The government and Microsoft plan to sell around the world Britain’s new system for online transactions between citizens and government after its successful launch in the UK. A key step in the government’s $1.4 billion e-government program has been online payment for the Inland Revenues pay-as-you-earn scheme, some Customs and Excise value added tax procedure, and claims for European Union subsidies for farmers all go live in the past month. At a presentation in Seattle today, Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder and chairman, will demonstrate the British system to 400 government officials from 80 countries to show how citizens and businesses can interact with government over the Internet.
“Although some US states are using leading edge technology, Europe in general, and the UK in particular, is well ahead in implementing e-government initiatives. It should put the citizen at the center of the government,” says Davide Vigano, general manager of public sector at the software group, “The projects have been implemented in just 15 weeks using Microsoft’s net technology,” said Andrew Pinder, the government’s e-envoy. “This is a key piece of infrastructure, brought in on time and on budget,” he said.
The secure transaction technology is to be rolled out through about 200 central government departments and agencies and 482 local government institutions over the next five years in the drive to have all of the government online by 2005. The successful implementation is a coup for Microsoft which is trying to build up its enterprise software business and has targeted e-government. It has about 1, 000 staff dedicated to government business.
“This is a milestone for Microsoft,” said Barry Goffe, group manager, net enterprise solutions at the Redwood, Washington state-based company. “Two years ago, when the technology for successful integration did not exist, we would have walked away.” The hardware was supplied by Dell, and the servers are managed by Cable and Wireless. The technology is based on XML, a new language protocol that allows information to be labeled and then easily exchanged between computers on different platforms. “People want to hang on to their legacy systems which have been massive investments, but integrating these has proven difficult and expensive in the past. It’s astonishing how the friction has been wiped out by XML, which reduces paperwork, reduces complexity and slashes costs,” said Mr. Goffe.
1. The e-government software is part of Microsoffs ______.
2. Two years ago, the e-government program was still impossible due to the lack of ______.
