The government must go slowly with any entitlement card project and avoid a "big bang" approach, IT suppliers have warned. A government consultation on the proposed cards ended last week, and civil servants will now examine the submissions from interested groups.
A report will then go to ministers, who will decide whether an entitlement card scheme is practicable. The Home Office would not give a time scale for this process.
But Nick Kalisperas, e-government programme manager at IT supplier body Intellect, insisted that his company's submission would focus on how the government can get the project right, rather than on particular technologies.
"We would like to see the card evolving rather than a big bang approach," he said. "The government must make sure its specifications are spot on before it moves onto procurement.
"What we are saying is that this could be a massive procurement, one of the largest and most high profile projects around.
"If it is not done properly it could damage the image of the industry and hurt public confidence in an extremely significant project."
Geoff Llewellyn, strategy and government relations director at SchlumbergerSema, said that any project should start with local systems which address specific needs, built on technology that could be upgraded into a national system.
"That way we would be developing solutions that could be amalgamated into a big scheme without the risks of a big bang system," he explained.
SchlumbergerSema has worked for the UK Passport Service on a trial of iris recognition security which could form part of the entitlement card.
A survey sponsored by the company found that nearly 80 per cent of respondents were in favour of an entitlement card.
Two thirds indicated that they were happy for driving licence number, passport number, National Insurance number, NHS number and emergency medical information, such as blood type or allergies, to be included on the card.
Half of those surveyed said that they would prefer authentication using iris scanning, with only 30 per cent preferring fingerprints.
Quelle: vnunet
