July 1995







Jurisdictions: None



Vendors: Bank of America;







By Larry J. Singer



The perception that most Americans want less government is probably way off the target. I think the anger from the electorate is a response to welfare programs that don't put a dent into poverty, public safety programs that leave criminals on our streets, and environmental programs that seem to ignore common sense cost/benefit analyses.



When Social Security and Medicare programs appear to be heading toward financial ruin it is not surprising that voters are angry at those who manage them. What will quiet the national mood is effective leadership and improved levels of service to the citizen.



There are parallels between government in the `90s and American industry during the `80s. American industry was losing market share to foreign competitors. It responded by adopting principles of the TQM movement, and by reengineering business processes as suggested by Michael Hammer in his landmark article and book Reengineering the Corporation. While there are significant differences between the public and private sectors, government should respond with its own effort to improve service to the citizen. The advent of powerful computing and communications capabilities is providing an opportunity to make process improvements in the information-intensive business of governance.







Move CIOs to the Head Table



If we hope to take advantage of technology to improve the performance of government, the role of the information technology professional must change from a back-room, overhead function, to leadership in policy development. The corporate Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the mid `80s was at the table with the CEO, CFO and COO, likewise, information policy leaders in state government must sit at the table with cabinet level officers and governors.



To deserve this seat, the public sector CIO will have to define his or her mission as finding technical means to achieving policy objectives. This definition should be contrasted with the practice of merely providing automation to meet end-user specifications.



New technologies are emerging constantly, with capabilities that were unheard of as recently as five years ago. This rate of change makes it impossible for end users to anticipate the potential contributions technology might make in achieving their program's mission objectives. For the power of the Information Age to be unleashed on government, capable leaders must emerge to advocate technology solutions to achieve real public value.







CORPORATE CASE STUDY



To illustrate the transformational power of technology leadership we need only look at the accomplishments of the Bank of America (B of A). Facing competition from new entries in the California banking market from foreign banks and new interstate bank corporations, B of A also was carrying debt from failed loans to third world nations. They had the difficult task of luring customers back while reducing costs. I'm sure this call to do more with less is familiar to public managers.



B of A information technologists helped develop solutions that led to increased service levels and reduced costs. Do you remember when - in addition to the tellers - there were separate desks for each type of transaction in the local bank branch offices? There was one desk for car loans, one for trusts, another for home loans and yet another for opening new accounts. The separation of responsibilities was required because of the variety of programs and the complex business rules that defined them. No one individual could possibly address customer needs for more than one line of business. The separate lines of business each had their own data