Public sector IT association Socitm has launched a campaign to encourage broader transformation of local public services through IT.

The society will run the initiative under the e2government banner it launched earlier this year to promote a more radical version of e-government, with a stronger focus on business requirements rather than standalone IT projects.

Socitm president Angela Waite, said one aim of the scheme is to improve back-office efficiencies and save resources. "We need to look across authorities and organisations... and rethink the way we deliver services from the point of view of the citizen," she said. "Why go to two places for the same service? There [are] ways to join those services together and deliver them from a single point."

IT chiefs in the public sector might also need to alter the way they work, to support change management. "IT managers are aware of the technology they have been implementing, but they now need a different role - to encourage the service managers to embrace the changes that IT can deliver," said Waite.

Socitm will run a series of events as part of the campaign, starting with an exhibition at the EU Ministerial E-government Conference in Manchester in November. Here it will showcase a number of case studies from local authority projects across the UK, as good examples of transformational change. The organisation also plans to publish a series of reports from December on topics such as business process redesign.

"We're trying to demonstrate to our members how they can deliver business transformation to their own organisations," Waite commented. "The case studies [in the Manchester conference] will provide examples of good practice and the publications will build on that."

David Oates, vice-president international at project management specialist Primavera, said that the public sector is still catching up with the corporate world in terms of managing projects.

"Ten years ago technology was driving business because it looked good, but now it has to be a facilitator and the business has to drive technology," Oates said. He added that greater accountability is forcing public sector staff to improve their attitude to project work.