Accenture (formerly known as Anderson Consulting) is a corporate entity frequently partnered with governments around the world to provide eGov solutions. They've recently issued their fourth annual eGovernment Leadership Report .

Their study identified five major trends in eGovernment:
** eGovernment matures through a series of plateaus.
No eGov iniative goes online fully formed. Even with a growing collection of case studies/best practices, eGov is an iterative process. As returns are reaped on simple initatives, more ambitious goals are set.
** Value drives eGovernment visions.
Compared to the early days of dot.com, "just because it'd be cool" isn't a good enough reason for a government agency to do something online. There must be a tangible ROI (saved money/time, increased customer satisfaction) to justify eGov inititatives.
** Customer Relationship Management (CRM) underpins eGovernment.
This should be a given in any industry. If the customer's needs are met, than an initiative is successful. A happy, engaged customer, remains a customer.
** Increasing take-up is a priority.
The more services you provide online, the more users you need using those services to make it worthwhile. The question is, how do you inform people about, and get them to use those services.
** New eGovernment targets are needed.
The study found that a lot of eGov iniatives were started to achieve a basic level of service as compared to other similar governments. This isn't neccessarily an effective way to do business. The question should alwasy be "how do I serve my customers," not "how does my competitor serve their customers."

The five plateaus mentioned above are: Online Presence, Basic Capability, Service Availability, Mature Delivery, and Service Transofrmation. The meaning of first four should be relatively clear, but the last might need a little explaining. The way I understand it, service transformation involves using eGov not merely as a way to duplicate services provided offline as well, but as a way for effecting change throughout all levels of the government and serving the needs of users in ways that aren't served otherwise.