Fujitsu implements Australian-first ASP model for local councils

In a move that eliminates size as a barrier to entry for electronic service delivery for local governments, Fujitsu has become the first organisation in Australia to deliver an ASP service solutions structure to a local government authority.

Burnie City Council is using the Fujitsu-enabled ASP model to host and provide information technology services on a commercial basis to four other Tasmanian Local Government Authorities - Latrobe, Waratah-Wynyard, West Coast and Circular Head councils.

An experienced partner to local government authorities, Fujitsu is providing specialised IT application software and support services to Burnie via the Fujitsu 2000Plus property and financial management system. The service offered by Burnie encompasses other key local government areas such as asset management, the development and approval of building applications, geographical information systems (GIS) and executive information and management reporting.

"The Burnie model is a significant development in e-business service delivery. It shows that small Councils that previously could not fund infrastructure for new services can now benefit by joining a wider community and sharing resources under an ASP hosting model," Fujitsu Australia General Manager, Business Solutions, Peter Takle said.

"Until now, the cost of implementing these systems was prohibitive for smaller Councils. The strength in numbers Burnie gains by sharing resources with other Councils through the ASP model gives it a template on which it can overlay any number of customers. The cost of ownership is much lower than each Council would face to resource a system independently."

Fujitsu's outsourcing resources assisted Burnie City Council to implement the successful and sustainable model out of the Portside IT facility to meet the needs of Burnie's existing customer base and accommodate future growth.

The e-business systems facilitated by the ASP model deliver benefits to Councils, their local community, commercial customers and suppliers, Mr Takle said.

"This system opens up the whole information base and services of Councils to the wider community. They can provide access to more and better information to members of the local community and other stakeholders than previously would have been readily available. Even minutes of Council meetings could be made available over the Internet," he said.

"It enables Councils to set up more efficient, web-enabled systems for suppliers, such as e-commerce procurement, as well as electronic lodgment of forms and documents and payment of rates or fees for commercial customers or ratepayers. "Councils can operate more efficiently. The cost of providing information is high using manual and paper-based information-gathering and dissemination systems. A web-based solution delivers productivity gains for Councils by streamlining those processes and reducing operating costs."

The e-services infrastructure and ASP model already implemented for Burnie by Fujitsu can be applied to utility and local government authorities anywhere, Mr Takle said.

The Fujitsu offering has been enhanced with additional functionality. A partnership between Fujitsu and SecurePay Pty Ld enables local government and water utility customers to offer their customers interactive voice response (IVR) and Internet payment options at reduced costs

Another partnership between Fujitsu and Strategic eCommerce Ltd (SEL) will deliver further productivity benefits by fully-embedding SEL's e-commerce buy-side technology within Fujitsu 2000Plus applications.

"As an e-service company with proven e-business applications infrastructure for local government, Fujitsu is helping Councils gain productivity benefits and provide services that improve access to information and service delivery for rate payers, suppliers and commercial customers - regardless of size," Mr Takle said.

The Expanded IT Resource Sharing project is supported by the Commonwealth through the Networking the Nation program of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.