 City of Kerava in southern Finland has decided to build a web community to enhance communication within the city administration. Teamware Group will implement the interactive solution on the Teamware Pl@za® platform.
The objective of the new system is to facilitate the daily work of the city administrators i.e. the city board, city council city managers and elected officials by providing them with a new virtual means of interaction in addition to the traditional meetings and sessions.
"It has become more and more difficult for the city administrators to take care of their duties within the normal working hours and premises. Therefore, it is essential to provide them with facilities to communicate and obtain information without the boundaries of time or location", says IT manager Ari Sainio from the city of Kerava.
All you need is a browser
The new system will be built on the Teamware Pl@za platform and integrated with the existing Teamware Office groupware solution which means that now e-mail, city archives, electric calendars and bulletin boards will be available for the city administrators through the standard web browser.
"By expanding our existing Teamware system we'll be able to utilize our previous investments and skills gained during the years", states Sainio.
Teamware Pl@za fulfilled the needs and requirements that the city of Kerava had set for the new communications system.
"The Internet-based solution will make it possible for us to utilize the existing installations and connections. The users can log in from home or from work, if they only have an Internet connection. Since the users won't be logging in directly to the city's own network we can also minimize the risks regarding the information security", Sainio explains.
Virtual workspaces
To enhance interaction between the city officials the new system will be augmented with discussion facilities where individuals can exchange opinions and discuss different issues. Various archives and files will be created for content management purposes. Different user groups will also be provided with their own virtual workspaces that can be accessed only by authorized members.
Thanks to Teamware Pl@za's decentralized and easy-to-use updating functionality the city officials can update the pages themselves. The new web service will be launched in October 2001.
City of Kerava is located in southern Finland about 30 km from Helsinki. The population of the city is app. 30 000 of whom 41% are under 30 years old.
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