London Connects works with councils, health authorities, emergency services and education bodies to develop egovernment services, and has now selected a card supplier for its plan.
The smartcards could also be used to deliver services for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
But IT managers at some London councils are sceptical about the smartcard’s value and say implementing it fully will mean expensive data cleansing and database standardisation exercises.
Westminster City Council’s head of IT, Simon Norbury says that if councils really want to benefit from the cards, they need a single database where all information about a citizen is held.
‘A person in London will have separate accounts with their council for electoral registration, for tax and benefits, and for everything else where they deal with their local authority, but there is nowhere that information is pulled together,’ he said.
‘We would need to take that personal information, pool it, cleanse it and organise the management of it to keep it clean. We just have not done that in local government yet and we are a long way from doing it.’
A single sign-on password system could be just as efficient as a smartcard for accessing council services, says Norbury. ‘There is a big debate as to whether the cards are even needed,’ he said.
‘It comes back to the basic principles of authentication, where every resident just has a basic single identifier. The form it takes is what is up for debate.’
The first trials of the pan-London smartcard are due to begin in Kingston in early 2007, using a version of the Transport for London Oyster card. The system will then be developed over the next three to six years.
The requirements for creating a converged IT infrastructure able to handle the smartcards is a big challenge, says Newham head of IT Richard Steel.
‘The difficulties come from the differing systems,’ he said. ‘They will be especially reluctant if using the pan-London smartcards means buying new equipment and undermines investments they have already made.’
Integration will be a big problem, says Mike Davies, a smartcard expert at local authority group Socitm Consulting.
‘It is likely neighbouring councils will work together on this, as they do on many things, and find a solution that will work across their sub-region,’ he said.
‘However, even then they are all starting from different technology bases, so integration even in small areas will be a problem.’
Autor(en)/Author(s): James Brown
Quelle/Source: Computing, 16.11.2006
