Overview
Information is the life blood of a joined-up
world. Yet, successive initiatives - knowledge management, e-business - have
failed to deliver a free flow of information to those who need it in many, if
not most, organizations. Old challenges remain, as the projects described in
this chapter illustrate.
Take-up is critical: how do you bring disparate, disorganized
sources of information together without creating cumbersome, bureaucratic
processes that deter potential users? The four case studies in this chapter
faced the following challenges:
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With the general public seemingly ever more apathetic about
the democratic process, e-voting is high on most governments' agenda. Could the
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) use alternative channels to increase
levels of inclusion, engagement, and participation? Then, having provided a
multitude of possible voting channels, the ODPM had to ensure there was no
possibility they could be abused, with one person voting in several different
ways. Only technology could provide the answer to this.
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Behind the scenes, it is technology integration that matters
most.
As a result of a string of acquisitions, BAE Systems had inherited
several enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems used for procurement and
these were cutting into the savings the company hoped to achieve via electronic
trading.
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The Neighbourhood Renewal Unit was faced with the prospect
of trying to get hard data on successful urban regeneration initiatives to a
wide range of people who might find it useful - local residents as well as
public agencies.
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As one of the world's largest insurance brokers, every piece
of correspondence is important to Aon. Shifting this from physical to electronic
format was not just a matter of technology; there was also a 300-year heritage
of doing business face-to-face and a longstanding suspicion of
change.