Confusion over Irish e-tenders site: Confusion is mounting over an Irish government procurement website and a privately registered site with a similar name. Users of the government's e-tenders website have been confused by an almost identically named site operated by a Limerick-based company. ENN has spoken with a user of the government's site, www.etenders.gov.ie, who mistakenly navigated to www.etenders.ie on 31 January. Etenders.gov.ie was developed by the Department of Finance to help public bodies and private suppliers find and publish tender notices on government and public sector procurement projects. The user said he entered his login and password for the Department of Finance-run site on etenders.ie but nothing happened when he did. Etenders.ie's registered administrator, Des Crosbie, said he was bemused by the confusion and declined to state the purpose of the site. The Department of Finance told ENN it would be in contact with Crosbie. Read more on this story on ENN.
London cracks down on rogue motorists: The London borough of Wandsworth is using technology to crack down on drivers who refuse to pay fines or fail to turn up in court to answer summonses. The council is employing a state-of-the-art automatic number plate recognition system as part of the effort. The system uses cameras to scan vehicle number plates; the information is then relayed to a computer that's linked to a database containing details of unpaid county court and magistrate court fines and outstanding warrants and summonses. Within seconds, the police are able to identify cars whose owners they wish to question. Motorists caught in the crackdown face having their vehicles impounded until they pay what they owe. As well as recovering money owing to the council, the initiative is helping the police to catch people who have committed other offences -- such as driving while disqualified or without insurance -- or who are driving unroadworthy vehicles.
Romania expands its information society: Romania is extending its "knowledge-based economy" project to 251 rural communities and towns throughout the country. A pilot phase of the project has already been successfully rolled out to nine rural areas. The new initiative, scheduled to run from 2007 to 2010, aims to "contribute to increasing competitiveness in the single European market by creating an information-based society, fostering the efficiency of electronic information in education, and facilitating the interaction between citizens and administration," according to Romania's minister for communications and information technology, Zsolt Nagy. The project's objective is to roll out a Local Community Electronic Network that will connect 472 public schools, 260 local administration offices and 260 local libraries to the internet. In addition, 260 Public Access Points will be established. Around 8 percent of the population, or 1.7 million people, are expected to be impacted by the project.
SOA gains public sector popularity: The demand for service oriented architecture (SOA) is increasing among public sector organisations, according to a global study by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of SOA provider BEA Systems. SOA may be defined in simple terms as a collection of IT services or applications that can communicate and interact with each other, and it is seen as one approach to implementing a shared services model, whereby services can be shared by different units within an organisation. The report found that 54 percent of the 127 public sector executives surveyed are using a shared services model, and another 16 percent said they expect to introduce shared services within the next three years. The study suggests that instead of getting rid of existing IT architecture or adopting a "rip and replace" strategy, public sector entities are taking advantage of SOA and shared services. "Public sector customers increasingly appreciate that SOA offers the infrastructure flexibility needed to build on legacy environments and adapt swiftly to change," said Kelly Collins, general manager and vice president, public sector, BEA Systems.
Outsourcing on the rise for US gov: The outsourcing market for state and local government in the US is set to grow from almost USD12 billion in 2006 to around USD20 billion in 2011, according to a new report by INPUT. The government market analyst firm says the sector is poised for dramatic growth following a period of political turbulence caused by a backlash against offshoring and a number of high-profile welfare outsourcing controversies. The study predicts that this year will see steady growth in the outsourcing market, with a significant upturn from 2008 on. INPUT forecasts that the growth will be fuelled by increased demand in the areas of data centre management, application management, desktop services and hosting. Business process outsourcing (BPO) will not play as large a role as previously projected in this market, according to the firm.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Sylvia Leatham
Quelle/Source: ElectricNews, 31.01.2007
