Novell is continuing its claw back to recovery after an announcement that the Local Government Agency (LGA) has chosen the company to modernise its online services.

The agreement comes on the back of lucrative deals with BT and Linux supplier Red Hat.

It will see Novell implementing a range of their Net services software, offering upgrade protection, access to Novell Consulting and support from Novell Technical Services.

The company will provide internet security solutions for local government along with electronic identity management, messaging and centralised web management.

Steve Brown, Novell's UK managing director, said that the targets for modernising local government into e-government were aggressive. "Novell feels that they are achievable if the government adopts a 'one net' strategy to integrate intranets, extranets and the internet."

Novell has already started work on pilot projects for local government in the UK, and the LGA chose the company because they came in at a lower price than competitors Microsoft and Linux.

Paul Bray, head of IT at the LGA, said: "The deal provides a bundle of products at a good price and gives local authorities significant flexibility over previous, often extremely complex, licensing models."

First published in Network News