Avanade Closes In On E-Government Opportunities, Deals

Microsoft and its partners are zeroing in on the growing e-government services opportunities.

On Tuesday, Avanade and its chief consulting partner, Accenture, unveiled a new solution that local, state and federal governments can use to get their e-businesses up and running faster. Avanade is a joint services venture unveiled last March between Microsoft and Accenture, formerly Andersen Consulting.

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates unveiled the solution at Microsoft's fourth annual Government Leaders Conference here.

The Accenture eGovernment Accelerator is a solution that consists of several e-forms packages, Microsoft's .Net Enterprise Servers and the Avanade Component Architecture, an application framework that integrates business logic for many e-government functions, executives say. The XML-enabled solution is based on Windows 2000, BizTalk 2000 and SQL Server 2000.

"It allows government at all levels to rapidly deliver seamless government services across the Internet," said Ashish Kumar, CTO of Avanade. "It's the first vertical-oriented solution out of Avanade."

Avanade currently has 150 Windows 2000 implementation projects and 117 corporate customer engagements worldwide, including eBay, EMI and The Wall Street Journal.

Avanade executives say they are close to finalizing several federal, state and international government deals based on the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator solution, but declined to discuss specifics. However, the Wyoming Department of Administration and Information is one customer cited on a press statement issued Tuesday morning.

Avanade executives say the solution enables governments to move beyond providing printable PDF forms on the Internet to enable true transactions between governments and their citizens and taxpayers. The eGovernment Accelerator uses JetForm's FormFlow 99 and ReachForm products.

"It's really a dead end," Kumar said of today's limited e-forms process. "There's a mishmash of technology today, but no one has laid out a big-picture solution the way this one does."

Executives say the bulk of the implementation work will be performed by Avanade in conjunction with Accenture, but there will be opportunities for systems integrators with government experience, as well as opportunities for Microsoft Consulting Services. "We don't anticipate this solution being delivered outside of the content of the Avanade Accenture engagement, but we'll have subcontractors involved," Kumar said.

Tweet

   

More Channel Programs