Australian Councils Turn to Civica for Integrated Solutions

Ten new customers endorse suitability of AUTHORITY solution for local government

16th September 2003, London/Sydney... Civica, one of the most experienced specialist providers of public sector software and services continues to demonstrate strong momentum in the Australian local government sector. Over recent months, ten councils have chosen the company's AUTHORITY solution.

Highlights include:

• The City of Mandurah. This major regional centre to the south of Perth is one of the fastest growing areas in Western Australia. The Council is implementing Civica's full suite of AUTHORITY and e-Services in order to meet the demands of diverse and growing communities. Meryl Bushby, manager of Information Management, said, "We were looking for a web-enabled system that would deliver information to the desktops of all our users. AUTHORITY had the advantage of giving us what we want now, while allowing us to expand our e-Services - the other systems could not offer that to the same extent. I will be able to access all the information on John Citizen from a single source." The City of Rockingham. Another regional centre in Western Australia to have experienced significant growth and development in recent years, Rockingham is also implementing the full suite of AUTHORITY and e-Services.
  
  
• Adelaide Hills in South Australia. This council serves 39,000 citizens and has chosen to implement AUTHORITY to manage the requirements of its rapidly expanding economy.
  
  
• Noosa Council in Queensland, renowned for its premier lifestyle, is working closely with Civica to achieve its objectives of building a sustainable lifestyle economy.
  
  
• Strong success was also demonstrated in New South Wales and in addition to the sale of AUTHORITY Water Billing and Financials to Riverina Water County Council, Civica also won business at Orange, Dubbo, Griffith and Kiama Councils and Camden Council. These sites have all chosen to replace a number of disparate IT systems with the consolidated AUTHORITY Enterprise Wide Solution.

Civica is the largest supplier of specialist public sector software in Australia and has a proven, long-term track record with more than 100 councils throughout the country running its local government applications. In addition to public sector solutions, the company has also developed solutions for library management, the health insurance industry and distribution and freight management.

Civica's AUTHORITY solution is integrated by design to provide a single, complete framework for councils' IT and eGovernment systems. AUTHORITY views a customer (which may be a rate-payer, a business, a Government department, a Committee, a visitor or any other entity that has a relationship with the Council) as a single entity, and therefore a customer is recorded only once within the database. The many different views of the customers' relationships with council may then be accessed utilizing the inherent power of the relational database.
This provides Council with great flexibility in the management of information and provides ease of analysis and reporting.

According to IDC, Asia/Pacific eGovernment spending in 2002 reached US$880 million, and is forecast to reach US$1,477 million in 2007, with a 2002-2007 Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.9%. IDC identifies Asia's leading eGovernments as Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Peter Anderson, managing director at Civica Pty Limited said. "Councils across Australia remain committed to eGovernment as a route to improved services and continually want to raise the bar. The enthusiasm for our AUTHORITY and e-Services solutions continues to endorse our strategy of an integrated enterprise solution for local government."

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About Civica Plc.
Civica (www.civica.co.uk / www.civica.com.au) is one of the UK's most experienced specialist providers of software and services to the public sector. Supplying many organisations in the UK, Australia and the USA, including over 700 local authorities, the company has an 18-year history of delivering effective software solutions to local government, police, healthcare, criminal justice and education organisations, and major commercial firms. Civica Services Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary, is an approved Prime Contractor for software in the UK Government's GCat procurement catalogue. The company employs approximately 500 people globally and has a record of profitable growth.