The Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council`s MetroNet is a positive example of the local government`s move towards transparency as the department is in the throes of implementing some 80 Lotus Notes databases for internal use and eventually for the public.The move was initiated in 1991 by a management committee decision to implement Lotus Notes Release 3 for tracking and monitoring Council decisions and publishing an internal telephone directory."The World Wide Web hadn`t seen the light of day back then and so Notes was a logical way to go - we had the skills to implement it and keep the databases rolling," says Leon Janse van Rensburg, MetroNet manager."MetroNet has changed the way we distribute information to our staff and in the long term the general public. What we plan to offer is a one stop shop - consumers will be able to pay accounts as well as have access to information located at a central point on our networks."MetroNet`s use of Notes as a database infrastructure has grown. In February 1996 the Council decided to go the intranet route to provide a user friendly workflow application for councillors and staff throughout the metropolis. "The aim was to provide an effective and efficient information management tool," explains Janse van Rensburg.Following this decision, the Council installed Notes release 4 on desktops across the organisation as a precursor to the upgrade of its server package two months later."We completed the Domino server upgrade in August last year. Our Web site, also driven by Domino, was launched in September. Since then it has received in excess of 70 000 hits (between 600-700 per day)," says Janse van Rensburg."Implementing and using Notes Release 4 was a simple process. We did not have to retrain our users even though the overall look and feel was different. The department was also pleased with Domino`s text indexing abilities which made it easy for us to get results."MetroNet users have access to 100MBs of public information (around 4500 HTML pages) with the greater Johannesburg and four other Metro Local Councils connected to the network. According to Janse van Rensburg this number is set to grow to meet the demands of staff who are requesting the development of additional databases."When the development work is done we believe most of the 25 000 employees GJMC wide will have access to MetroNet," he estimates. "We want everyone on board. The idea is to keep development within the department and to train staff to update information."We realised we had to provide as broad a base of information as possible. This meant that user input was a critical feature of the development."Typical MetroNet features include a search engine, telephone directory, upper management information, schedules and venues of committee meetings, online media and MetroNet index of information. Additional examples include legal (constitutional) information; local, provincial and national substructures; policy documentation; Council decisions; capital expenditure and project monitoring; budget estimates, HR data; and links to political sites.Richard Woock, MD at Collaborative Business Systems, the Lotus business partner providing Notes infrastructure support and consulting to the Council, says Metronet is amongst the best examples of Lotus Domino Web development and deployment in South Africa."The support for a wide range of information products - from purely informational databases to intelligent applications - highlight the flexibility of Domino. As Domino evolves the GJMC is studying the newest features and how to implement them in the next Metronet releases - for an ever increasing audience."
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