Windy City Gets BroadVision
BroadVision, Inc.'s suite of enterprise self-service applications will be used to standardize the City of Chicago's e-government initiatives, such as online bill payment and information portals for the city's 3 million residents. The improvements, scheduled for Q4 of 2001, will be powered by the BroadVision InfoExchange PortalTM, BroadVision BillingTM and BroadVision One-To-One PublishingTM.
“The City of Chicago is very excited about the possibilities that BroadVision software brings to Chicago citizens,” said Chris O'Brien, chief information officer for the City of Chicago. “We plan to offer some of the most sophisticated e-government services available and make Chicago a model for other municipalities to emulate.”
InfoExchange Portal builds robust enterprise information portals that enable businesses to reach customers, partners, suppliers, and employees through a single, personalized gateway. This portal will give citizens easy access to information and services from the city's 42 administrative departments as well as city “sister agencies” including the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Transit Authority.
BroadVision Billing offers bill-related alerts, the ability to view bill detail and will allow citizens and businesses to easily pay a variety of fees and debts owed the city. The city will first implement payment for water bills and will eventually extend these online bill presentment and payment capabilities to all of the city's administrative departments, enabling constituents to make tax payments and pay a wide variety of permit and license fees.
One-To-One Publishing's distributed content management capabilities will allow each department and agency to create and maintain up-to-date content for the portal. Future enhancements will use BroadVision's content management and personalization capabilities to create a site that allows citizens and businesses to easily apply for and obtain city permits online.
“Mayor Daley's vision is to use technology to make it easier for citizens and companies to do business with the City of Chicago,” said Angela Ball, deputy chief information officer for the City of Chicago. “BroadVision has a well-integrated suite of applications that provide us with a scalable portal framework, powerful content management and online transaction capabilities that we can leverage across all of our e-government initiatives. BroadVision's Java and J2EE functionality also allow us to integrate with third party tools which was a deciding factor for us.”
The City of Chicago joins BroadVision's roster of clients: Bank of America, E*Trade, FleetBoston Financial, Sears, Circuit City, The Home Depot, British Telecom, Ericsson, Vodafone, Rockwell Automation, GE Supply, General Services Administration (GSA), Forte Hotels, Club Med, Carlson Companies, Fiat Group, Toyota, Gedas/Volkswagen, The Boeing Company, and Samsung.
