Jersey takes the ebusiness plunge

Channel Island Jersey is challenging its reputation associated with cows, potatoes and tax exiles with the roll-out of a cutting-edge egovernment initiative.

The island's government, the States of Jersey, has embarked on a five-year project with management consultancy Partners for Change to link up its various departments, improve efficiency and deliver services electronically to all of Jersey's 90,000 citizens.

The island is a dependency of the Crown but its government is independent from that of the UK, with the exception of foreign policy and defence.

'While we don't have to follow UK egovernment targets, we're very aware of them and want to be comparable if not better,' said James Le Feuvre, the States of Jersey's change team director.

'We're aiming to improve services and provide best value to the public. They'll have ready access to services through contact centres, the telephone and particularly the web. They'll be able to obtain information and make payments online as and when they need to. The traditional image of the nine-to-five office, closed for lunch, will be totally transformed,' he said.

Traditionally, Jersey's 10 main public service departments have taken individual decisions about IT infrastructure and applications, as well as storing and managing their own data. Now the island is looking to use IT to rationalise and centralise services.

Jim Campbell, management consultant at Partners for Change, said: 'We're working on such aspects as content management systems, a single website and leveraging our ERP investment, as well as focusing on middleware and other enabling technologies.'

Campbell added Jersey will be working with local suppliers, such as managed services provider ITEX, where possible.

'Because we're a small island there are very attractive benefits to having a local supplier, although we are also looking to partner with global players like IBM, Computer Associates and CSC where they can add value,' he said.

As well as IT, ensuring buy-in for change will be crucial to the project's success. To this end, the States of Jersey has created a network of change leaders across the organisation to explain and promote the initiative to managers and staff.