Government organizations around the world are at present state in maximizing the usage of information and communication technology (ICT) essentially to foster the enrichment of the transmission and spreading of information to the community in general (Che, Azmi & Kamarulzaman, 2011). The occurrence of information and communication technology (ICT) has brought an enormous innovation to the way things happen in the world (Bwalya, 2009). It has enabled to enhance the sheerness in terms of governing process; reducing the time allotted to the services, revamping the procedures into a simpler way, sound office management and record keeping, reducing the possibility in corruption, and enhancing the attitude and job handling of employees in dealing with the customers (Monga, 2008).
With the ever-inflating ultimatums of society, government agencies are in a state of anxiety at the right time and quality. The latter are trying to embark on the demands of the former by re-engineering their means of providing their service and ultimately ICT takes their role in the purported resolution (Nkwe, 2012). ICT has the capacity to encourage people to surmount the difficulties, reinforcing autonomous organizations and addressing the obstructions in the society. Nevertheless, for a country to reap from the benefits of ICT, it is necessary that technology be implemented and effectively used (Bwalya, 2009). The success of implementing e-services will be a paramount matter for the coming decade. To reduce the costs, upgrade services, and be more responsive and active to its citizen, it is a must that they inaugurate trust in the online service (Warkentin, Gefen, Pavlou & Rose, 2002).
However, the successful implementation in e-services is contingent upon the strategic exercise of ICT in correlation with the capacity to re-organize the processes excellently (Ancarani, 2005). Kumar, Mukerji, Irfan, and Ajax (2007) believed that providing the means of e-services can boost the confidence of the public to keep in touch with the government vis-à-vis their transactions online. Such as, settling their taxes, renewing the licenses of their businesses, or applying for a specific transaction excluding those matters mentioned above that can be of great benefit in a more fascinating way (Nkwe,2012).
Reducing the costs and effective gains, high quality of service provided to customers, intensifying the capability of government, and enriching the quality of making decisions are the main benefits of e-services (Ndou, 2014). Regardless of the way that e-services have numerous benefits, there are more crucial intricacy in executing the same (Titah & Barki, 2006). One of these is the discernment of the public towards e-services, given the situation that they do not have such willpowers to forthrightly address to the agency personnel the matters they want to report.
Another difficulty faced is the assurance that the system will process undeviatingly and conveniently throughout using the system (Che, Azmi & Kamarulzaman, 2011). In addition, the sluggish connection of internet is also considered which arrived at the midpoint speed of only 3.64 megabits for every second (Mbps) and assessed web infiltration of 43.5 percent (United Nations Development Programme UNDP, 2006). Moreover, the public conceivably will have the nuisance by the time and effort expended in learning the said system. Considering the fact that time and effort are non-monetary value, researchers have renowned that time is a price an individual must pay for utilizing the services (Sweeney et.
al., 1999).In the Philippines, the significance of ICT in government in corroborating with the IT plans originated by the National Information Technology Plan (NITP) earlier in the year 1997 and successively the Government Information System Plan (GISP) in the year 2000 have identified (National Computer Center NCC & National IT Industry Promotion Agency NIPA, 2012). In 2011, the Philippine Digital Strategy has become known and has illustrated four detailed constrain, this consist one of the pillar on e-government, with the goal of making government more accessible, transparent, and well-ordered (Alampay, 2013). Tax administration association are incentivized in cognation to the overview of ICT for a better and efficacious tax administration, as ICT avails to ameliorate every phase of tax administration (Nograsek & Vintar, 2015). As Bureau of Internal Revenue is peregrinating towards the presentation of ICT for a more efficacious duly organization, it enhances every aspect of tax administration such as taxpayer compliance, taxpayer service and tax amassment (Araki, 2013). Likewise, Department of Trade and Industry are utilizing the efficacy of the e-service like applying and or registering a business name, client payments and business compliance which increases their assistance to the public (Rappler, 2014).
Moreover, Securities and Exchange Commission has innovated in their public accommodation through e-services which gives an expediency to the clients in complying reports needed by the SEC in a lesser amount of document papers (Security and Exchange Commission SEC, 2017). There are some studies conducted that associates to awareness and satisfaction of e-services. To mention a few, Yadav (2017) studied how awareness affects the implementation of e-service in Haryana; Malik, Shuqin, Mastoi, Gul and Gul (2016) evaluated citizen’s satisfaction towards e-services in Pakistan; and Al-Busaidi, Al-Aufi and Al-Balushi (2016) examined citizen’s satisfaction to further enhance the e-services in Oman.
Consequently, this study aspires to impart new knowledge about the importance of knowing the awareness and satisfaction of SMEs on the e-services provided by government agencies. A study conducted by Allahawiah (2013) came up with the indicators of user’s satisfaction using e-service. These are the reliability, security, responsiveness, usability, and information quality. The researchers adapted some of its indicators for measuring the level of satisfaction of SMEs.
