2005: do you have what it takes?

The e-gov@local consultation paper on the proposed national strategy for local e-government will keep those involved in public sector IT departments busy in the run up to 2005 - the deadline for making all services electronically available to the public.

Movement towards the 2005 deadline is already underway. In July 2000, local authorities submitted their Implementing Electronic Government (IEG) statements, which are used to allocate central government funding.

And 29 per cent of local authorities had services online by the end of 2001, ahead of the interim target of 25 per cent by the end of 2002.

Many local authorities are already working towards developing a national framework of technical policies and standards. XML and eGif, the e-government interoperability framework of systems across networks, have been adopted as the core standards for integration.

All councils are now expected to submit an IEG 2, to demonstrate progress since the original IEG.

IT is just the facilitator for successful e-government. The key is to put customers at the heart of everything the government does.

The Government is also building service access, delivery and democratic accountability around the public. For this to happen, it must look at joining up national and local services at a local level.

It must also develop a framework of policy standards, partnership arrangements and support structures to guide local authorities and their partners.

An 'e-organisation' is at the heart of e-government and the blocks of this virtual town hall are grouped into five themes: transactions, access channels, enablers, ebusiness and organisational development.

IT departments will play an important role by delivering systems, processes and applications. Transactions to be delivered include revenue collection, benefits, grants provision and access to community and business networks.

These will need to be delivered through a range of access channels. Devices will include local service websites, digital TV, smartcards and one-stop shops.

Digital image processing, customer relationship management and geographical information systems need to be in place to allow e-enabled transactions. The delivery of these services will require supporting back-office technology, such as intranets, extranets and teleworking.

Key factors

Successful delivery of the e-government strategy depends on organisational leadership, the capacity to manage change and the ability to re-engineer major processes. Organisational leaders will also require well-developed project and change management skills.

If all goes to plan, future local public services will look very different. Services will be joined up in ways that make sense to the customer.

Where appropriate, they will be delivered jointly by local and regional partnerships, and will be connected to a national infrastructure making services accessible at times and places most convenient to the customer.

As the 2005 deadline approaches, central government is investing £350m, of which £160m will be dedicated to supporting local authorities to deliver IEG plans.

The Government released £25m for Pathfinder projects in 2001/2002 and has planned to free-up an additional £135m in 2002/2003.

This increase in funding will mean more emphasis being placed on local government IT. Smarter use of technology, improved back-end integration and business processes can lead to efficiency. And some IT departments will be looking to gain economies of scale through consolidation and partnership delivery options.

So whatever your level, there is a challenge in the public sector over the next two and a half years, but do you have what it takes?