European and Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems 2008 (EMCIS2008) Late Breaking Paper May 24-26 2008, Dubai, UAE Moaman Al-Busaidy and Vishanth Weerakkody Factors Influencing E-Government Implementation Progress in Oman: A Discussion 1 FACTORS INFLUENCING E-GOVERNMENT IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS IN OMAN: A DISCUSSION Moaman Al-Busaidy, School of Information Systems, Computing & Mathematics, Brunel University, UK Moaman.Al-Busaidy@Brunel.ac.uk Vishanth Weerakkody, School of Information Systems, Computing & Mathematics, Brunel University, UK Vishanth.Weerakkody@Brunel.ac.uk Abstract With the advancement of the Internet and supporting Information and Communication Technologies, e-government has emerged as an effective means of delivering government services to citizens. In the recent past, e-government has become popular in many developing countries. Most notably are the Middle Eastern countries that have continued to invest significantly into e-government initiatives in the last five years. The aim of this paper is to examine e-government activities in the Sultanate of Oman and to identify factors that are currently impeding e-government development and implementation in this country. While issues such as lack of legal frameworks, strategy, project plans, usability issues and information quality are identified in the published literature as impeding e- government progress in Oman, this research suggests that factors such as web accessibility and integration of various government agencies also pose a major challenge for e-government implementation in Oman. Keywords: E-government, Developing Countries, Oman, ICT Infrastructure, Integration 1 INTRODUCTION While commercial enterprises have been exploiting the business opportunities offered by the Internet for some time by engaging in e-business activities, public sector organizations have until recently failed to capitalize on the potential benefits of e-enabling their services. However, this notion is now beginning to change with many governments initiating e-government projects with a view of offering better and more accessible services to citizens. This shift has been facilitated largely as a result of the availability of innovative and cost effective ICT solutions and the evolution of the Internet. While developed countries have exploited the power of the Internet to successfully e-enable public services and entice citizens, developing countries have been comparatively slow in developing successful e- government strategies (Karunanada and Weerakkody, 2006; Weerakkody et al., 2007) . With the number of e-government initiatives increasing from three in 1996 to over five hundred national initiatives (Al-Kibsi et al., 2001), the benefits of e-government have been highlighted by many researchers. Given that the public sector is often classified as bureaucratic, inefficient and less technology savvy, e-government can be considered as a revolution that was waiting to happen, particularly in a developing country context. Given this context, e-government has the potential to radically change public sector agencies and offer many benefits that were previously not envisaged (Moulder, 2001).