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Compuware and South Wales Pioneer E-Services
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Community Portal Ready to Rejuvenate and Engage Local Community
London, UK - 24th March, 2004 - The County Borough of Torfaen, South Wales, today officially launched their innovative community portal branded as 'Webster'. The portal, which was developed and deployed by Compuware (NASDAQ: CWPR), will provide a strategic framework for delivering e-services such as the ability to pay council tax, submit planning applications, and housing repair requests, along with information about local business and support groups. Webster is considered unique because of the sheer scale of collaboration between the council in terms of the services that are available via the portal and the generation of content.
"The community portal represents a great opportunity for the citizens and businesses of Torfaen to really engage with one another and the council. It has been developed in conjunction with citizens and businesses, which means that it will meet and hopefully exceed their expectations," commented Cllr Bob Wellington, Acting Leader, Torfaen County Borough Council. "Webster isn't just about providing council services online either, we're trying to rejuvenate the local area by enabling businesses to achieve a Web presence that would otherwise elude them. It also gives citizens the chance to enhance their IT skills, as well as gain access to information about educational courses, to tackle issues such as unemployment and outward migration."
Webster has been launched as a pilot project in the area and is accessible via the Internet and an additional 30 Internet kiosks set up across the borough. The council involved local citizens, support groups and businesses in the design and content of the portal, by holding workshops to acquire input and feedback. This ensured that the community's ideas and comments were incorporated into the final portal. Ownership of the information contained on the portal relating to businesses and community groups is firmly in the hands of these organisations, as the content management system integrated into Webster enables them to update or amend content at any time.
"In the first instance I was unconvinced about Webster and how it would benefit the support group that I run, not least because I am a 65 year old man who until six months ago had never touched a computer. However, the workshop enabled me to see how others envisaged being able to use the portal for affiliation with organisations such as The British Heart Foundation and to share knowledge with other similar groups," said Gethin Jones from The PontyPool Pacers, a support group for people with heart problems. "Webster has opened up a whole new world both for the group and me personally. My IT knowledge and skills are improving rapidly, helped along by the support of my Outreach worker who has trained me to use a computer and continues to provide guidance."
"Webster provides us with a medium via which to communicate, not just with local people, but also other businesses about the services we provide. It was important to us to get involved in the planning stages of Webster as we wanted to maximise its business potential. Webster has given us an online presence, which previously we wouldn't have known how to create ourselves or we would have spent thousands bringing in a specialist firm to do it for us," said Theresa Hart, Proprietor, Springfields Guesthouse, Cwmbran.
Webster has been funded by The Welsh National Assembly, The Welsh Development Agency and the Council itself. As an Objective One area, the Council was also able to seek funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERD). Objective one focuses on identifying the strengths and opportunities within a region and channelling them towards revitalising and restructuring the economy to make it sustainable.
"Not only have we been able to provide a flexible technology platform for this portal, we've also led the project with Torfaen Council to the launch date on time and within budget - a critical factor in today's competitive business landscape," comments Irene Dawson, Senior Vice President Compuware EMEA. "After working so closely with the council on this project, it's very exciting to see it come into fruition and the buzz that it has created within the community."
About Torfaen Borough Council
With a population of 89,800 across three areas - Ponypool, Blaenavon and Cwmbran, Torfaen Borough Council provides many services that affect the lives of communities and individuals in South Wales. The aim of the Council is to improve the quality of life in Torfaen continuously and significantly. Over 6,500 people work for the Council. The Headquarters are in Pontypool and the other main offices are in Cwmbran.
Compuware Corporation
Compuware Corporation, a leading provider of software and technology services, delivers industrial-strength solutions for the enterprise computing environment that dramatically improve productivity, quality and performance across the application life-cycle.
For more information about Compuware, please visit http://www.compuware.co.uk
Compuware is a registered trademark of Compuware Corporation. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Compuware is a member of The Prince's Trust Technology Leadership Group (TLG), a premier industry-networking forum for leaders within the IT industry, established in May 2002.
For press enquiries contact:
Sophie Jarvis/Gemma Lewis
Spark Communications
020 7357 8612
sophie@sparkcomms.co.uk
gemma@sparkcomms.co.uk
