Partners from the Smart Cities project met in Edinburgh on March 2nd and 3rd to review progress in developing customer contact centres in their municipalities, and to plan the production of a guide to customer contact centres for municipalities.

It's the first day of spring, the sun is shining, and the partners from the Smart Cities project are coming to Edinburgh. Tomorrow's meeting will see partners from Scotland, England, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands meet to review progress in Work Package 3 - Customer Services, and to plan the development of transnational outputs on Customer Contact Centres.

Edge 2010 is a conference about 21st Century public service delivery on 25th and 26th Feb in Edinburgh. The conference will be about digital inclusion, learning and e-government, new approaches to the regeneration of cities and virtual libraries and information services in local authorities.

End of January, a sample of the population of Kortrijk, Waregem, Wevelgem, Zwevegem Harelbeke will receive a survey at home. The questionnaire made by the municipalities and Memori-KHMechelen measures which municipal services citizens need, and which channels they prefer.

Intercommunale Leiedal started a three day workshop in the Kortrijk region on contact centres. Four municipalities are planning to build new infrastructure for service delivery. They are changing from a classic town hall to a customer focused organisation.

The City Kortrijk launches one number and a call center where customer officers handle all questions from citizens.

This project is based on the "Answer" framework (Netherlands) and builds on the German experience of the Oldenburg contact centre the Smart Cities partners visited in September.

Members of the Eurocities group have developed a benchmarking process for e-services provided by local authorities. The project identified core services and looked at who provided what.

Government can only use technology to improve efficiencies – and improve services to citizens – if departments and agencies can share information effectively. They can only do this if data is accurate, systems are reliable and secure, and if processes respect the public's need for privacy.

EU ministers have committed to developing smarter online public services for citizens and businesses by 2015. The Commission has welcomed this step forward in making eGovernment more accessible, interactive and customised.

Interoperability between Public Administrations? Does this sound familiar? If you want to know more about it join us at the EIS Info Day, organised by the Directorate General for Informatics, on the 1st December 2009.