Office of the e-Envoy
Encyclopedia
The Office of the e-Envoy was set up by Tony Blair in 1999 and was replaced by the E-Government Unit
in September 2004. A few senior members of the office joined gov3 an ICT consultancy firm for governments.http://public.gov3.net/public_pages/limited/global/about_gov3/orgnisation/orgnsation.htm
The first e-Envoy was Alex Allan
. He was succeeded by Andrew Pinder
in October 2000 till the operation was wound up in September 2004.
Its staffing level was between 50 and 140 people.
withdrawing from the project after four months for which they received £5.6 million.
The project was billed at £15.6 million and involved licensing some of the UK government's intellectual property to Microsoft to be sold on as part of their product to other governments around the world and return significant income streams.
The result was widely criticised because the digital certificate system, central to the project, locked out all other browsers except Microsoft's own Internet Explorer
.
The e-Envoy responded by explaining that the priority was to make it available to as many people as possible as quickly as possible, and that the only part of the system that was limited was the ability for citizens and businesses to enrol for services. But, "Once enrolled, they can submit transactions from any operating system, since XML - the language used - is totally platform independent."
E-Government Unit
The e-Government Unit , the largest unit of the Cabinet Office of the government of the United Kingdom, is responsible for helping various government departments use information technology to increase efficiency and improve electronic access to government services...
in September 2004. A few senior members of the office joined gov3 an ICT consultancy firm for governments.http://public.gov3.net/public_pages/limited/global/about_gov3/orgnisation/orgnsation.htm
The first e-Envoy was Alex Allan
Alex Allan
Alexander Allan is the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee of the United Kingdom and Head of Intelligence Assessment. He is the son of Robert Allan, Baron Allan of Kilmahew.- Early life :...
. He was succeeded by Andrew Pinder
Andrew Pinder
Andrew Pinder, CBE, lead the Office of the e-Envoy from 2000 to 2004, reporting directly to Tony Blair.He held the post of Chairman of Becta from January 2006 to...
in October 2000 till the operation was wound up in September 2004.
Its staffing level was between 50 and 140 people.
Government Gateway
This flagship project of putting all government departments online by 2002 and enabling people to conduct a wide variety of routine transactions, from paying taxes to obtaining driving licences, via the internet by 2005 was announced by Microsoft on 27 March 2001 who, in just 15 weeks, had "brought Tony Blair's ambitious e-government vision to reality". The tight timescale was due to CompaqCompaq
Compaq Computer Corporation is a personal computer company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard....
withdrawing from the project after four months for which they received £5.6 million.
The project was billed at £15.6 million and involved licensing some of the UK government's intellectual property to Microsoft to be sold on as part of their product to other governments around the world and return significant income streams.
The result was widely criticised because the digital certificate system, central to the project, locked out all other browsers except Microsoft's own Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
.
The e-Envoy responded by explaining that the priority was to make it available to as many people as possible as quickly as possible, and that the only part of the system that was limited was the ability for citizens and businesses to enrol for services. But, "Once enrolled, they can submit transactions from any operating system, since XML - the language used - is totally platform independent."
External links
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3096104.stm
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/12/15/eenvoy_gets_the_chop/
- http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/e-envoy/index-content.htm
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3739684.stm
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1639431.stm
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/04/e_gov_accenture_report/
- http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/news/2029671/gov-cut-civil-staff-costs-fifth-pinder
- WhatDoTheyKnow.com: Office of the e-Envoy accounts