CICT to develop shared software services for government use

By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net

The Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) plans to develop shared software services for government use, starting with a real property tax system that was developed by the National Computer Center (NCC).

Through the NCC’s Center of Excellence project, the CICT is looking at developing shared software applications.

One of these government applications include the Real Property Tax System, which is an open source-based software, now used by 300 municipalities in the country, said CICT Commissioner Tim Diaz de Rivera in an interview.

"We've deployed the Real Property Tax System in 300 municipalities. But it really takes months to set up the database for this system," the government executive said.

The difficulties in deploying such a system, and issues involving the lack of open source experts to man the system has led the CICT to think of developing a shared software services system, Diaz de Rivera added.

The idea is to develop a shared application for fifth- and sixth-class municipalities. So the real property tax system can now be accessed via the web. The system will be set up in the provincial capital, which would translate to more cost savings and easier deployment, the government executive said.

The real property tax system was deployed in six municipalities in Cebu, he said.

"We will pilot this using the shared services of the application service provider (ASP) model so that several local government units (LGUs) can collaborate in improving the software and customizing it to their needs. We have identified the second district of Cebu as the pilot municipality," the CICT executive said.

Diaz de Rivera said there are more government applications that are available to other agencies. They include software system for financials, an electronic library (eLibrary) developed for the National Library, electronic governance system for local government units (eLGU) now used in NCC.

But CICT is looking at creating shared services for a national government accounting system, business permit and licenses system, real property taxes and treasury management.

During a conference of government executives, Diaz de Rivera said the CICT will also push the use of the Department of Budget and Management's Integrated Budgeting System in other agencies. The system has helped DBM in its budget execution process and eGovernance.

Meanwhile, the government executive said that the NCC is now conducting pilot test of collaboration software for back office productivity.