Tas council shares its ASP

A Tasmanian city council has set itself up as an ASP, hosting IT services on a commercial basis to four other local government authorities.

The move lets smaller councils -- unable to fund IT infrastructure -- share resources under the ASP model introduced by Burnie City Council.

Latrobe, Waratah-Wynyard, West Coast and Circular Head councils are using the Fujitsu-enabled ASP model which includes specialised software applications for financial services, asset management, building applications and geographical information systems.

Fujitsu's business manager Peter Takle said the cost of implementing these systems was prohibitive for smaller councils and the ASP model reduces cost of ownership.

"Local community and stakeholders have access to a much broader range of information, even the minutes of council meetings can be made available on the Internet," he said.

Fujitsu also formed a partnership with SecurePay Pty Ltd offering local government and water utility customers access to interactive voice response and Internet payment options.

The project is being supported by the Federal Government's Networking the Nation program.

Also last week Microsoft, Compaq and Hansen International Australasia formed an alliance to target the Australian and New Zealand local government and utilities markets.

The consortium is delivering a range of solutions built on XML technology, which incorporates m-commerce.