S
PHERE
36
E - C O M M E R C E
fact that many of our customers
come back and give us new contracts
within a short period. It means they really
appreciate the value we create for them,”
says Tony.
N
EW
H
ORIZONS
The innovative and unique model
combining both government and
commercial services has in the meantime
placed ESD
life
at the forefront of the
e-government sector world-wide. In
their latest study of global e-government,
Accenture, the international management
and technology consultants, ranked Hong
Kong seventh globally, ahead of well-
developed countries such as the UK,
Germany and Japan.
“We’re at the global vanguard of
e-services,”Tony confirms.
For the future, the sky’s the limit with
more services rolling out all the time.
These include the latest facility that
enables the public to use mobile phones
to connect to government services and
an e-shopping mall, which is currently
selling 15 categories of products ranging
from medical check-up packages to
badminton rackets. It is linked to
Hutchison’s business network, including
Fortress,Watson’sWine Cellar, bigboXX,
Priceline, Orange and the Harbour
Plaza Hotel Group, which together offer
a wide spectrum of good value products
for online sale.
W
ORLD
L
EADER
While the success of ESD
life
is best
measured by the public response, the
portal has also been recognised
internationally, winning prestigious
awards such as the Stockholm Challenge,
in which, out of 740 competing projects
from 90 countries, ESD
life
won top
prize in the “Public Services &
Democracy” category in 2001. ESD
life
was cited for being “strongly focused
on customer-orientation, reflected in
the design of the user interface,
integration of public and commercial
services, and diversity of payment
methods, including strong measures of
security for personal data protection.”
ESD
life
is not only destined to take
pressure off government staff resources
and reduce red tape, but is developing
into an exciting new business model.
“We’ve reached an important milestone
on Hong Kong’s road to becoming
a Digital City and are now building on
it,” says Tony Ma.
“Can you imagine the next generation
filling in all the forms and joining all the
queues like we do today? It simply isn’t
going to happen.”
The ESD
life
portal offers
students a convenient way
to check their examination
results.
The e-government facility enables bilingual access to
more than 170 services, ranging from filing tax
returns and renewing vehicle licences to applying for
a new ID card.
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