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This paper seeks to explore the challenges that local government face in the UK when implementing fully integrated electronic public services.

A case study based research approach using interviews with employees and citizens in a large local authority was utilised to examine both the government and citizen's perspective of electronic government (e‐government) and related service improvement efforts.

From a theoretical perspective, process and information systems integration are identified in the literature as key challenges for enabling fully functional e‐government services. However, empirical research in this paper highlights that broader issues of technical, political, and organisational origin are of equal importance but tend to be overlooked in practice.

Although the empirical research discussed in this paper is limited to one local authority, its size, geographic location and ethnic diversity makes the local authority a good illustrative example of local e‐government implementation efforts in the UK.

The findings and issues raised in this paper are of practical importance to the UK public sector and elsewhere, and can aid to enable the identification of objectives, priorities and barriers to e‐government, and options for successful implementation thereof. Conversely, the process and information systems integration issues discussed in the paper is timely and novel as national e‐government efforts are now moving from initial e‐enabling efforts to a process transformational phase in the UK.

While private companies have continued to take advantage of information and communications technology to improve their businesses, services offered by government organisations have remained deficient over the years. Aims to provide an introduction to the papers within the journal issue which focus on this theme.

Provides an outline of the themes of the papers.

Notes that in seven the papers, contexts and problems associated with change instigated by e‐government initiatives are explored. These relate to the intersection of theory, method, empirical findings and novel systems. They discuss practices, methods and barriers associated with the challenge of realising the vision of e‐government.

Provides an introduction to the papers on e‐government, an evolving multidimensional and multidisciplinary field, where many mutually interdependent factors impact on its success, acceptance and perceived benefits.