DigiTV is a multi channel technology designed, owned and managed by local government for local government and their partners in the UK. It provides public, voluntary and community sectors the tools to publish information and offer interactive services via digital interactive TV, kiosks and mobile phones. Offering an ‘input once, publish many’ system, each partner can define their locally relevant service, integrate with back-end systems and include links to national services where appropriate.
Policy Context
DigiTV was born out of the ODPM’s e-Government Programme and was supported by the subsequent Transforming Government Programme. The service was set up to understand whether DiTV would be an effective and efficient channel to deliver local government services on, to ensure that one technology and set of contracts was created by local government to meet local government needs and that economies of scale were achieved. DigiTV currently is appropriate to a number of influential national agendas including Transforming Government and the Shared Services agendas. Both of which suggest partnering rather than replicating services is the way forward, an approach which is central to DigiTV's work across the public, private and third sectors. The Varney report in the UK seeks to cut down the replication and citizen confusion in terms of service delivery: DigiTV offers one single portal into local government and partner services on all channels. In terms of economic growth and personal development, DigiTV partners nationally with Jobcentre Plus from the Department of Work and Pensions, offering access into their database of c400,000 jobs nationally. In terms of e-Democracy DigiTV allows partners to create and publish consultations and polls and one of our partners e@SYConnects, recently won some EU funding (under the e-Participation Initiative) to offer e-Petitioning on DiTV and mobile (as well as other channels). The Digital Inclusion Agenda as supported by the DCLG, is key to our work, as we offer an easy, trusted, secure and economical way for local government to provide services to their digitally excluded citizens. In terms of the Efficiency Agenda, the business case for DigiTV has been confirmed with the average local government body saving a conservative £28,000 a year, with some as high as £60,000. DigiTV is also applicable to many of the core themes in the EU's e-Government programme.
Description of target users and groups
Primarily the target group is those people without PC or Internet access, those at the wrong side of the digital divide. Approximately one third of the British population does not have access to the Internet at home. However 72% of homes have digital TV (approx 19 million homes), more than with Internet access. This digitally divided group has a high consumption of Government services and DiTV and mobile are channels they have often access to. So far this group has been ignored by the e-Government agenda and DigiTV aims to offer equal and equitable access to electronic government services.
Description of the way to implement the initiative
DigiTV is a not for profit organisation wholly owned and managed by Kirklees Council for all of local government and their partners. The DigiTV team work remotely across the UK and use a range of technologies to communicate and work effectively on a national service. DigiTV is governed by a Steering Committee made up of representatives from local government and their partners. This committee meets quarterly and suggests the direction of the work, strategy and future technical developments to the team. DigiTV continues to cement partnerships across government as a whole. Central government is increasingly interested in the work we have achieved, particularly as the digital switchover is about to begin later in 2007. We have partnerships and support from a number of central government departments whose remit overlaps with local service delivery. Ongoing partnerships with Jobcentre Plus, Citizens Advice, Transport Direct and others attracts users to the service. DigiTV has partnerships with all the DiTV providers in the UK (some of whom cover other EU territories as well) and relationships with all the mobile platforms.
Technology solution
Multi-channel delivery is at the heart of DigiTV. One technology allows government organisations to publish their services on DiTV and mobile (as well as kiosks and the web). In addition systems and databases that have been developed primarily for the web are able to be integrated and made accessible via an XML feed through to the DigiTV technology for subsequent delivery on TV and mobile phones. Any request, response or ‘interaction’ by the citizen with the relevant partner is sent as an email to the appropriate area of the authority to handle within existing workflows. For instance a housing repair request would be created by the citizen using the TV remote control or mobile phone, this would be sent via the internet to the relevant agency to handle. Then according to the local workflow the job would be prioritised, created and an agent sent to the address to undertake the repair. Where appropriate some partners have integrated the customer relationship management (CRM) software with DigiTV. DigiTV has a philosophy of ‘build once, use many’, hence any local technical improvements or integrations that are completed, are subsequently made available to all at no extra cost.
