Oxfordshire County Council is launching a broadband portal for the area's 315 schools and libraries as part of plans to meet the government's target for putting services online by 2005 but says it doesn't care if it fails to meet the deadline. The council says that instead, local authorities should stop moaning about a lack of money and focus on taking small steps that will deliver quality services people will actually be able to use.
Stephan Conaway, head of ITC strategy at Oxfordshire County Council, said: "We're not fussed whether by 2005 we have all the boxes ticked. We are confident we will meet the target but if there is a trade-off between quality and the date, we'll go for quality."
He admitted that lack of funds is a problem but said many councils are focusing too much on just putting services online.
"A group of councils have taken a longer term view of e-government and are building a platform. Others rushed to get a lot of things on the web. There isn't enough money but the more efficient we become in deployment the more effective we can be."
Oxfordshire has so far identified 200 existing processes that it plans to put online, with many of these due to go live before the end of the year. One new service that is a complete re-engineering of existing methods is the Oxford Community Network, which will be launched in September.
Based on IBM's WebSphere technology, it is a portal that will allow 95,000 people in the county's schools and libraries to access email, information content, the internet and shared storage space.
Jeremy Wray, public sector business development executive at IBM, said local authorities need to demonstrate success in one area that can be built on in other parts of the business.
"It is not one size fits all but personalised to different communities. You have to be able to demonstrate there are benefits. The smart guys are focusing on one area and looking for replicability," he said.
Autor: Andy McCue
Quelle: silicon.com, 13.08.2003
