[vicsireland] Irish eGovernment Award Winners 2009

  • From: "Ciaran Ferry" <Ciaran.Ferry@xxxxxx>
  • To: <vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:53:55 -0000

> The Irish eGovernment award winners were announced last Thursday at a 
> ceremony held in Dublins Four Seasons Hotel. The Dept of Social and Family 
> Affairs scooped the "Accessible eGovernment" award for its www.welfare.ie 
> website. 
> 
> This success was in part due to the good work done by our friends in the 
> Centre for Inclusive Technology in the NCBI, who carried out a comprehensive 
> site audit and extensive user testing. Well done guys.
> 
It's also great to see South Dublin County Council winning the overall award 
for their Digital Book Library Service. Some of you may remember Siobhán 
Bermingham introducing this service at a VICS event a number of years back.

> It's really encouraging to see that the issue of "web accessibility" is being 
> addressed in this little country of ours, and it just goes to show that we 
> can affect change if we approach things in the right way...
> 
> Official press release follows:
> 
> http://www.irishegovernmentawards.ie/press.htm
> 19 February 2009: Delivering education online can be up to 40% cheaper than 
> educating people in a classroom demonstrating again the truly significant 
> savings
> that can be made by driving more and more government services online, 
> according to Maeve Kneafsey, MD of online strategy and marketing company, 
> Elucidate
> which co-hosts Ireland's eGovernment Awards along with the Public Sector 
> Times newspaper.
> 
> Ms. Kneafsey added, "eGovernment, which includes eLearning, really comes into 
> its own during a time when budgets are tight as it can mean a dramatic cut
> in the cost of delivering services to the citizen. It can also play a 
> significant role in speeding up our transformation to a knowledge economy.
> 
> However, it does also mean governments have to do four things. Users must be 
> able to start and finish a task online, to be truly a self-service 
> alternative.
> They must provide help to enable those not comfortable with using online 
> services to use the services and they must also provide access to those online
> services to those who do not have computers or access to the Internet. 
> Finally they have to promote those services so that citizens know what is 
> available
> and the benefits, so they can start to use them.
> 
> Ms. Kneafsey, who was commenting at the announcement today of the winners of 
> Ireland's eGovernment Awards 2009, added, "Online education is just one 
> example
> of what can be done now with tremendous and immediate effect, not just in the 
> massive savings it could mean for training organisations like FAS but also
> it means that the numbers who have easier access to that training are 
> dramatically increased as it doesn't matter where in the country you are and 
> there's
> no limit to the > '> classroom' size, all that is needed is access to a PC 
> and of course there the need to build any infrastructure is dramatically 
> reduced.
> Cisco Systems, the giant US corporation that has 66,000 employees and sales 
> of $35 billion, saved $142 million in just one year through their use of 
> eLearning
> for their employees.
> 
> "Today's winners show how far eGovernment has come and the tremendous ability 
> it has to deliver vital cost savings and efficiencies within the wider public
> service across the island. The range of online services is growing every year 
> and includes the less known services such as the online livestock mart service
> from the Dept of Agriculture that has replaced a slow cumbersome system with 
> a live web recording of animal movements. This prevents the sale of animals
> that have not been registered with the Department or from herds that do not 
> comply with veterinary/disease test requirements. The speed and responsiveness
> allowed by this web enabled service to the Department is critical in helping 
> prevent problems that might impact on the agriculture sector and its 
> reputation
> outside and inside Ireland.
> 
> The overall winner, South Dublin County Council - Digital Book Service, also 
> provides a online service whereby you can sign up to the library service and> 
> download audio books as well as reserve books online, providing direct access 
> to the world of books to those with visual or literacy problems from their
> own home or office. The planning and negotiation needed by those running this 
> project, to secure the rights to provide audio books is both innovative and
> visionary.
> 
> For the first time this year the public have voted for the most popular 
> online government service, and the winner this year, the online TV licence 
> service,
> illustrates the publics appreciate of the self-service model when it 
> interacts with government "
> 
> Commenting on the awards, Cathal Magee, Managing Director eircom Retail said, 
> "The quality of entries this year has been truly remarkable and I would like
> to congratulate all of the 2009 award winners".
> 
> "eircom is proud of its association with Ireland's eGovernment awards which 
> recognise excellence and innovation in Irish eGovernment services. We look 
> forward
> to the continued development of, and investment in improved eGovernment 
> services for the future" he continued.
> 
> View the 2009 Winners at:
> http://www.irishegovernmentawards.ie/winners-2009.html
> 
> 
> Ciaran Ferry
> Web & e-Services,
> ESB ICT Group,
> 27 Lower Fitzwilliam St,
> Dublin 2, Ireland.
> 
> Tel:   +353-1-(70)27945
> Email: Ciaran.Ferry@xxxxxx
> Web:   http://www.esb.ie 
> 
> 

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