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Lessons from the Front Lines of E-Government

But self-service self-reliant customers for the private sector can be bad news for government. "Companies have reduced headcount, cut overhead, merged, and offloaded benefits"

Wednesday's session at GTC "Feats and Fiascos from the Front Lines of E-Government" featured speakers who now work for CGI, but who have had plenty of experience on those front lines. The session not only provided a broad historical overview of the subject, but put context into today's efforts and advanced some possibilities for the future.

Steve Kolodney

First up with Steve Kolodney, former CIO of Washington state. "We have wired the world," said Kolodney, "Three billion people are now connected. Today, India, China and Russia are competing with us person-by-person, organization-by-organization, and our technology edge is gone." He said outsourcing, offshoring and homeshoring are several of the terms now used to describe new ways of using technology to compete.

"Reservation agents in Jet Blue airlines," said Kolodney, "are sitting in their homes, wearing pink slippers and bathrobes. They are wired with sophisticated technology, so calls are distributed to the next available agent."

Today, you don't have to get to the airport two hours early to get a good seat on Southwest Airlines, he said. "You just get up at 12:01 a.m., print out your boarding pass, and show up 15 minutes before the flight. You now become the travel and ticket agent for Southwest airlines."

But self-service self-reliant customers for the private sector can be bad news for government. "Companies have reduced headcount, cut overhead, merged, and offloaded benefits."

Kolodney said that per-person health costs in 1960 were about $143. In 2005, they were $5,700. In 1960, only 25 percent of health care was publicly funded, but today, it's closer to 46 percent.

A show of hands revealed that about 2/3 of the audience were public-sector IT folks, and he addressed the next part of his talk to them, saying that in the mid to late 90s "automation" was the watchword. "You take manual processes and apply computer technology to make them more efficient." Then in 1997 and '98 the word was "remediation," of systems for the new century. "We spent three years and millions of dollars remediating. I was in the data center in Olympia at 12:01 and nothing terrible happened."

Next, said Kolodney, we moved past that to a new world of the Internet. The word then was "demonstration," he said. "You show how a new technology could change the way a business operated." Following that was "consolidation." But now, he explained, a new era is here, the most exciting time in government, of "innovation." But the skills most valued in consolidation are not so valued when innovation is the key. Now government must build around the customer, "innovation builds from them to us," he said. Even the motto of the federal government Web site is "my government, my terms."

Kolodney demonstrated some best practices using Access Washington, the state's Web site. The site is simple, uncluttered and help is readily available, from questions as to why the citizen came onto the site, to foreign language help, to using the metaphor of file folders which people understand. And there's even a person who will guide you through the site if you need lots of help.

Need a job? Want to start a small business? The site has clearly labeled sections to help people find exactly what they need. "Ask George," a search engine, uses questions that are asked over and over again. Government staff were surveyed to see what those questions and answers were, then they were added to the site.

"That's the new world," said Kolodney, suggesting that California needs to move in that direction. "There is more to be done."

Gregory Jackson

Gregory Jackson was with the State of Ohio from 2000-2005. "Our governor said we will have x number of services online by x date, a strategic plan in place in one year to have all services online. While that approach had some serious flaws, said Jackson, a one-stop business development site worked very well. The Ohio Business Gateway.

"Ohio was out of line in unemployment," said Jackson. We had increasing unemployment, and small businesses make up most of the non-farm work force. We didn't assume what the customers looked like, we asked about their needs, from 5,000 businesses. to Chambers of Commerce, and got a very good response." Staff sat down at workshops with business owners, asking what they wanted and needed from government. What came up was the burden of complying with government regulations, said Jackson.

Businesses were forced to spend large amounts of money doing "government stuff." Some hired attorneys just to get information from the state, and all this was impeding their ability to grow and create new businesses.

The state couldn't do much about federal requirements, but there were areas they could have an effect -- such as reducing excessive paperwork, reducing delays, and regulatory changes. It was critical to develop a "value proposition" said Jackson, and articulate it clearly. What they came up with was that every 1 percent reduction in regulatory compliance resulted in the ability for businesses to create 1,400 new jobs.

Businesses were ready and eager to do business online, so the state mapped out steps for starting a new business, and other services. Many processes were "stop and go" said Jackson, with some parts being automated, with manual bottlenecks at various points in the workflow.

The lessons learned, said Jackson could be summed up in five elements:
  • Government must market its services
  • Increase incentives and reduce "convenience fees"
  • Complete cycles, not stop and go
  • Implement new services
  • Design issues with current services
This was not a technology project, said Jackson. It was about small business and economic development, with IT an enabler. "I told the governor IT can help," said Jackson, "And we were invited to the table. We became part of the council. Don't wait to be invited, knock on the door. show how you can contribute.

"And don't just think you understand your customers -- survey them, share their pain, target your solutions. articulate a value proposition." Finally, Jackson said that Harvard found that legislative bodies have literally no idea of what it takes to implement an IT solution or how an IT solution can enable a business process. So, again, it is critical to articulate a value proposition.

Brian Freeman

Brian Freeman was involved in one of the oldest e-government initiatives in North America that began in New Brunswick, Canada, back in 1989, predating the availability of the Internet. The initiative was to modernize services to people, and the task was to redesign what government was doing.

What eventually resulted was Service New Brunswick, a gateway to all government services, which was so successful it was later replicated in the UK.

"In Oakville Ontario," said Freeman, "it takes 80 licenses to start a business that serves food and pumps gas. We should be doing life events, such as the first day of school."

In New Brunswick, said Freeman, there were tens of registries, none of which talked to another. "For a one-stop shop, you must prepare the organization to do hundreds of different things. If you don't spend money on people you will probably fail. Service New Brunswick happened, he said, because "they turned the keys over to the public." The service was good, with 92 percent satisfaction from the public. Good service became the driver for further progress. The public began calling members of Parliament asking "why do we need to come to your office, why don't you go online?"

Freeman said that service was so good, a motorist stopped for an expired license plate tag, called Service New Brunswick on his cell phone and paid for his tag before the officer could ticket him.
Wayne E. Hanson served as a writer and editor with e.Republic from 1989 to 2013, having worked for several business units including Government Technology magazine, the Center for Digital Government, Governing, and Digital Communities. Hanson was a juror from 1999 to 2004 with the Stockholm Challenge and Global Junior Challenge competitions in information technology and education.