Press Release

Microsoft and Radius announce major e-Government seminar programme to build on the success of their 2002 March e-Government roadshow

Feltham 26 March 2002

Radius and Microsoft today completed the seventh and final event in their highly popular 2002 e-Government roadshow. Following this success, Radius and Microsoft today announced a follow-up programme of e-Government seminars to be run across the UK during May (see below for further details).

The March roadshow presentations focussed on the practical electronic delivery of services through multiple channels, using the principles of interoperability, based on the adoption of the latest Microsoft technologies.

In the keynote presentation, Radius and Microsoft gave their vision of Local Authority service delivery using electronic means in 2005. Setting the scene, Phil Benton for Radius summarised the views of the majority of local authorities that the 2005 target for 100% enabling of electronic service delivery would not be achieved without significantly more funding that currently identified by Central Government. However, both Central and Local Government had now recognised the need to prioritise the rollout of electronic services to concentrate on those interactions that had real benefits for authorities.

Benton went on to recommend that authorities look to implement transactional e-Government applications which gave a real Return on Investment, quoting examples of early adopters of Radius e-Government systems that had over-achieved both on the level of take up by citizens, and the consequent reduction in both internal staff time, and external costs. Against the theme "Think Big, Start Small, Start Now", he demonstrated how early adopters had used Radius e-Government applications to get "quick wins" of a real ROI to demonstrate not only to citizens, but also Members and Officers, the real benefits of electronic service delivery.

However, he cautioned attendees to "Think Big" and set an overall model for interoperability within their own authorities, within which they would electronically enable existing systems and introduce new applications. In particular he gave the clear recommendation that it would not be sufficient to deliver services only over the Internet - it was essential to deliver across multiple channels varying from call/service centres and IVR-based interactions, through conventional Internet and Intranet access, and then via up-and-coming technologies such as kiosks, Digital TV and the new mobile phone standards of GPRS and 3G.

Mark Paine, for Microsoft, then outlined the developing technology known as XML-based Web Services, showing how electronic interactions across the Internet had moved from a connectivity phase, through the current presentation phase (e.g. with HTML-based web pages), and into an era of programmability based on the delivery of Web Services. Using an example of the American equivalent of UK Online he explained how the use of Web Services could provide personalised information from both central and local government to citizens and business.

Phil Benton then explained how the use of Web Services within local authorities would allow easier consolidation of electronic services, e.g. through county/regional and national portals, and incorporation of such services within offerings from commercial third parties such as banks and supermarkets. He used the example of "punch out" from e-Procurement systems like Radius' Orbit product, which would support suppliers with highly dynamic catalogues (such as computer suppliers). Such suppliers were at the early stages of providing their ordering service as a web service, allowing developers like Radius to incorporate it into their e-Procurement solutions to give seamless authorisation, ordering, invoice and payment processing.

Using Radius' new on-line Direct Debit systems as an example, Benton moved onto to explain authorities' moves to adopt cross-cutting applications that were implemented once, but using XML were being rolled out to multiple departments (giving the example of RadiusICON Direct Debits being implemented initially for a Council Tax application but, as a cross-cutting application, then able to be rolled out to other departments, e.g. for rents, leisure subscriptions, etc. ).

Finally, Benton outlined the way the adoption of interoperability had not only changed the way that Radius developed its new applications, but also enabled Radius to work more easily with its partners such as Microsoft, Bottomline and cScape to deliver complete, tightly integrated solutions to its customers.

Subsequent presentations focussed on the detail of Radius and its partners' developments, and experiences drawn from practical implementations of e-Government systems at their customer sites:

Following the success of the March roadshow, Radius and Microsoft today announced a follow-up programme of 14 e-Government seminars to be run across the UK during May. Each half-day seminar will pick on specific e-Government topics and go into greater detail than was possible at the March roadshow, including more detailed demonstrations of the appropriate Radius and Microsoft products/technology.