Report Profiles State and Local Government Investment in Mobility Technologies

CDW Government, Inc. (CDW-G) yesterday released the fourth in a series of the State & Local Government Technology Investment Curve (TIC), an assessment of state and local government purchasing behavior since 2003. This edition of the TIC maps all potential state, county and city government customers against four years of CDW-G customer data on a range of mobility technologies, such as notebooks, non-wireless handhelds and wireless communication devices. Encompassing all 50 states, more than 100,000 products and 1,000 manufacturers, CDW-G said in a release that the TIC provides an accurate, unbiased assessment of state and local government technology investment.

Of all 50 states, Utah and Wisconsin are the lead investors in mobility technologies. Utah leads the states with a mobility investment profile 257 percent higher than the average, and Wisconsin follows with an investment profile 210 percent higher than the average. These lead investor states demonstrate significant, committed investment in mobility technologies at all levels of government and over the entire four-year assessment. Utah and Wisconsin are followed in mobility technology investment by early investors California, New York, Oregon and Colorado, with mobility investment profiles between 114 percent and 73 percent higher than average. Next in investment are 12 early majority states, led by Virginia, Washington, Ohio and Maryland.

Mobility technologies enable state and local government employees to send and receive information and complete tasks in the field. The TIC analysis includes four mobility technology categories: wireless notebooks, Apple notebooks, non-wireless handhelds and wireless communication devices. Mobility technologies enable state and local governments to improve emergency response times and employee productivity, bring services to citizens where they live and work, and eliminate paper-based processes.

The TIC for mobility technologies is not an assessment of leadership in mobility technology or quality of deployments. Rather, the curve is a quantitative, relative index of investment in mobility technologies. Mobility technology investment is a single component of the people, processes and technologies required to bring data and applications directly to employees in the field, improve public safety, eliminate the need to return to offices to complete tasks, and improve continuity of operations capabilities.

Looking specifically at the lead and early investor states, CDW-G and interviewees in state, county and municipal governments identified common elements that lead to more aggressive investments in mobility technologies, including:

• Development of public safety initiatives that deliver mission-critical information to patrol and emergency response vehicles
• Creation of paperless systems, increasing government productivity and cross-agency information sharing
• Development of programs that bring government services to citizens where they live and work
  

The State & Local TIC for mobility technologies has a margin of error of less than 2 percent, according to the company.