CARMEN aims to improve relationships between citizens, businesses and Local Authorities by deploying a modern back office operation that combines new multi-media channels as well as traditional access methods. The new CRM-like back office system will offer citizens and businesses alike far more communication choice and extended functionalities with city services by fully exploiting the benefits of broadband and mobile communications - including web portals as well as call centers, SMS and other technologies. In addition, the system will also enable Public Administrations to respond to citizens and businesses more individually by providing an archive track of citizen requests that can be used in the development of personal and group profiles.
This project is part of the eTen group of projects occurring across Europe.
eTEN is the European Community Programme designed to help the deployment of telecommunication networks based services (e-services) with a trans-European dimension. It focuses strongly on public services, particularly in areas where Europe has a competitive advantage. The programme aims to accelerate the take up of services to sustain the European social model of an inclusive, cohesive society. Its objectives are at the very heart of the
eEurope mission of "an information society for all".
For more information about eTen please visit:
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/eten/library/about/intro/index_en.htmBy providing the CARMEN CRM Platform in an ASP mode to the Public Administrations participating in the project, the task of making huge investments is avoided. These modules will be integrated into the applications already available in the cities.
Each participating city will be able to capture key information from the existing databases, and deliver it to citizens and SMEs in a variety of means, also making use of personal or group profiles. The delivery of information will take advantage as much as possible of the existing broadband infrastructures and mobile communication systems.
The application domains where the service will be introduced have been identified in advance by the Pilot Cities, and encompass a wide range of application fields from Environment to Traffic & Mobility, Personal Services and e-Democracy.
CARMEN will start with a Market Validation phase (18 months), where each participating city will pilot a number of services, selected among their existing applications. These services will be integrated into the CARMEN CRM platform and evaluated with a view to replicating them in one or more other cities. Such analysis will be extended so as to address the viability of the services at the European level.