Technology choice: Proprietary technologyMain results, benefits and impacts
The DigiTV technology is unique in that it allows the creator to develop a locally relevant citizen focused service once, then publishes it to Sky, cable, Freeview boxes with a return path, mobile phone platforms, kiosk and to the web concurrently. The technology is intelligent and ensures that the service creator does not break any of the technical constraints of these platforms and provides the content within the appropriate template. DigiTV was set up initially to concentrate on DiTV service delivery (hence the name). However once the technology was complete the link and commonality with mobile service delivery became apparent, in terms of the user interface and amount of content each screen/user could handle. The extension of the technology to allow mobile publishing as well has significantly raised the profile of DigiTV and made it easier for government agencies to justify the expenditure. As new platforms develop and are launched, DigiTV moves with them to ensure services are available to as many as possible. For instance the BT Vision platform has just launched and DigiTV has been accessible from the start. Similarly as viewer expectation change DigiTV technology upgrades to meet these requirements, and all improvements are scalable. When images were made available within the primarily text based services, these templates were created to ensure they could be reused to allow broadcast content when the requirement became forthcoming. It is worth noting that technology with this breadth and flexibility is not availabe from the commercial sector. It is entirely unique. To access the DigiTV technology and offer multi-channel services costs £12,000 per local government agency. A recent report by one of our partners suggested that if they had developed the technology and undertaken platform negotiations alone the cost would have been in excess of £250,000. This figure would have never even been sanctioned by a local authority and hence publishing on DiTV and mobile has only been made viable for local government agencies by the existence of DigiTV. DigiTV has piloted services, rolled out add-on services and extended the technology in line with customer and citizen expectations of these new channels. Currently 70 local authorities (including some fire and police authorities) use the technology. DigiTV has four major national partners; Jobcentre Plus, Transport Direct, Citizens Advice and the Legal Services Commission publishing UK-wide services. Again these national organisations would not have launched individual DiTV services due to cost restrictions, the attraction being the citizen focused proposition - with a mix of local and national services and information - as well as the DigiTV pricing model, technology and ease of integration.
Return on investment
Return on investment: Not applicable / Not availableTrack record of sharing
DigiTV is the first and only example of such national collaborative working with 70 local authorities all using the same technology to publish on a range of platforms. As detailed previously, all the partners who use the DigiTV technology would not be able to present their services on DiTV without DigiTV as the business case on an individual case would not be forthcoming. A number of our partners who work in local collaboration with their neighbours and service partners have really taken the opportunity to build on the central technology and make it more locally relevant. E@SYConnecnts for instance has built numerous plugin services which are now equally available on DiTV, mobile as well as online. Adding the ability to book doctors appointments or check a rent account, request a housing repair or plan a journey has enhanced their citizen focused services. Their commitment to a multi-channel delivery has won them numerous accolades and put them at the forefront of shared service delivery in the UK. DigiTV regularly shares best practice with partners, whether by emails, training, workshops or via the bureau service. The bureau option is a service we supply resource strapped local authorities, who cannot find the people to build or maintain the service. DigiTV has collated best practice from over the years and built a standard site which can be deployed with minimum effort from the partner, but offer them a relevant and usable service with no resource. DigiTV also offers to maintain this presence or hand it over for local management where appropriate.
Lessons learnt
Lesson 1 - Digital divide does not need to exist. The digital divide has been growing in the UK at an alarming rate. With government concentrating on those citizens with PC access and skills, thousands with no access, ability or interest have been left behind. Many households in the lower socio economic groups have DiTV and a high usage of government services, and over 85% of the adult UK population owns a mobile phone. DigiTV has given local government the tools to fairly offer services to all the in community and reap the efficiencies that lie within. Lesson 2 - Central negotiation works. DigiTV proved that negotiating with platform operators on behalf of the whole of local government, brought millions of pounds of savings as well as one common working practice. Lesson 3 - One technology can fit all and be able to adapt to changing requirements. From the start DigiTV took the position that DiTV would change as a delivery platform and user requirements would scale, so built in to the core of the project the need for our technology to adapt. DigiTV has been able to move with partner, platform, technical and citizen expectations and requirements with minimum cost and without needing to re-architect the technology.
Scope: National