Bloomberg said government isn't very good at providing access to services or heightening awareness of services available to the public.
"In this city, we spend $42 billion a year on services for the public, and I venture to say that most people don't have any idea of what we provide," Bloomberg said, adding that he believes government can do a much better job of reaching people with information and services and calling for an end to a system that requires residents to fill out redundant forms and wade through agency silos to do business with government.
"What do you do to make city government get more value for all the money it spends?" he asked, and then outlined the city's new 311 initiative. "We want to use technology to make the people of New York City more productive."
Bloomberg said New York City residents have to scan 11 pages of government listings in the city's phone book to find the information they need -- and sometimes they can't find that information.
The new 311 customer service line will combine about 40 agency help desks in one central location where operators are cross-trained and multi-lingual to address the city's diverse population. Bloomberg said demographic research has found that between 120 and 140 different languages are spoken in the city of 8 million people.
He said call-center operators will be trained in the top four or five languages with on-call translators for others.
"Anytime you need the service, it's our responsibility to be there," Bloomberg said.
The mayor acknowledged that the challenge of implementing the 311 system is not in the technology, but in managing the human element. The melding of help-desks from disparate agencies; the incompatibilities of phone systems within city government; and a natural resistance to change are the most substantial hurdles the city will face in implementing the new system.
Bloomberg said the city is already working on an effort to standardize communications systems and that procurement requirements have been developed to move the city toward eventual interoperability. He also said he is working to make city employees more comfortable with technology.
"You have to convince people it is in their interest to embrace new methods and new tools," he said. "You have to have your workforce behind you. The key to all of technology is not the purchasing of it; it's not the collection of it; and it is not the implementation of it. It's once you get there, doing something with it."
The NECCC is an alliance of government organizations that includes the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers, the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, plus other affiliate members.