US spending on IT set to recover: report: Market analyst firm Input is predicting a recovery in IT spending at state and local government level in the US. According to the company's annual "State & Local IT Market Forecast," spending will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent, from USD46 billion in fiscal year 2004 to more than USD64 billion in fiscal year 2009. "Sustained economic growth, forced changes in state and local tax structures and an aging government workforce will help push the recovery of the state and local information technology market," said James Krouse, Input's manager of State & Local IT Market Analysis. He went on to predict that market recovery would begin slowly in fiscal 2004 and 2005 and then accelerate "as governments replenish rainy day funds and expand the utilisation of alternate funding methodologies for technology initiatives." The report also forecasts that professional services outsourcing, software, and communications and networks will be the sectors that experience the highest growth rates in spending, while traditional areas such as hardware and maintenance of legacy systems will remain relatively flat or decrease over the next five years.
Biometrics industry set to flourish: The global biometrics industry will see significant growth through 2008, according to the International Biometric Group (IBG), a consulting and technology services firm that specialises in biometrics. The company's soon-to-be-published "Biometric Market Report 2003-2008" claims that the biometrics industry will grow to USD1.2 billion this year. Of that sum, USD350 million in revenues will come from fingerprinting, currently the most popular biometric tool, says IBG. By 2008, facial recognition technology will bring in USD800 million, iris scanning will account for more than USD350 million, while voice recognition technologies will pull in over USD200 million. In a recent conference call, IBG director of special projects Michael Thieme outlined the challenges facing the biometrics industry. These include the lack of standards in the industry to ensure interoperability, concerns over integration with current systems, and privacy and security implications.
Bill Gates launches Egyptian e-government portal: Microsoft chairman Bill Gates helped launched Egypt's new e-government portal during a recent visit to the Middle East. Gates was in Cairo to deliver a keynote address at the Government Leadership Forum, an annual e-government event organised by Microsoft. Gates used his speech to reiterate that e-government is a "huge focus" for the software giant, and to allay fears that the rollout of e-government would inevitably lead to job cuts. "It [e-government] will simply allow government to provide better service," he said. The Microsoft chairman also noted that no country had fully exploited the potential of e-government, saying that even the US government lags behind smaller countries such as Singapore and Ireland when it comes to public e-services. Gates also said that Microsoft was engaged in a number of ventures in Egypt, including the provision of low-cost PCs and "working together on e-government that creates more openness [and] creates more efficiency."
Europe gives interoperability guidance: The European Commission has published guidelines on how to make government IT systems interact with each other across Europe. The European Interoperability Framework (EIF) outlines a set of recommendations for e-government services in order for governments, businesses and citizens to be able to interact across borders in a pan-European context. The Commission is advising EU member states to use the EIF guidance to supplement their own national e-government interoperability frameworks. "There is a growing awareness that interoperability of national public ICT infrastructures is a precondition for a more service oriented and competitive public sector," said an EC spokesperson.
UAE makes e-government progress: The United Arab Emirates is in the process of drawing up a federal budget for its wide-ranging e-government project. A government Steering Committee has identified five projects as high-priority initiatives. The committee submitted the e-government transition plan for approval in December, and some projects could start to go ahead within six months. Management of human resources is one of the main priorities, as is the creation of "change management" teams, paving the way for the formulation of IT policies and organisational decisions. IBM is acting as a consultant for the overall project. "The committee has pursued priority projects...in order to achieve the key objectives of cost reduction and service enhancement by adopting numerous e-systems, including the e-government procurement system, e-human resources management system, e-student system, and e-business system," said Minister of State for Finance and Industry, Dr Mohamed Khalfan bin Kharbash.
Quelle: Electric News, 28.01.2004
