The Techonomic Divide

Much has been written on the digital divide, whereby less af?uent citizens are (or will be) left out of the “next wave” of progress due to the ?nancial costs prohibiting their participation in the broadband society being formed. Little has been written about the transformation of the electronic payment receipt process, and how participation in e-payment requires a credit card or MasterCard/Visa debit card to complete online transactions. This has the effect of excluding the cash and check-based society from participation, and directly impacts not only the digital divide but also the ROI of these e-payment solutions to the government entity providing them. The City of Denton has worked

Insuring a Successful ERP Implementation

This chapter provides a case study of a failed enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation at a public university. Public universities, like other governmental agencies, may have more dif?culty implementing information technology (IT) because of limited resources, increased organizational bureaucracy, and extensive statutory reporting requirements. This chapter begins by identifying what an ERP system is, the dif?culties of implementing ERP systems, and the added dif?culties related to implementing technology in governmental organizations. In this case study analysis, upper managers, IT staff, and functional department end users were asked to identify why the project failed. Several lessons were learned including the importance of allocating adequate ?nancial resources to IT projects and managing the change process. As organizations move from the centralized legacy system environment which was prevalent in the last half of the 20th century, to the new distributed ERP environment, roles and responsibilities are changing. Readers are provided with practical suggestions that will help improve IT implementation success in governmental agencies.

Implementation of a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) for the City of Naperville Department of Public Utilities

This case study reviews the process that the City of Naperville Information Technology Department undertook to implement a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) for the city’s Department of Public Utilities–Water. A CMMS is a software system for managing infrastructure with tools for creating and tracking maintenance activities associated with physical assets. Typical requirements for a CMMS include the ability to handle requests for service, process work orders, plan preventive maintenance, provide for tests and inspections, and enable ad hoc searching and reporting. The software that the Naperville Water Utility chose for a CMMS was selected for its tight integration with its Geographic Information System (GIS), the computerized mapping database that contained a spatial model of the department’s water distribution and wastewater collection assets. Many of the challenges that the IT Department had in implementing the CMMS related to issues with the GIS data. In addition, several of the city’s ?nancial systems, such as accounting, utility billing, customer information systems, and inventory required integration with the CMMS. The case study will cover the complexities of integration with these disparate data sources that have both a technical and organizational basis. Finally, as with all implementations of software systems, the element of organizational change needed to be addressed. For that reason, business process mapping and re-engineering practices were employed to support the deployment of the software.

The Challenges of Building a Knowledge Management System for Local Collaboration

This chapter provides a case study of building a knowledge management system for collaboration between local governments. It describes the management and development of such a system including Web sites and online search and submission of collaborative agreements. It also stresses the importance of coordination and management support for a multi-party development team. Data quality assurance should also be an integral part of the data collection and migration from a paper-based to an electronic system. The authors hope to shed light on the interrelated components of building a knowledge management system on collaboration. Moreover, the ?ndings of the case study inform the practice of managing a multi-party development team.

The New York State Web Site

How does a very large and diverse state government with a long history of decentralized IT management go about creating a high-quality state-wide Web site? This case describes New York State’s distributed approach to Web site development as well as the strategies, bene?ts, weaknesses, and continuing challenges of a distributed Web management structure.

Conquering the Invasion of Technology

This case study evaluates the offering of online property tax collections to constituents within Stonewall County, Georgia. It addresses the costs associated with offering such a service, whether or not the county’s citizens would use such a service, and the approval and/or absorption of convenience fees by the county. Most of the events in the case study are based on real-life events but the names have been changed to preserve anonymity.

GovBenefits.gov

This case study examines how 10 federal agencies came together in the fall of 2001 to implement an e-government initiative as part of President George W. Bush’s Presidential Management Agenda. The initiative, known as GovBenefits.gov™, is a Web site that connects citizens to 1,000 (390 federal and 610 state government) benefit and assistance programs. Through a series of personal interviews and an examination of program documentation, the case study explores the people, technology, and processes used to launch and maintain the Web site. The author arrives at five lessons learned, which are: (1) Establish a clear value proposition; (2) Develop shared risk and rewards; (3) Develop tangible results quickly; (4) Use creativity to get the word out; and (5) Don’t stop innovating.

Technology Contracting in the Public Sector

Many different types of large, complex technology-related initiatives (such as the implementation of modern enterprise resource planning systems) are now becoming more popular in the public sector, posing formidable challenges to the organizations undertaking them. This chapter examines, from the point of view of a practicing information technology attorney, various different challenges facing public entities in technology contracting, drawing on examples from various public-sector projects, as well as from relevant private-sector experiences. Observations and suggestions are provided with regard to the entire contracting process, from preparing for a project, networking with colleagues, and drafting an RFP, to the types of contractual provisions that might be appropriate in technology agreements, to suggested negotiation processes and strategies, to steps to take after the contracts are signed.

To Shop and Buy in L.A.

This case study focuses on the modernization of purchasing practices and policies by a large city government. It hinged on harvesting savings from existing processes as the sole means of funding the introduction of a new enterprise procurement or supply chain technology system. The case demonstrates the essential role of changing organizational behaviors, re-engineering processes, assessing risk, and judging the level of bene?ts that can realistically be achieved through the introduction of new information systems.

YerelNet (Local Network)

This chapter presents the case study of YerelNet (Local Network, in Turkish), which is a Web portal and a Web-enabled communication platform for local governments in Turkey. The project was initiated for gathering reliable, complete, and updated data about Turkish local governments. The chapter ?rst describes the background of the case, the Turkish administrative system, brie?y. Then, it presents the nature and important actors of, as well as the strategic decisions made within the project, together with problems experienced and solutions found by the project staff. The chapter ends with the critical evaluation of the case as an interesting application e-government in a developing nation, with small IT budgets and particular cultural challenges.