Reform opportunities missed: Will the innovative potential of information systems in public administration remain dormant forever?

Abstract Few conceptual efforts have been made to design the public administration of tomorrow which makes full use of the potential of information technology to create new structures and work processes. Business process re‐engineering, the Internet and other sources of innovative information systems at the citizen interface, are important directions into which efforts at developing the public sector of the future may be channelled. But due to an unwillingness to devise bold solutions for administrative reform, it is doubtful whether traditional IT strategies in public administration and the new wave of applications based on a national information infrastructure will concur to deliver substantial innovation.