From e-voting in Switzerland to putting the Slovakian Treasury online: wiring Europe's notorious bureaucracy is set to be technology's new boom area and the big hitters are jostling for a slice. By 2010, the European Commission wants the 15-nation bloc to be the most efficient group in the world by virtue of putting its public services on line -- from driving licences to medical prescriptions to school curricula. And the pool of business will grow next year when the European Union swells to 25 members.
At the EU's 2003 e-government conference, which closed late on Tuesday, top executives from heavyweights HP, IBM, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, EDS and SAP turned out to woo droves of ministers.
With sales to saturated private clients slowing, selling to the public sector is set to be what one executive called "a breath of fresh air.'' Research firm IDC forecasts all public-sector spending in Western Europe will hit $53bn (£32.40bn) by 2005, much of it likely to be funnelled into IT.
"We see e-government as a very high development opportunity for us... we've got irons in the fire and I'm here to lend my support,'' said Michael Jordan, chief executive of leading US computer services provider Electronic Data Systems.
Hewlett Packard executive vice president Ann Livermore said HP last year turned $27bn worth of revenues in Europe, the Middle East and Africa with 10-20 percent of that coming from the burgeoning public sector.
In a sign of the fight brewing for business, Livermore told Reuters she expected HP to be Europe's number two in technology services -- overtaking EDS -- by year-end. EDS's Jordan quickly retorted: "I don't know what Europe they're talking about.''
Romania wins the day
Under the EU's 2000 e-government initiative, members must have a significant proportion of their services linked up to the Internet by 2005.
The two-day conference on a Northern Italian lakeside came up with no new deadlines but the ministerial declaration called for heavier emphasis on public-private partnerships and sharper clarity about what areas member states should invest in.
It is all good news for technology firms, which insist "Fortress Europe'' should open its wired borders to the World Wide Web.
Europeans' Web streak is far less developed than their US cousins, who are now used to buying even their muffins online.
But the tech bug is spreading, with Irish businesses putting their tax returns online, Sardinia launching e-education systems and Hungary creating hundreds of free Internet points with teachers in rural areas.
Several executives were looking beyond local projects to pan-European security systems such as border control, a hot topic since the 11 September attacks and the Iraq war.
"Issues of international security are an immediate motivator,'' Livermore said.
The other growing market, they said, was Eastern Europe, where many of the countries due to enter the EU next year are relatively lacking in technology and need to get wired fast.
Setting the pace for chief executives and ministers is Romania, where the government has made it a crime not to buy supplies for state services online -- from papers and pens to bricks and mortar.
"We saved enough in building 172 sports centres that we had money left to build 47 more,'' said Dan Nica, Romania's minister for communications and information technology.
Quelle: zdnet.co.uk
