E-government on Britain’s agenda too

British Prime Minister Tony Blair last week announced bold plans aimed at eliminating government inefficiencies by bringing services into the digital age.

"The future of public services has to use technology to give citizens choice, with personalized services designed around their needs -- not the needs of the provider," he said in a webcast promoting the United Kingdom's information technology strategy.

Blair directed the Chief Information Officers' Council and the Service Transformation Board to devise the strategy, which aims to transform the business of government. In order to ensure effectiveness, the government will engage citizens, businesses and public servants, and draw upon what they want and need, the strategy said.

Its key principles include fostering e-government, and the plan calls for national standards, decentralization of delivery, flexibility and greater customer choice for public services.

The government said it will drive the adoption of modern channels to disseminate information to its customers. By the end of 2005, more than 96 percent of government services will be "e-enabled," according to the plan.

Soon, citizens will be able to access government services via mobile devices and interactive digital television, Cabinet Office Minister John Hutton said in a statement.

"Private companies have been swift to shape their services around people's needs and lifestyles," Hutton said. "Now public services need to raise their game and offer people the levels of convenience, choice and efficiency they rightly demand."

In order to leverage technology across departmental boundaries, Britain's treasury plans to release 10 percent of its annual spending on technology, or $2.4 billion, to update traditional systems.

Furthermore, the government will consolidate its call centers and Web sites. There are currently more than 2,500 government sites and 130 centers in Britain's central government alone.

"For each government organization, the number of different Web sites it uses will be reduced and consistently introduced in line with its overall communications strategy," according to the report. The government also is considering a single non-emergency public service number, similar to 311 in New York.

To further reduce government waste, the strategy calls for a "shared services" approach, which means public organizations would need a common infrastructure to efficiently leverage services. The strategy specified the use of commercial technology to facilitate human resources, finance or other corporate services.

The plan notes that data sharing among organizations is "integral" to transforming government but also calls balancing that need with maintaining privacy. Other components to the strategy include security and identity management.

To ensure that public servants can use the latest technologies, an IT-based career development program for government workers will be launched. "I want to ensure every IT professional in government has the right skills and support to make this happen," Ian Watmore, the head of the e-government unit and the government's chief information officer, said in a statement.

Full implementation of the plan is set for 2011.