AN INFORMATION technology company set to win a contract worth £270 million and generating 2,000 new jobs in North Yorkshire, today pledged to stay in York.

What is more, Agilisys will be looking for yet more offices in the city should nine authorities in the county finally sign the deal to let it transform local government services in the region over the next ten years.

This is in spite of the company being placed on the shortlist of other UK local authorities seeking to revamp their communications.

Already Agilisys has been selected as "preferred bidder" to allow 750,000 people in York and North Yorkshire to benefit from 21st century technology.

This, combined with new administrative strategies and thinking could offer people the choice of inter-acting with their town halls using one-stop phone calls, sending e-mails or making interactive internet calls.

Already Agilisys has started the fact-finding phase with the councils to herald the prospect of electronic submission or scrutiny of planning applications, Internet renewal of library books, change-of-address notifications and even payment of car parking fines.

Kevin Lavery, who only 11 months ago led Agilisys's breakaway as the systems division of parent company Jarvis, said he was committed to staying in York, where Agilisys occupies the third floor of Jarvis House.

But should he sign the contract with the North Yorkshire IT Partnership, his staff numbers would double to 800 over offices in York, London and a small base in India. But the bulk of extra staff would be in York, where by 2005 numbers would rise from 250 to 600.

"We are looking for other property options in the city in addition to Jarvis House," he said, but stressed: "This is not a done deal. We are still only preferred bidder, which means that we are going to have exclusive negotiations." Assumptions had to be tested with facts to reduce the risk to councils. "For example, if you are talking about how people currently access the council by phone, it is important to know what are the existing volumes and where calls are directed, how many staff are needed and the time taken to deal with calls.

"That we use as a benchmark to make improvements. Then comes an assessment of how we can make those improvements through new technology."

The Government has set a deadline for local authorities to be "e-enabled" by 2005 so when did he expect work to begin?

"It will take as long as it takes, because we want to make sure that we work with the individual councils to get it right and not have unnecessary duplication ."

But technology was not everything. "The reality is that the customer expectation is not to stop using the phone. If you pick a holiday on the internet you then pick up a phone to book it. It is not about shifting from one access means purely to the other. People might often use both by choice.We want to work with the councils to agree all the technology applications, type of software applications and telephony arrangements. "

Updated: 10:24 Tuesday, May 27, 2003