Integrated local service systems: part 3

In the first article (IJPSM Vol. 11 No. 6) on integrated local service systems (ILSS) we outlined the key features of this type of application of computers using the benefit service as an example. The second article (IJPSM, Vol. 12 No. 1) described the advantages and disadvantages of the system both as technology and as an information technology strategy. For this third and final article some of the evidence for the increasing demand for an ILSS is referred to with a complementary description of the supply side. As the information available suggests that such systems will be developed and, in some senses, already have been introduced, we then provide information to assist any local authority, or part of a local authority such as a benefits service, with the preparation of a specification prior to tendering for an ILSS.