• Teamware's solution provides the political decision-makers in municipalities and cities with a new possibility for making decisions and preparing decisions, independently of time and place.
• Elected officials, council workgroups, city government and other board members, as well as the board of directors, are provided with a shared Internet service and access to the municipality's backoffice systems in an easy-to-use and secure way. This service is available at home, at work and on the road.
• A new way of thinking and implementing municipal decision-making makes it possible to involve new groups in traditional politics.

Enhancing work of municipal decision-makers

Municipalities and cities need to meet the new challenges presented by activities that involve the work of elected representatives. The number of candidates is on the decrease while the average age of elected representatives is on the increase. An increased workload and free time compete with the time invested in managing common issues. Municipal decision-making becomes increasingly less appealing, to the young and to the families.

There is a need to enhance municipal decision-making and to make it more attractive.

The work of elected representatives can be made easier by distributing agendas as early as possible, by implementing access to existing material, such as studies, reports and protocols, by creating access to the municipal network and by providing a municipal e-mail address to its elected representatives.

At the same time, it must be possible to ease the employees' workload by adding self-service possibilities for the elected representatives and by meeting the representatives' increasing expectations without additional tasks.

Internet-based web community is the solution

The representatives' web community is a web work environment with extensive features on the Internet. The virtual workspace contains access to relevant information and the most important tools.

It will be possible to use the services and systems from any computer, workstation or terminal that has a browser and a network connection. The information management of a municipality or city need not be stressed out over the installation or updating of workstation-specific software. The browser-based approach allows for access from libraries and Internet cafes - anywhere in the world.

The browser interface also allows for harmonized user interfaces and common work methods across applications, following closely the accessibility guidelines.

Web communities enhance the work of elected representatives

An Internet service aimed at elected representatives connects municipal public servants and external, elected representatives tightly together and provides a cost-efficient way of improving the activity of the representatives while making elected posts more attractive.

Virtual workspaces speed up decision-preparation

Decision-making groups are provided with their own closed virtual workspaces, which are only available to the members of a particular group. The documents, tools and other content in the Internet service are available to the elected representatives at work, home or when travelling.

Document folders facilitate searching for information

Agendas, protocols, studies and reports are stored in an electronic format in a document archive from which information can be easily obtained. This reduces mailing expenses and makes information more easily available to elected representatives.

Discussion groups make meetings more efficient

Discussion that leads to a decision, and the possibility to comment on items in advance in the discussion groups, makes meetings more efficient and reduces the number of preliminary meetings.

The event calendar reduces the workload involved in arranging events

The work of an elected representative involves participating in various events and the arranging of events. The event calendar allows for the right people to be informed about meetings, training, representation events and other events. The event page can be used to sign up for events or to request additional information, which reduces the money spent on communication and arrangements.

Notification and search functions make information readily available and easy to find

The information volumes an elected representative must process are large. With notifications, elected representatives can receive announcements about new documents or discussions on the virtual workspace and thus keep up-to-date. The search function allows the right information to be found quickly even among vast amounts of information.

The e-mail and calendar functions support the management of positions of trust

Each elected representative is provided with advanced e-mail and calendar functions. There is less confusion and the municipality’s image is improved when the representatives are provided with an e-mail address from the municipality’s or city’s own e-mail domain. The electronic calendar allows for viewing the other members’ appointments and therefore makes representatives easier to reach.

Information security solutions guarantee the confidential use of the Internet service

Information confidentiality must be secured in workstations, servers and telecommunication. Data traffic is protected between the end user and the server with SSL encryption. Correspondingly, traffic between several servers is tunnelled using VPN technology. The information security in the Internet service prevents access by unauthorized people to services intended for use by the elected representatives.

Implementation

The web community for elected representatives is based on Teamware Pl@za® software tools and services and, if necessary, Teamware Office™ collaborative application software.

Services offered

- E-mail and calendars
- Publishing tools for distributing news and other content updates
- Form-based content update
- Document archives
- Event calendar
- Address book and Interactive Business Cards
- Virtual workspace for workgroups and projects
- Discussion groups
- Surveys
- Notifications
- Search
- Information security solutions

Supplementing services

- Integration with back office systems
- Information security solutions

Consultation services

- Internet service requirement specification
- Functional design of the Internet service

Teamware Pl@za, Teamware Office and Teamware consultation services are each described on their own fact sheets.