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David
H. Leung
President, Polar Information
Technologies Inc.
During the last 25
years working with Deloitte Touche and then with TELUS, I have assisted
over 100 different municipalities throughout North America and Asia
to develop information technology strategies and implement e-Government
solutions.
Based on my experience, suffice to say that, " When it comes to
the deployment of smart city and e-Government solutions, municipalities
are in the driver's seat".
Most municipalities are not aware of the above fact, or the power
behind it. Consider how Microsoft, Yahoo and thousands of online
service providers have invested millions of dollars in the hopes
of achieving what you, the municipality have already achieved:
- Sufficient public
confidence that residents and non-residents alike will trust your
online service with their personal and financial information;
- The facilities required
to fulfill the physical dimension of online relationships, including
libraries, recreation and senior's centres;
- The IT infrastructure
and bandwidth required to deliver e-services to your citizens online.
What I witness is that
municipal governments need to be much more proactive in the adoption
of e-service delivery systems. Many are waiting for their province,
their federal government or their major telcos to decide what services
they should launch and when to roll them out.
If this mindset persists, this will guarantee that your municipality
and ultimately, our country, will be missing an enormous opportunity
to create wealth and provide world-class services to your citizens.
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