SCRAN Within this classification of city websites those with in North Sea all fall into the `steady achiever' category with modest online presence either at the informational, interactive, or transactional level of provision. THE STANDARDISATION OF E-GOVERNMENT SERVICES Using this index, it is evident those cities classed "innovative" are such because they have overcome many of the technical challenges online service provision raises for the back-office and managed to get more than 50% of them to the front-line. These technical challenges are those Lee et al (2006) draw particular attention to and go under the broad category of customisation. That category which includes: customer-related management (CRM), value-chain management, interoperabil- ity, enterprise architecture and business models. Figure 4. Stages of eGov online service developments They are, of course, those challenges thrown up by the shift from level 1 and 2 service develop- ments and up to the online transactions of stage 3. What Torres et al (2006) and Paskaleva (2008a, 2008b) are also keen to draw attention to is some- thing perhaps even more obvious, but all too easy to overlook about the aforesaid. That is what they also indicate about the next stage of development. For as their reviews go on to emphasise, what is perhaps most noticeable about these benchmarks is the absence of any notable stage 4 online service developments and implications this has for the democratisation of provision. Reviewing the trends and surveying the attitudes of cities towards the possibilities of e-democracy, Torres et.al (2005: 11-12) finds little commitment towards the development of electronic consultations and deliberation services as forms of direct participation. For as they state: 231