Citizen Service Platform – How local authorities worldwide are improving citizen services
The UK alone has 450+ local authorities serving the public service needs of citizens in their communities. When you scale local government on a worldwide basis there must be tens of thousands of local authorities with common challenges and ICT needs. One of the benefits that Microsoft can bring to understanding the role that technology can play in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of delivering public services locally is our global view and experience.
From the City of Bergen in Norway where City Commissioners use technology to attend paperless meetings (saving 3 million sheets of paper, eliminating 43 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, and saving NOK 2,400,000 (U.S.$366,233) per year) to the City of Pattaya in Thailand that has implemented a one stop information centre for local residents and tourists (reducing caller waiting time by up to 98 percent), Microsoft and our partners know the business challenges that local governments need to address.
Closer to home, you can examine further practical examples of how Microsoft and our business partners are helping local authorities to improve the delivery and lower the cost of public services using ICT more effectively at Edinburgh, Harrow, Jersey, Leeds, Newham, Northampton and many more examples from the UK and further afield.
What lies behind this plethora of examples of where Microsoft and our business partners are making a difference and helping local governments worldwide to innovate in their use of ICT to deliver public services smarter is the Microsoft Citizen Service Platform (CSP) for local government:
I do encourage you to visit the CSP website as I cannot do the CSP concept justice in a short blog post. Local government is a worldwide challenge and I am sure simply scanning the numerous customer projects we have profiled at our CSP website will give you ideas of how you can capitalise on innovative ICT solutions elsewhere in the global ‘local government’ community to consider implementing locally.
CSP give you the opportunity to be ‘glocal’ – think globally and act locally – in considering how best to apply ICT more effectively to the delivery of public services.
Posted by Ian