A Systematic Literature Review on South African Government to Harness Software as a Service for Enhanced E-Government

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) innovations significantly changes the day-to-day operations of both the private and public sectors as they try to improve business operations. These innovations offer potential service enhancement for the public sector such as improved effective and efficient government services and better service delivery, among others. In light of this, the South African government embarked on a few innovation initiatives in an effort to implement e-Government. However, the government faced several challenges such as ICT skills shortage, inadequate resources, high level of illiteracy, inadequate ICT infrastructure and the high cost of implementing e-Government. In the midst of these e-Government challenges, Software as a Service (SaaS), can resolve these challenges because it is an advent that promises potential benefits such as improving the efficiency and effectiveness of IT service and better service delivery to citizens. It is against this background that this paper explores South Africa to harness SaaS for e-Government implementation. To achieve this, the paper employs a Systematic Literature Review. This study surveyed SaaS benefits to E-Government in developing counties by selecting South Africa as a case study. Key findings of this study reveal that more government departments around the globe are migrating to SaaS to advance e-Government implementation. The finding further revealed that legislation compliance is also vital in the South African context. SaaS solutions promise to advance e-Government implementation and improve efficiency and effective government services in South Africa.