Policy-based Citizen Portal
Give citizens access to everything they need from one spot. People in the 21st century expect to be able to do everything on the Web, including interact with their government agencies. After years of online banking, shopping and information gathering, citizens have high expectations for Web-based services of all kinds. However, most government portals aren't as sophisticated as their private-sector counterparts.
They are typically information-only solutions, providing no support for transactions between governments and citizens. They are often linked to a single department, so they can't provide the all-inclusive help that citizens expect. And they rarely leverage organizational policies and user identities to enable secure, personalized delivery of information and services.
To address these shortcomings, government officials need a policy-based access mechanism that delivers the right information to the right constituents and provides citizens with a single place to conduct local government business.
Novell policy-based citizen portals are designed to provide this foundation. These portals offer:
- A convenient online environment that minimizes the need for paper forms and face-to-face transactions
- Comprehensive access to local government resources from a single site
- Resource access based on user identity and government policies
- Secure, timely processing of citizen requests for information
- Increased citizen control over how personal information is shared among government departments and related organizations
Reduced Cost, Increased Service
Registering to vote, enrolling children in school, updating drivers' licenses, checking property valuations, applying for benefits and more: a relatively small segment of the population—such as new community residents—can overextend local government departments through multiple paper-based and face-to-face interactions. By moving all these transactions to a single, user-friendly portal, local governments can streamline services and maximize citizen convenience. What's more, governments can reduce the cost of providing these services, freeing up funds to enhance essential programs and services for all local citizens.
Single Source for Local Government Interactions
Far too often, government information is tied up—and sometimes lost—in incompatible applications and data storage systems. Novell policy-based citizen portals use industry standards to deliver data from disparate systems through a single, secure online interface. As a result, citizens have timely access to comprehensive local government resources wherever they log in, regardless of the originating system or department. One-stop online citizen self-service replaces costly visits, phone calls and mailings to multiple government departments. And the use of industry standards enables governments to leverage their technology investments in new ways, dynamically repurposing existing data and processes to meet evolving constituent needs.
Policy-based Access and Automation
Novell policy-based citizen portals "intelligently" authorize or prevent information access based on citizen or employee identity and government policies. For example, a citizen's request for information can be analyzed and fulfilled within the required timeframe based on his or her credentials and relevant regulations and policies—without time-consuming manual processing.
Novell policy-based citizen portals also allow citizens to share personal information with multiple government departments securely and automatically. This improves efficiency, eliminates manual processes and saves money—not only enhancing officials' ability to deliver better services, but also to influence policy-making where it matters most: in areas that improve citizens' lives.