Ripe For The Picking? Technology Futures In Local Government

Foreword

'At a time when technology is fundamentally changing people's daily lives... I am keen that the excitement, motivation and momentum that the strategy generated are not lost as we work towards putting it into action.' (Ian Watmore Transformational Government, March 2006).

It is hard to disagree with the sentiments that technology has a major role to play in transforming local government. When combined with a transformation of people, process and data, it is clearly helping to provide better quality and more efficient services and fundamentally, services which are more focussed around the citizen.

It is also fair to say that considerable determination will be required by all parties involved to achieve these ambitious objectives. However, technology and its proponents has a bad track record in presenting itself as a quick-fix solution - and it is all too easy to choose a solution that is not yet 'ripe for the picking'. All that 'excitement, motivation and momentum' needs to be grounded in reality. So whilst there are various directives originating from central government which have a technology impact, we believe that a longer-term view of technology will help to inform the debate around how to realise the benefits that technology can bring to local government.

Overall ICT spending by Western European governments will exceed 25 billion by 2009 according to researcher IDC1. Just over a half of the expenditure is expected to come from local government - reaching 13 billion by 2009. It is largely left to local authorities to decide how they should deliver electronic services. Not surprisingly, local authorities face a barrage of technology hype from vendors describing how they can fulfil their obligations with a range of emerging technologies.

This report cuts through the hype and presents a clear analysis of the business relevance and timeliness of four main strands of technology which will enable local authorities to achieve effective connected government. This is not an exhaustive list - the technologies have been chosen because of their simultaneous ability to offer both significant benefits to local government services whilst at the same time presenting a number of risks that need to be clearly understood and managed. Security of access to services must be balanced by ease of use and concerns about civil liberties.

They must also take account of general advances in technologies such as broadband communications, mobile phones and wireless. New strategies for integrating services must be underpinned by robust infrastructural technologies and take account of advances in systems architecture.

Analysis of the current state of these key technologies is accompanied by practical examples of local and central government projects which illustrate the benefits to forward-looking authorities. We've also used the terminology 'flowering' to indicate where technologies should be approached with caution and 'ripe fruit' where they are mature enough to adopt.

Mark Lawrie

Partner

Summary

This report presents a clear analysis on the business relevance of four main strands of technology - Mobile and wireless, Security, Infrastructure and Architecture. We have used the terminology 'flowering' to indicate where technologies should be approached with caution and 'ripe fruit' where they are mature enough to adopt now. The table below summarises each of the technologies featured in the report.

Anytime, anywhere - Mobile and wireless

Technology

Verdict

Wireless

Flowering

Location aware

Ripe fruit

RFID

Ripe fruit

Knowing me, knowing you - Security

Technology

Verdict

Smartcards

Ripe fruit

Biometrics

Flowering

Sound foundations - Infrastructure

Technology

Verdict

Broadband

Ripe fruit

Opensource

Flowering

Joining IT all up - Architecture

Technology

Verdict

Service Oriented Architecture

Flowering

Middleware

Ripe fruit

Thin-clients and Data Centralisation

Ripe fruit

Anytime, anywhere - Mobile and wireless

Mobile and wireless technologies promise much in terms of efficiency and work flexibility. These will be increasingly hard for councils to ignore as they can widen user access to council services, transform the way property is used and improve business processes, particularly in areas where mobile working is required.

Surprisingly, local government has been slow to take on mobile and wireless technologies. A recent survey by SOCITM, the professional association for ICT managers working in local government, notes that the change in the use of mobile devices has been evolutionary not revolutionary2. We believe this will change.

Many different technologies come together to support mobile working through wireless networks. Location aware systems, wireless networks and radio frequency identification devices are seen as three key enabling technologies.

Wireless

Background

Wireless technology has evolved quickly through several iterations and wireless connectivity is already widely available. Although the wireless protocols are evolving rapidly, the range of devices and applications that can utilise them is also evolving to meet increasing demand for mobility. Email, PDAs and phone technologies are converging with new gadgets providing a combination of functions in ever smaller packages. ICT analyst Richard Holway recently predicted that mobile phones will soon be the only item people will carry with them - replacing keys, identity cards, passports, credit cards and, eventually, even medical information. For council's, these developments open up more flexibility in the way in which employees work, and increase the ways in which citizens can access services.

Currently the whole range of wireless technologies - from simple 2G and 2.5G mobile phones based on the GSM network standard, through to GPRS-based 3G and 4G or WiFi - offer escalating levels of service and functionality. The later generation mobile phones (2.5G and 3G) can support data services in addition to voice - offering the potential for 'real time' information services and even Web and email access. We must also not forget the impact of Voice over IP (VoIP) technologies discussed later.

But 4G WiFi technology, with its high bandwidth and functionality, is likely to be the most pervasive. So-called WiFi 'hotspots' are springing up in many places and offer full connectivity through laptop or personal digital assistants (PDA). The evolution of WiMAX is extending this vision even further through faster speeds and greater ranges.

According to researcher In-Stat Marketing, sales of WiFi-enabled devices grew by 67 per cent in 2005, and now the majority of laptops are WiFi enabled.

Value to local government

Access to services is one of the main challenges facing local government and wireless devices are an obvious solution. In the UK there are more mobile phones than people and a growing number are buying portable computers, suggesting that wireless will become a widely used means of connectivity.

Local government can leverage this phenomenon to give access to up-to date information such as 'live' railway timetables and traffic news. Mobile devices can also be used to make payments such as admission charges to museums or public transport fares. Wireless technology is also breaking down boundaries - not only are public WiFi links opening up council services but they are beginning to help re-write democratic rules, allowing better access to decision makers. Portable devices are generally cheaper than expensive home PCs, and with more services available to more people, this could be an important step to empowering more people.

Within local government, wireless technology enables more flexibility in mobile and remote working. Staff can connect to operational systems when off site, and many council's are using such technology to make savings through the transformation of business processes. Case notes for example can be entered into a handheld device and a query returned instantaneously, reducing the time spent on a particular case and preventing the need to translate written notes into electronic data. Allowing staff to work more easily at remote locations not only makes the management of cases more flexible and effective, but it also enables savings through hotdesking and allowing staff to work at home.

Barriers

The rapid evolution of wireless technology has created a wide variety of products with different standards and functionality which makes the choice of a 'future proof' technology difficult. As the market expands and the technology matures over the next two years, this will, of course, change. Meanwhile, caution is recommended.

Over time, advances in technology will allay current concerns about performance and reliability and remove reservations about wireless communication compared with traditional 'wired' systems. The barrier to implementing wireless networks in particular has been security - many authorities do not currently have the infrastructure capable of integrating secure WiFi.

Other barriers to acceptance could be less easy to overcome. Issues of civil liberties and privacy will need debate. And wireless networks are also prone to security threats which could be difficult to trap. There also needs to be some caution in viewing wireless technologies as a panacea in reducing the digital divide - if people can't afford the technology, then quite simply the effort may be in vain.

Examples

Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) in South Wales recently installed a public WiFi access system over a multiservice provider network. The council says the system, from WiFi supplier The Cloud, puts Bridgend in a good position to achieve the Government's ambition for councils to provide universal on-line access to public services by 2008.

Westminster Council are pioneering a wireless network - originally designed to benefit Council employees on the move, but now extending to serve both residents and local businesses. The...