The number of high-quality local government websites has
increased by 65% over the past year, according to the local
authority IT managers group Socitm.
Research into 468 local authority websites by Socitm, published
in the report Better Connected 2005, found that 30% of sites had
improved their position in the four-level ranking system.
Top-rated "transactional" sites are significantly interactive
and customer-centred, the report said. These sites have increased
from 23 in 2004 to 38 this year. Socitm ranks the remaining sites
as content plus, content and promotional, in descending order. Only
23 sites remain promotional only, the study found.
A key focus for councils in the future will be marketing the
services that are available on their websites, in order to exploit
potential efficiency gains, the report said.
Transactional sites can help councils meet the needs of the
central government efficiency review, because they can transfer
interaction from staffed council departments to automated
self-service websites, said Martin Greenwood, programme manager for
Socitm Insight and author of the report.
"This shift will not take place unless websites have
transactional capacity, really do work in practice and start to
attract business in sufficient volumes," he said.
"Councils need to collect more evidence about usage and
potential usage of websites in their areas," said Greenwood.
They also need to dedicate their efforts "to getting the quality
of the product right at a more detailed level than before in order
to make self-service a truly attractive option that works in
practice and will be repeated", he said.
Finally, said Socitm, councils need to use sophisticated
marketing to drive up usage by target groups.