Ixonos has developed the City Online solution, an e-government platform for municipalities, and now provides it as a cloud-based service under the SaaS (software as a service) delivery model. Ixonos, which has made a long-term commitment to promote the e-services of local governments, is the first provider to offer cloud-based municipal services for residents.
The City Online cloud services conform to a predefined and reliably tested e-service model. The development work has made use of the results of the municipal customer service project and of the Kohti kumppanuutta – lapsiperheiden rajattomat palvelut (“Towards partnership – services without boundaries for families with children”) project. “Our cloud-based e-government services meet the requirements of the KuntaIT architecture model. This means that the municipalities that deploy the service platform can rely on the interoperability between the platform and present and future services”, explains Teppo Kuisma, head of Ixonos’ Business Solutions unit. “We also intend to take to the cloud all future solutions that we will develop in targeted projects for the municipal sector.”
The City Online cloud services offer a new way of developing, providing and sourcing municipal e-government services. The SaaS model allows municipalities to deploy City Online e-services in a rapid, standardised and cost-efficient manner while cutting down on project investments, licence and application procurement and employee workload. “Municipalities benefit from a fully-fledged platform that is continuously being developed further and is managed, in accordance with the service agreement, by a reliable domestic provider”, Mr Kuisma remarks.
With versatile municipal services available on the Web, inhabitants can conduct their business with the municipality more freely. They can acquaint themselves with the municipality’s services, and they can file secure on-line applications such as to enrol children for school and for after-school activities. Cases are handled in accordance with a unifying and expedited procedure that saves time for users and officials alike.
Ixonos is a founding and active member of the Cloud Software Program headed by Tivit. Ixonos is also a business member of COSS, the Finnish Centre for Open Source Solutions, since many years. “Our commitment to open source solutions, business models and production models is one of the cornerstones of our operations, and it has proved a very workable foundation for the implementation of e-commerce and e-government architectures”, Mr Kuisma emphasises.
For more information, please contact:
Ixonos:
Teppo Kuisma, head of Ixonos Business Solutions, tel. +358 50 581 4075, teppo.kuisma/at/ixonos.com
Links:
• Cloud Software Program: www.cloudsoftwareprogram.org