Public sector (state and local) – technology trends and ideas

Increasingly “Voter ROI” is becoming important – investments that improve constituent/customer service, that in turn improves voter satisfaction. Government Financial Officers now consider environmental benefits in ROI calculation in addition to dollar benefits. Here is a quick look at the trends and some ideas.

Parking meter in Germany

Parking

I would really like a “system” that I could access on my browser-enabled phone to not just find parking spots but know which ones are available/full, and the cost. This will avoid me from driving around to find available parking. Further the data should be provided to FM/MSN traffic data for use in GPS (may be revenue source for cities). In addition it will be sweet to be able to use my smart phone to pay parking meters and extend the time without having to leave a meeting and walk downstairs. I would not recommend this for every city but this will be very useful in metros like Chicago and New York with parking scarcity.

Several airports and universities provide parking availability online. San Francisco is implementing a mesh of sensors that will be implanted on the roads to monitor availability of each spot.

To calculate ROI for Chicago consider how many people keep driving in to Navy Pier or the Zoo during summers to find out that the lot is full. I use public transportation if I have to go to the city during the week but I would imagine that such a service would be needed even more during week days.

Shared services, Consolidate, Standardize, Virtualize, Cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS)

Technology services don’t need to have the same boundaries as the government structure. Example – email  infrastructure can easily be shared across cities and counties with a method to bill-back. Similarly every library does not need its own independent system. This idea can be extended to servers and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems for financial management, human resources management etc.

Tucson AZ has already done a project to consolidate and standardize. Missouri consolidated data centers to realize a $2.4 million reduction in assessments to state agencies in FY06.

DC has implemented google apps so they don’t have to install and maintain email, document processing infrastructure etc. GSA provides a list of cloud computing apps on Apps.Gov.

Besides dollar ROI there are also green benefits for data center consolidation. I have not calculated the environmental benefit, if any, of cloud computing.

Social Media

Blogs can be used to improve communication with the constituents.

San Francisco has launched a twitter 311 program to provide an alternative to the phone service.

Wiki sites open up discussions and help identify solutions to problems.

Online polls help seek feedback and guage perception.

Online forms can be used to encourage whistle blowers to report corruption and wrong doing.

Professional groups on networking sites liked LinkedIn can increase communication between government officials beyond annual conferences to share ideas and challenges. School administrators, CIOs etc can all increase cooperation and collaboration.

Telecommunications

Voice over IP (VoIP) is a technology that routes phone calls over the internet instead of the traditional phone lines – this method typically has lower phone bills.  Also telecommunications companies are now much more open to re-negotiate contracts.

Mashups

Technologies can be combiner to create powerful systems. Geo-spatial software like Google or Microsoft maps can be combined with data about housing, crime, school performance etc to provide use information to the citizens. Another example is citizens using this technology to tell city about the location of potholes on a map. Seattle has mashup showing Fire911 calls at http://web1.seattle.gov/mnm/?tabId=2.

Online customer service

Online request systems can help reduce wait time on the phone and increase customer satisfaction.

Telecommuting

Telecommuting is not common yet in the public sector. The commercial sectors have seen a move towards shared workspace and telecommute to reduce real-estate expenses. Video conferencing is increasingly being used to limit travel.

Open source

Open source is increasing being used as budget pressures increase. It saves RFP process and licensing cost. However you need to focus more on support and training.

Transparency

Some state and local governments are making all kinds of data available online such as financial transactions (all purchases by government), crime statistics, building permits, and restaurant health inspections.