Chicago, the City of Big Shoulders (and even bigger political and business deals), has chosen Loop-based software provider Electronic Knowledge Interchange (EKI) to create a community Web portal. It will feature answers to questions regarding city services, allowing residents to pay fees such as their water bills in what aims to be a more efficient manner.

Angela Ball, deputy chief information officer for e-government strategic planning for the city, said the city is "pretty excited" by the partnership and project.

"They put together a brilliant team," Ball said. "They had a good handle on our concerns and had a number of competitors, but from the start, they were committed to the city."

With the new system the city is also promising to improve upon it's current system for paying parking tickets online.

Currently, one must have a specific parking ticket number in order to pay, but the new system will allow people to sign in and see not only how much they owe in parking tickets, but also tell a resident if the water bill or other required city fee is past due.

Ball did not give specific details of the deal because she says EKI and the city are still in negotiations. In addition to EKI and KPMG, Bank One is helping with the online bill project. EKI has a standing relationship with the city, as it was selected as a technology sponsor for the Chicago Ping-Pong 2000 Festival.

EKI beat out troubled Chicago-based consulting firm Xpedior for the contract, which shut its doors Tuesday.

Robert Blackwell, president and CEO of EKI, said the company has done some e-government projects before, though he declined to say which projects those were.

"I think that we have a very good reputation for doing this kind of work," Blackwell said. "The city did a very good job of [detailing] what their requirements were."

Ball said, however, that the measuring stick for return on investment would be how convenient the new site will be for Chicago residents. To that end, Ball said city officials conducted focus group research to find out what citizens wanted in an Internet bill pay system.

Predictably, they found that people would rather pay from the comfort of their homes than have to stand in line at City Hall's friendly confines to pay their bills.

"The thing that we hear is that if they don't have to stand in line for (basic) tasks, why make them?," Ball said. "Even with parking tickets, the overwhelming response was: 'This is great. We want more.'"

Citizens will get more answers to their questions regarding which city department handles what program. Chris O'Brien, chief information officer for the city, said residents will be able to ask their questions in plain English, much like the search engine "Ask Jeeves."

O'Brien said the Web portal, which is scheduled to debut at the same time as the online bill pay system, will give those residents answers to which city or county department could handle their request or concern.

While the new system aims to save citizens' time at City Hall, O'Brien said the new system will also save the city money and man hours.