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Belfast-based Consilium Technologies has announced an agreement to provide e-government software and services to a district council in the north of England.
Under the STG1.5 million (EUR2.4 million) agreement, Consilium will provide Northumberland-based Alnwick District Council with a combination of financial, housing, and revenues and benefits software packages, using the application service provision (ASP) model.
Alnwick's computing services will be hosted and supported off-site, in a specialist data centre. Consilium is also deploying Alnwick onTAP, a Web-based portal providing council staff with secure access to software and other productivity tools. The portal will also allow customers and suppliers access to relevant parts of the system.
Colin Reid, Consilium's chief executive, believes that the contract validates Consilium's decision to focus specifically on serving the IT needs of the district council market. He says the ASP model is especially attractive for councils.
"ASP appeals to district councils, who tend to have limited IT resources, by making software as simple to use and manage as any other utility like water or electricity," said Reid in a statement. "The pay-as-you go nature of our ASP approach provides the council with top-notch systems, without a big upfront investment."
Under UK government policy, local authorities will be required to deliver all of their services electronically by 2005. Some STG350 million has been set aside to assist councils with e-government initiatives, as detailed in the Implementing e-Government statement, which every council submitted to central government in 2001.
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