Astun Technology Solution Behind LG Award

19 November 2008, 9:59am

Astun Technology Solution Behind Local Government Award

South Tyneside Council has won the prestigious Local Government Exemplar Award for ‘Best Business Process Transformation’, thanks in no small part to ‘iShare’ web enabling software from Astun Technology. The award recognises the steps which the Council has taken to improve its frontline service provision facilitated largely by the continual evolution of its public facing website.

iShare, now in use with over 20 Local Authorities, provides cutting edge access to Council held information, encourages the use of e-services and delivers considerable savings through NI 14 ‘Avoidable Contact’.

South Tyneside Council has been an Astun Technology customer since 2004. The iShare solution pulls Council held information from backend systems re-purposes it and makes it available to citizens via the Council’s website based upon their location. The ‘My South Tyneside’ section of the website is a model of simplicity. A site visitor simply enters part of their address to find their home. The result is personalised information centred on the property including planning applications in the vicinity, events, and details of councillors. A ‘My Nearest’ facility enables the visitor to search for anything from a Doctor’s surgery to a Recycling point, with maps available to see the precise location. Lastly there is ‘My Alerts’ a unique email update service which lets people know about, local events, new or changed planning applications, changed bin collection days, new road works and a host of other council information which is being added to all the time.

“We are absolutely delighted to win this award and have no hesitation in praising the efforts of Mike Saunt and his team at Astun Technology for providing us with the software and expertise that has enabled us to deliver a class leading website for use by the people of South Tyneside. The savings made through ‘Avoidable Contact’ and the unique ‘My Alerts’ service have enabled us to win this award,” Said David Bowman, Assistant Head of Policy at South Tyneside Council.

NoE - Astun Technology supplies Local Authorities with modern web based solutions that enable them to address the eGovernment agenda. iShare enables a Council to aggregate its data from back end systems and publish it in meaningful ways for access by their public facing websites. Increasingly iShare functionality is providing a cost effective solution for use in front line service provision in call centres and one stop shops. iShare is based on PostGIS/PostgreSQL and MapServer, which are all ‘Open Source’ which means a very a good return on investment. The system is separate from and independent of all the main council systems but ‘interrogates’ them on a regular basis, caching data for use by the website. This ensures that the website remains online even if one of the key systems goes down or is undergoing maintenance.

www.astuntechnology.com

GeoConnexion UK