Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council is planning to use its CRM system to glue together all its online services as it strives to complete the government's online services target a year before the 2005 deadline. The council wants to connect its e-government systems to other government agencies and will use E-Shop, its new CRM system, as the catalyst for its plans.
Onyx Software and Deloitte & Touche will jointly develop the system, in a three-year, £3m deal.
"The system will glue all services together with a citizen focus," said Rod Matthews, head of information society technology at Knowsley Council.
The council is also looking at linking its housing benefits system to the Benefits Agency portal, because of the close relation between "housing benefit and services such as income support", Matthews explained.
He pointed to an example of the advantages to be gained from this type of development. "In the past, citizens needed to tell 19 different people about a bereavement," he said.
"But now, through systems such as CRM, you tell one and they all get to know. All different departments in the council will be able to share the information, meaning citizens will find it easier to deal with them."
Knowsley Council, which serves about 157,000 people, accepted a Public Service Agreement to have all its services online by 2004 rather than 2005, in return for additional funding.
Matthews said the extra money added up to about £4m. He expressed confidence that the authority would meet its early target.
Knowsley used a CRM Pathfinder, led by Brent Council in London, to learn from when developing its own CRM implementation.
"Pathfinders have been successful because they put the experiences and knowledge of completed developments in the public domain," said Matthews.
John Levell, a consultant at Deloitte & Touche, said Pathfinder projects had also given private organisations the confidence to invest in developing technology specifically for the public sector.
"The government made it clear what it was planning to invest in and this acted as a carrot on a stick for technology companies," he added.
Despite low national figures for online service usage Knowsley is confident of achieving high levels of uptake amongst citizens after seven years of investment.
It has spent £30m since 1996 on a project to increase awareness to ensure citizens are ready and prepared to use e-government services.
The council also already provides free internet access seven days a week in its libraries.
Quelle: vnunet
