IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Cisco advises public sector on how to improve performance | Socitm launches Web site assessment service | UK uses technology to protect children | Accenture wins Australia Tax Office contract | US on-line tax filers approach 50 million | Burma launches e-procurement service Cisco advises public sector on how to improve performance: The European public sector can improve its operating performance by up to seven times with the right combination of technology, people and processes, according to a new study. The survey, titled 'Net Impact 2004: From Connectivity to Productivity,' was commissioned by Cisco Systems and carried out by Momentum Research, which questioned 1,400 IT and business decision makers involved in e-government or e-health deployment in eight countries. The study's main conclusion was that organisations that deploy Internet business applications, use sophisticated network and technology infrastructures, and align business processes with their technological capabilities can achieve between three and seven times better performance than organisations that do not use such a combination. The survey also found that the biggest hurdles to improving productivity through networking, processes and applications are organisational obstacles, such as internal resistance to change, lack of worker training and lack of support from leadership. Interestingly, the main factor driving attempts to improve productivity was not cost cutting but the will to accelerate the speed of operations and increase citizen satisfaction.

Socitm launches Web site assessment service: A new service to help UK local authorities evaluate the usefulness of their Web sites has been launched by the Society of IT Management (Socitm), an organisation of local government IT managers. The 'Website Take-Up Service' is being offered in association with Web analytics firm RedSheriff and promises to help councils discover who is visiting their Web site and why. Council managers can also use the service to assess the impact of service delivery via new channels, compare their Web site's performance against national targets and other councils, and find out the most popular transactions among users. Subscribers to the service will also be provided with a short exit survey to add to their site, which will help measure user satisfaction and provide insight into why users visit the site. A one-year subscription to the service costs STG950 for existing Socitm subscribers or STG1,950 for other local authorities.

UK uses technology to protect children: The UK's Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has announced the successful completion of the pilot phase of a scheme that uses technology to reduce crime and protect children. Reducing Youth Offending Generic Solution (RYOGENS) is a Web-based system that helps various government agencies such as the police, health, social services and education to record and share concerns about children at risk of becoming involved in crime, with the aim of intervening to try and prevent such a situation. Following the success of the pilot phase of the project, the technology is now available to any local authority that wishes to use it, the ODPM said in a statement. "The work that RYOGENS does pulls together work that is already carried out at local level, but is more effective, with less chance of vulnerable children falling through the net," said Local e-Government Minister Phil Hope. The project is one of 23 National Projects that are being funded by the ODPM as part of the Local e-Government programme to e-enable all local authority services by 2005.

Accenture wins Australia Tax Office contract: The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has awarded a multi-million dollar software contract to global technology consultancy Accenture. The deal is part of the second phase of the ATO's so-called IT Change Program, a major plan to replace all of its core software over the next few years. The deal is expected to bring in AUD200 million for Accenture over three years, according to a report by the Australian IT Web site. Under the contract, Accenture will install its Tax Administration System (TAS) for the ATO and assist it with customisation. The ATO also said that Phase Three of the IT Change Program would likely see Accenture awarded work worth as much as AUD100 million over three years. Under a separate part of the program, the ATO recently awarded Siebel Systems an AUD8.4 million contract to supply it with customer relationship management (CRM) software.

US on-line tax filers approach 50 million: The number of US taxpayers who are filing their returns electronically in advance of the 15 April deadline is approaching 50 million. As of 2 April, 60 percent (48.5 million) of all tax returns were e-filed, according to a report by Government Computer News. That figure is a 12 percent improvement on the number of returns e-filed last year. The number of people filing their returns from a home PC topped 11 million, a 21.3 percent increase over last year. Tax professionals have filed over 34.2 million returns electronically, a 13.7 percent rise. The Free File program, a service introduced last year whereby certain tax software companies offer free e-filing services to eligible taxpayers, was responsible for more than 2.7 million returns, up 23 percent on last year. Earlier this year, the Internal Revenue Service announced plans to spend less time on manual data entry and more on tax enforcement, thanks to the increasing popularity of e-filing.

Burma launches e-procurement service: The government of Burma (also known as Myanmar) is launching an electronic procurement service, according to on-line news service Chinaview.cn. The system will handle the tender process and the procurement of goods and services for more than 40 government departments and agencies in the Asian state. The new e-procurement project is the latest e-government service to be deployed by the Burmese government by its e-National Task Force, which was set up to support IT development in the country. Other initiatives rolled out by the e-National Task Force include e-passports, e-visas and citizen smart cards. The authorities are being aided in the e-government rollout by funding from e-ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations).

Quelle: Electric News Net, 14.04.2004