Shared services for supporting online public service delivery in rural areas

Online public services provide small and medium-sized enterprises with new opportunities for adding value to their business activities. Owing to limited resources, authorities in rural areas have serious obstacles to provide suitable online services. This paper proposes a shared services environment to support rural authorities to deliver digital public services. The proposed environment involves suitable Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities and expertises and a collaborative architecture for supporting the rural community needs. This results in the needed critical mass to avoid the exclusion of rural authorities from innovation processes because of their difficulties to get proper funds and suitable skills.