Abstract4This study aims at proposing the framework of critical success factors (CSFs) for the adoption of an electronic document management system (EDMS) in government units and at identifying such factors for local government in Poland. The study was based on a literature review, interviews with field experts, and a questionnaire survey. The results suggest a framework of 23 factors that were considered prerequisites for successful EDMS adoption. The factors are grouped into four categories to reflect economic, organizational, technological, and legal issues. Furthermore, nine CSFs for EDMS adoption in Polish local government units were identified. They include legislation imposing the obligation on EDMS adoption, technological readiness, quality of back-office software and its integration with front-office and ERP software, employees9 awareness of EDMS adoption, front- and back-office software functionality and scope of its adoption, and information security. It is worth noticing that there are no economic factors in the set of the nine CSFs. I. INTRODUCTION n recent years, government units in Poland have been and still are subject to significant organizational and technological changes, like the public administration in the world [1]3[6]. The main goal of the changes is to improve the quality of government services and to adapt them to the constantly increasing demands of customers, especially citizens and businesses [7]3[9]. Information-communication technologies (ICTs) in public administration are necessary to provide an electronic communication contact with the customer, minimizing the number or even eliminating the need for customer visits to a government unit [10]. The implementation of appropriate technological solutions related to the introduction of organizational and legal changes allows government clients to safely submit documents, applications, and letters to government units, and receive responses through the same channel [11]. To meet such challenges, government units adopt ICT to improve customer relations and support internal processes related to document collection and management [12]3[15]. Solutions of this type are called electronic document management systems (EDMS). Generally, EDMS may be defined as <an umbrella concept covering various technologies including document imaging, document retrieval, reporting, 1 In Poland, the front-office software that the client uses to submit letters, applications, and documents to government units is called ESP. On the other hand, ePUAP is an example of front-office software that allows clients to submit letters, applications, and documents and receive responses. character recognition, document management, workflow, form processing, content management, digital signature management, storage and archiving technologies, business process management, and collaboration.= [16] In this paper, EDMS is specified as an approach in the electronic management of documents across document entire lifecycle, i.e., ranging from submitting a document by a client to a government unit electronically to a client receiving a response from a government unit electronically. In this approach, paper circulation at each step of the document lifecycle is eliminated. In general, EDMS requires two kinds of software, i.e., front- and back-office software. Front-office software is available for government clients and provides them with electronic forms through which they can submit a relevant document (application, letter) to government units and receive a response. 1 On the other hand, back-office software is available to employees of government units and is used to manage these documents (applications, letters) in government units, i.e., register documents received from clients, manage processes related to these documents, and prepare and send responses to clients. 2 The provisions of the law in force in Poland allow government units to resign from paper documents in whole or in part, depending on the type of public service provided [17]. Nonetheless, despite this possibility, a small number of government units decide to switch to EDMS 3 as the so-called basic system [18], i.e., one in which all processes and activities related to the provision of individual public services and the handling of related documents take place electronically without the use of paper documents. However, the studies conducted so far have not analyzed the reasons why processes in government units are still carried out in the traditional 3 paper system, even though they have the appropriate software. The factors determining EDMS adoption as the basic system were also not analyzed, and no recommendations were given to improve this state of affairs. Such knowledge gaps represent a research gap. Therefore, it allowed us to formulate the research objectives, which are: proposing the framework of critical success factors (CSFs) for the adoption of EDMS in government units and identifying such factors for local government in Poland. Consistent with the purpose, the remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews the current research 2 In Poland, such software is called eSOD. 3 In Poland is called EZD. I Critical Success Factors for Adopting Electronic Document Management Systems in Government Units Ewa Ziemba University of Economics in Katowice 1 Maja 50, 40-287 Katowice, Poland ewa.ziemba@ue.katowice.pl Tomasz Papaj University of Economics in Katowice 1 Maja 50, 40-287 Katowice, Poland tomasz.papaj@ue.katowice.pl Danuta Descours Marshal9s Office of the Silesian Voivodeship PowstaEców 34, 40-037 Katowice, Poland descoursd@slaskie.pl Proceedings of the of the 17 th Conference on Computer Science and Intelligence Systems pp. 809–813 DOI: 10.15439/2022F227 ISSN 2300-5963 ACSIS, Vol. 30 IEEE Catalog Number: CFP2285N-ART ©2022, PTI 809