So what is the Citizen Service Platform?

In my role at Microsoft, CSP (Citizen Service Platform) is taking up most of my time.  So what is it?  Before we start, lets get one thing straight - it is not a product…

So CSP is how Microsoft is engaging with Local and Regional Government.  As an industry I think it has suffered more than most with applications delivering point solutions.  To find the next level of efficiency and customer service we have to start looking at how we can provide a common IT platform to provide joined up solutions to our customers.  CSP is how we are positioning our platforms – SharePoint, Dynamics CRM, Windows Live, Office Live and so forth as platforms that Microsoft and its many partners can build upon.

We are approaching the problem by looking at the needs and requirements across four separate layers as seen in this diagram (click to enlarge):

Starting at the top we have Business Challenges.  This is all about trying to work with local and regional governments to understand the issues that they face on a daily basis.  By better understanding their particular issues we can start to understand how to help them

Next down we have People and Processes.  For a local government to do anything, it has to have people and processes to follow.  In many cases we see that old, originally paper based processes are still being used.  We see far greater efficiency gains when we bring together technical and process re-engineering.

After that we come onto Applications.  This is where we and our partners can really enable government employees to deliver better and more efficient services to citizens.  We want to deliver platforms and capabilities to customers that can be re-used across multiple applications.  We have seen fantastic and innovative solutions from round the world, and want to try and help replicate these successes.

Finally at the base is Technology.  Without a solid foundation, anything we build has the risk of being fragile and insecure.  Again, this is where we and our partners can deliver a secure and enterprise ready foundation across client PC’s, laptops, servers and mobile devices.

In each of these layers we are bringing together partners, customers and technology to deliver solutions that can really make a difference.  In addition we and some of our partners are also providing some templates on CodePlex to help deliver and demonstrate how technology can help.  For the more technical of you please feel free to download and get involved.  To get you hands on an online demo we have all of them hosted at www.microsoftpsdemos.com where you can get access to a hosted Virtual Server and go through the demo script.

For more information on CSP you should take a look at www.citizenserviceplatform.com (which is built on Office Live by the way…).

Thanks, James

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