Information technology in public administration: Citizen Relationship Management (CzRM)

Abstract

Customer Relationship Management (CRM), a concept evolved in the private sector, is a holistic business strategy used by companies to create and maintain lasting relationships with the customers. It is guided by a simple philosophy- Customer first. CRM today is the largest software market in the world (Taylor, 2020) and is at the heart of success of top companies including the e-retail giant- Amazon. The concept of CRM applied in the public sector is called Citizen Relationship Management (CzRM). CzRM is the process of delivering high quality, highly efficient, customizable citizen- centric services and maintaining citizen relationship done via e-governance lying on the backbone of advanced Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems. The need of Governments across the world is now not only limited to computerisation or moving online but providing its citizens a one-to-one and one-stop solution to avail public services. In India, the e-governance programmes had been launched as earliest as in the 1990s. Later, in 2006 National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was launched by the Government of India to make all its services available to its citizens via electronic media (National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), 2008). This was followed by the launch of Digital India campaign in 2015 to develop digital infrastructure, deliver digital public services and improve digital literacy. Next was the launch of Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) in 2017, a mobile app offering PAN-India e-government services across all levels of governments. The NeGP acts an enabler of Digital India and UMANG and vice versa.