The Strategic Planning of Electronic Urban- Services in Yazd

Nowadays Cities, as the manifestation of a new form of life in the age of communication and the fourth wave and also the center of maximum concentration of social and economic services, require the highest level of service methods and technologies. On the other hand, congestion and population density, urban transport problems associated with environmental pollution and waste of time are origin of finding ways to alleviate the pain of living in cities. The dimensions of urban services have changed regarding to the increasing information and communications technology and its impact on different aspects of life; as a necessary tool to live in modern cities. Municipality as the beating heart of the city has to enter to the world of electronics and develop electronic commerce organization that utilizes ICT services in the field of municipal functions with fast, available and secure features. In order to achieve this goal using a long-term strategic planning can be effective. Strategic planning was born in the heart of the strategic management. The basic principle of strategic management is that organizations need to take advantage of external opportunities and avoid or reduce the effects of external threats, therefore they have to develop appropriate strategies to meet their needs. The other essential activities of strategic management are to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and its departments and units. The identification and evaluation of strategic internal and external factors help company to gain the success. Implementation and development of electronic public services will influence on economic, social, cultural, and political aspects of city as well as city administration and its citizens. Providing online services to citizens, wherever and whenever, will cause satisfaction among citizens, develop easy access to public and private sector, creation of online communities, online voting, and fair distribution of resources among citizens in urban management. Actualizing the desired image of city in international communications as an intelligence community will develop political image of city and citizens. This study is a descriptive research. By describing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, this survey will explain the matrix of coefficients and rate obtained external and internal factors. The population of this research is stakeholders and key informants in this field who operate as scientist and practitioner. The theoretical framework is based on the theoretical foundations of strategic planning and formulating strategies in standardized and validated models. For better utilization of information, the procedure is done in cooperation with experts at Yazd Information Technology. Yazd, in terms of economic and social indicators in various areas of development, has significant growth in recent years and it is located among the developed cities in the field of electronics such as Tehran, Isfahan and Tabriz. The strategic studies and recognition of grounds and challenges of Electronic urban-services in municipalities are essential affairs to develop urban management in innovation and growth of serving to citizens. For identification of environment in the set of strategies and their implementations and also opportunities and external threats of the organization, in the first phase, this study used the Pestel (Pest) analysis pattern. According to this model, the external environment of the organization is divided to six parts including: political, economical, socio-cultural, technological, environmental and legal. By making effective use of Pestel Analysis, the organization can be ensure that what it is doing is aligned positively with the forces of change that are affecting its world. By taking advantage of change, it is much more likely to be successful than if its activities oppose it. In order to assess the strategic factors, the effects and relative importance of the factors in the relevant areas, as well as a range of factors, have been measured through IFAS and EFAS. In the next stage, for Strategic Positioning of organization and suggesting strategies SWOT is used. A SWOT analysis (SWOT matrix) is a structured planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in a organization. Identification of SWOTs is important because they can inform later steps in planning to achieve the organization’s objective. This research has evaluated the most important opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses of Yazd municipality by using Pestel, EFAS, IFAS, IE matrix and TOWS model. Finally the strategies have been presented for developing services in Yazd. The results show that Yazd municipality in the field of e-services is located in the position of opportunities prevailing on the external threats and strengths on weakness that in this conditions, it is suggested to use change direction and preserve available strategy status.