LONDON 24, May, 2004 — Microsoft today announced that it is working with Accenture to offer standardised technology solutions for governments in Europe. These “blueprints” are customisable sets of software, strategies and best practices tailored to the needs of public sector organisations. Currently, solution blueprints are available from Accenture in seven categories: justice and public safety, e-government, education, human services, tax and revenue, enterprise management, and postal.
With these blueprints — which are based on Microsoft® .NET technology — government agencies now have an alternative to building one-of-a-kind solutions from the ground up. Instead, they can choose proven, fully customisable systems that can be deployed more quickly for less cost.
“Accenture and Microsoft are working together to assist governments in their aspiration to be more efficient, saving time and money while at the same time targeting government resources on measurable results that citizens value,” said Mark Younger, partner in the government operating unit at Accenture. “Our effort to bring this High Performance Government philosophy to our clients rests on our commitment to help find innovative ways to improve their performance. Our working relationship with Microsoft is a catalyst in making that possible.”
The announcement underscores Microsoft’s commitment to the public sector — not only as a technology vendor, but also as a solution provider — through its collaboration with Accenture and other consultants and systems integrators in the public sector. In addition to building custom systems for large public sector projects, the company is now working with partners to deliver repeatable solutions that can be offered to organisations across Europe, including smaller governmental agencies with limited funding. According to Kable Research,* the public sector represents approximately 11.5 per cent of the total information and communications technology (ICT) market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and ICT is an important tool for government in the region.
“Microsoft has traditionally been associated with large-scale development projects for well-funded government agencies in Europe, but the fact is, governments of all sizes face similar challenges,” said Pete Hayes, vice president, public sector, Microsoft EMEA. “The solution blueprints developed with Accenture are giving organisations access to proven, preconfigured technology solutions and best practices.”
The public sector blueprints are aggregated from numerous customer implementations by Microsoft and Accenture, which are operating in government agencies around Europe. Some of these original customers, representing two categories of solution blueprints, are presented here.
Public Safety and Justice
Solution blueprints for law and security include integrated policing, intelligence and investigation, crime pattern analysis, customs management, immigration management and emergency planning.
The Rheinland-Pfalz Department of Police in Germany used a solution blueprint to update its systems to give officers better access to traffic accident information, criminal statistics and geographical police information. The enhanced applications have reduced the amount of time police officers need to spend logging information, giving them more time to patrol the streets instead of working behind a desk.
“The speed of this development and the quality of the applications demonstrate that we chose the right technology,” said Matthias Bongarth, chief project lead from the Rheinland-Pfalz Ministry of Interior and Sport. “With our statewide Microsoft infrastructure already in place, the .NET software proved to be the most cost-effective and flexible choice for us.”
By implementing the first Web-based court information system in Spain, the community of Navarra enhanced its system of justice by improving interactions among legal parties and creating more efficient processes for the administration of court cases.
“After analyzing several existing tools in the marketplace,” said Rafael Gurrea, Navarra Justice Department counsellor, “we selected Accenture’s Atlante solution for its features, flexibility and growth possibilities as our best option.”
Streamlined Government
Blueprints for public sector administration span cross-government and central IT operations, including mobile, customer relationship management (CRM), portal, back-office integration, infrastructure, geographic information system (GIS), document and records management, security and standards solutions.
The Norwegian government engaged Microsoft and Accenture to create a simpler electronic data reporting system, referred to as AltInn. The infrastructure is based on the Microsoft .NET platform and Accenture’s eGovernment Accelerator.
The regional government of Catalonia, Spain, set out to transform the way citizens interact with public sector agencies. Microsoft and Accenture developed and implemented a broad e-government solution including a Web portal, a call centre, mobile communications and interactive television.
Corporate Citizenship in EMEA
As an industry and technology leader, Microsoft works closely with public and private sector partners throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa to help enterprise customers, governments, educational institutions and nongovernmental bodies meet business, social and economic challenges and realise the potential of their organisations and their people. Through the Partners in Learning programme, Microsoft EMEA collaborates with schools and universities to enable better integration of technology into the curriculum. And through the Unlimited Potential programme, Microsoft EMEA partners with organisations to improve lifelong learning for disadvantaged youth and adults through community-based technology and learning centres. Microsoft’s commitment to the region is also reflected by 72,000 developers in the MSDN® developer program, 280,000 resellers, 25,000 independent software vendors, and millions of small and medium-sized enterprises whose goals for growth and greater business efficiency are made possible by Microsoft technology.
About Microsoft EMEA
Microsoft has operated in EMEA since 1982. It employs more than 12,000 people in over 55 subsidiaries, delivering products and services in more than 139 countries and territories.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
* Kable Research, “The public sector ICT market in EMEA,” 2003
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