Give people what they want—information and services, on demand
Government agencies are constantly searching for ways to better serve the needs of citizens more effectively and responsively. Citizens and business users are now used to getting their information and completing transactions online. They expect this level of service from government, and they want it on demand, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Agencies feel the pressure to provide higher-quality services to more constituents through more effective implementations.
Government bodies face competing challenges to provide enhanced service to constituents. Budget constraints mean fewer resources to upgrade gov-ernment services. Disparate IT infrastructures and siloed information hinder communication and interoperability among agencies. Large volumes of paper information often go back decades and require cumbersome manual pro-cessing. All sensitive information must be protected from internal and external threats. And compliance issues dictate that agencies meet certain specifi-cations to protect data and manage it appropriately. How can government agencies address these challenges and still improve service and increase efficiency for citizens, businesses and their own employees?
Web portals—the new gateway to government services
In this environment of expanding expectations and shrinking funds, doing more with less takes innovative thinking. That’s why many forward-looking agencies are finding ways to help constituents and employees help themselves.
Self-service Web portals enable governments to help citizens obtain informa-tion, apply for services and complete transactions more quickly than ever before. These portals streamline formerly cumbersome tasks and make it easier to navigate and access large volumes of information. Imagine if in minutes—from their home, office or mobile computer—your constituents could:
- File tax returns.
- Pay for parking permits.
- Gain access to social services information and applications.
- Search for information from various government agencies from one site.
- Apply for passports, car registration, business licenses and other services using built-in electronic forms.
These are just a few examples of the power of e-citizen portals. Information becomes more accessible, and processes become more efficient for citizens, businesses and government employees.
The ingredients of a successful e-citizen Web portal
What features of an e-citizen Web portal will truly make the lives of your government agency’s constituents and employees easier? An effective e-citizen self-service portal must help agencies to:
- Provide citizens and business constituents with browser-based, streamlined applications and search processes that enable them to more effectively and efficiently make decisions and complete transactions.
- Enable fast access to a massive volume of information, often going back decades, and enable fast and useful answers to constituent questions.
- Incorporate secure access to multiple back ends while maintaining a per-sonalized and user-friendly interface based on Web 2.0 technologies.
- Deploy and maintain services that provide quick time to value and are easy to operate—across different IT systems and organizations within the government.
- Facilitate interoperability with legacy systems to protect existing investments and ensure efficient data integration with existing systems.
- Provide a secure, role-based framework that facilitates secure and private interactions with constituents and businesses.
Creating a portal with IBM software—quickly, simply and securely
IBM offers an open, flexible self-service portal solution comprising several award-winning products that can enable your government agency to efficiently implement, customize and realize business value from an e-citizen self-service portal. By using IBM WebSphere® Portal software and integrating IBM Lotus® Forms software, IBM OmniFind™ Enterprise Edition software and other portlets and IBM applications, you can enable citizens and business constituents to efficiently find and access more information and complete transactions more effectively, resulting in higher productivity and lower costs to your organization.
Create the portal that you and your constituents need
Solutions and services from IBM and IBM Business Partners enable you to give constituents and employees a portal with just the right services to meet their needs. A flexible, open portal environment allows your IT department to quickly and cost-effectively integrate the applications and features your users need into your e-citizen portal, without being limited to costly proprietary solu-tions. For example, you can:
Quickly deliver mashups and composite applications with WebSphere Portal software.
Create exact electronic replicas of government-approved paper forms to help adhere to regulations and compliance standards by using Lotus Forms software.
Enable users to search unstructured information in wikis, blogs, records, claims and more by using text analysis and customized metrics made avail-able with OmniFind Enterprise Edition search software.
Help ensure that users access only those pages they’re entitled to by using native document-level security to screen out unauthorized users.
