Portugal's Agency for the Public Services Reform (AMA) is revamping the country's main eGovernment portals for citizens and businesses. It will use the open source portal software Liferay.
Using open source tools, says Goncalo Caseiro, spokesperson for AMA, is "in line with the European eGovernment Action Plan and the recently approved Portuguese Global Strategic Plan for the Rationalization and Cost Reduction in ICT in Public Administration."
Caseiro says that Liferay was selected following a benchmark process that compared several alternatives. The open source solution came out as best in terms of reliability and flexibility, allowing AMA's engineers to build the portal's functional requirements. "This solution will also generate savings of several hundred thousand euro, compared to proprietary solutions."
The Citizen Portal was launched in 2004, with the Business Portal following two years later. They are 'one stop shops' provided by Portugal's public administrations. The Citizen's Portal offers 1138 services from 336 entities, the Business Portal offers 4019 services, involving 143 entities.
"The two portals are a central piece in the Portuguese strategy for a modern and open public administration", AMA's spokesperson said. "They focus on the needs and convenience of citizens and companies."
The portals are part of a multichannel strategy to provision public services. Other channels include a national network of Citizen and Business Shops and Citizen and Business Contact Centres, that can be reached by phone and by email.
More information:
Citizens Portal
Business Portal