivered electronically; digital mapping now accounts for some 80% of the organisation’s turnover. Amongst the most pioneering products were a digital database and online service named Mas- WHU0DSIHDWXULQJGH¿QLWLYHGLJLWDOGDWDIRUWKH whole of Great Britain and an online integrated product called Pre-Build TM. The Master Map database provides intelligent and accessible data ZLWKWKHÀH[LELOLW\WROLQNLQIRUPDWLRQDFURVVDQG between organisations, whilst Pre-Build TM of- fered highly-detailed digital mapping pinpointing buildings and roads tailored to the needs of utilities and telecommunication companies. The successful implementation of the new strategy pivoted on the adoption of e-business as a corporate philosophy. As the Chief Executive remarked: e-business is key to our future success, opening huge new opportunities for us and our partners. It requires new ways of working and both individual and team efforts right across the business. We have the best data to underpin the Master Map of Britain. Our e-initiatives will ensure we can create and supply that data when, where and how our customers want it—and at the same times e-enable ourselves. (Chief Executive, 2001) Collecting, maintaining, and delivering geo- graphical data was at the forefront of NMA’s activ- ity and the implementation of the new e-business strategy acted as a driver for the transformation of its core business processes—data collection and management. The e-strategy was thus seen as the necessary framework for driving forward business change. As some senior managers argued: The “E” strategy allows us to reassess how we manage the collection and delivery of our data to remain at the forefront of the industry, offering DJLOLW\DQGÀH[LELOLW\WRRXUFXVWRPHUV(Direc- tor—Data Collection and Management, 2001) The Digital Maps business cannot grow enough without the e-strategy. This work is critical be- cause it will allow us to create and deliver more innovative products much faster to our customers. ,WZLOODOORZXVWREHFRPHIDUPRUHHI¿FLHQWDQG cost effective across a wide range of activities. (Director—Digital Brands, 2001) . 1664 E-Organisation and Its Future Implication for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Jelassi, T., & Enders, A.C. (2005). Strategies for e-business — Creating value through electronic and mobile. & 0DKOHU $ %DXHU - Electronic commerce and local merchants: Op- portunities for synergy between physical and Web presence. Electronic Markets, 1-2(9), 51-57. Tripsas,. the Public Services structures, and processes and transform the way they do business, by taking the opportunities and meeting the challenges that e-technologies and e-ways of working presented.