Ralph Blauel has been director of technology services for Halton Region in Oakville, Ont., for nine years. As an IT director, he is part of a steering committee that is responsible for implementing customer service projects. His role is to provide guidance to the team that ultimately works on bringing the technology in-house.
In the ever changing technology sector, he envisions e-government “moving to the area of e-democracy, where you are engaging the public into policy debate electronically,” he said.
Today, Halton’s e-government methodology has been driven by its ESD strategy for customer service delivery. Blauel says the region adopted a service model first and then went about doing some re-alignment, such as consolidating call centres, before applying new technologies. Its electronic undertakings range from registering for swimming lessons online to paying parking tickets.
Halton’s online presence is an accomplishment Blauel seems to relish.
“One of our biggest successes would be our Web site, and we have a lot of content that was designed as service-based navigation. We just get the services that our clients want.”