MULTI-million pound plans by a York firm to bring e-government to York and North Yorkshire are going ahead, but with only five of the original nine councils on board.

Agilisys, a joint venture between Jarvis and Netdecisions, based at Jarvis House, York, announced today that its plans to bring integrated hi-tech solutions to local authority services throughout the region would now move forward .

The "e" or not to "e" issue arose with objections from Unison, the local government union, plus concerns expressed in a report by the Association for Public Service Excellence about the "deliverability" of the plan, both of which have been vigorously refuted by Agilisys.

The four authorities who have dropped out are Selby, Harrogate and Craven district councils as well as Scarborough Borough Council.

But now the North Yorkshire ITC Partnership will consist of the five participating authorities - Ryedale, City of York, Hambleton, Richmondshire and North Yorkshire County Council.

They plan to sign a contract with Agilisys over the next six months

The plan, part of "e-government" policy, is to enable hundreds of thousands of people in York and North Yorkshire to make one-stop phone calls, send e-mails or make interactive internet calls to deal with their local authority concerns.

It would mean being able to electronically submit or study planning applications, renew library books, notify changes of address for council tax purposes or even pay parking fines 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Charles Mindenhall, chief executive of Agilisys, said: "This is a ground-breaking, highly innovative programme, and we are committed to helping the councils achieve their ambitious goals."

Meanwhile, Agilisys has announced a string of new IT contracts totalling millions of pounds.

The firm has started working with the Northern Ireland Social Security Agency (NISSA) to improve delivery of the JobSeekers' Allowance. Already, says the company, this pilot project is being extremely well received, achieving much needed efficiency savings of up to 50 per cent.

Parcelforce Worldwide has selected Agilisys to implement a 14 hour-a-day, seven day-a-week real-time parcel tracking, re-delivery and pricing information service.

Agilisys, with netdecisions, was selected to build and host Waterscape.com, recently launched by British Waterways, which, says the York firm, has resulted in ways of transforming the existing waterways assets into holiday destinations.

Working to tight deadlines, Agilisys has just delivered on the Police Federation of England and Wales' (PFEW) urgent need to design and replace its core infrastructure to help improve its support to the 43 branches spread across England and Wales. The whole project, from procurement to sign off, took three weeks and was delivered within budget.

Tube Lines, the company that has taken over the maintenance and upgrade of the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines on the London Underground, has selected Agilisys, working with Oracle Corporation, to integrate its top IT applications for asset, project and content management, as well as geographic information.

Argos, the High Street retailer, has contracted Agilisys to host its e-mail campaigns. Argos.co.uk is now the third largest online retailer in the UK.

Hammersmith & Fulham Borough Council has just placed Agilisys on a short list of two, to partner in the development of an innovative customer contact centre. The contact centre will use telephone, email and text messages to improve two-way communication with residents.

Updated: 12:08 Thursday, December 18, 2003