E-government set to bear fruit for channel

Money still to be made as December deadline looms

The channel still has time to take advantage of the e-government directive, as local authorities hit the “home straight” in getting their core services online by the December deadline.

In March, 77 per cent of local councils had met the target, and by the end of next month 93 per cent of local councils will either be at amber or green status for implementation, according to a government report.

Jim Fitzpatrick, local e-government minister, said: “The results from July’s Impending Electronic Government survey mark the turn into the home straight for the local e-government programme.”

Pete Mistry, technical sales consultant at VAR Eclipse Group, said the channel can still benefit from the directive. “There will be lots more opportunities for the channel, such as remote working. Not all councils will have procured their IT equipment at the same time, and the public sector will remain lucrative for the channel after the deadline has passed,” he said.

Research by IDC has predicted that spending on IT in local and central government and healthcare in western Europe will be worth more than $58bn by 2008 (CRN, 6 June 2004).

Richard White, director of public-sector sales at Centerprise International, said: “Managed services take-up in local councils is increasing and this will provide ongoing revenue streams for the channel.”

The e-government target is for all local authorities to offer services such as online payments for council tax and parking fines by December.

The initiative is expected to generate £1.1bn of productivity savings by 2008.