Enterasys - Secure Networks

State and Local e-Government

Technology is fundamentally changing the way organizations operate and deliver services, and the institutions of state and local governments are no exception. In fact, many governments have formed e-government commissions to proactively evaluate and implement opportunities available thanks to advanced technology.

With e-initiatives, state and local governments are beginning to redesign business processes to meet the demands of citizens who question why, if e-commerce is available for enterprises of all types, it isn't available for government services like permitting, payment of property tax, licensing and more.

It's Available Thanks to the Internet

The rate of adoption of Internet technology—to a critical mass of 50 million people—has eclipsed that of all other mediums that preceded it. Radio existed for 38 years before 50 million people tuned in; TV took 13 years to reach that benchmark and cable crossed the line in ten years. Sixteen years after the PC was available, 50 million people were using one. Yet, once it was available to the general public, the Internet reached critical mass in just four years. In fact, in the year 2000, the number of Internet users in the U.S. alone grew to 95 million.

Extending Availability

Government agencies have implemented technology as a series of tools that enables workers to be more efficient in their daily tasks, but today the opportunity exists to extend that technology beyond government employees to the community at large. Easy, low-cost access to the Internet now offers citizens a new opportunity to interact with government.

In the past, citizen interaction with a government agency required travel to a government facility and direct contact with a government employee. Today, such contact can often be completed via the Internet. This means of "virtual" access can operate in conjunction with the face-to-face way of doing business with little to no impact on facility space allowing the existing facility to handle all future growth. Additional and short-term programs, which would require additional staffing, can be easily implemented in an e-government environment for direct digital access by individual consumers.

E-government transactions account for less than 5% of all government transactions today. As the ability to interact electronically expands, the potential to automate a majority of transactions will grow. At the same time, however, those transactions that by their nature require face-to-face interaction will remain in their current form. Importantly, the ability for government to interact with its suppliers currently exists in some form for vendors of all types. Government interaction with constituents provides the greatest opportunity for growth with the greatest payback; automated offerings can handle large transaction loads around the clock with no affect on staffing.

Designing and Planning for Rapid Growth

Once implemented, automated transactions are embraced quickly and often experience tremendous growth within just a few months of being placed online. The networking infrastructure that facilitates these applications must be planned, designed and executed with adequate bandwidth to accommodate the growth that will occur or with a modular design to add bandwidth as needed. Other concerns are the institution of process control features within the infrastructure to allow prioritization of bandwidth and security.

Information dissemination, on-line transactions and interactive conferencing (audio, video and data) are tools being planned and put into place in government agencies at all levels. Implementing these tools can be a challenge if the networking infrastructure is not adequate in both bandwidth and features. As a result, technology planning should address the overall infrastructure to ensure adequate capacity and features to allow ongoing processes to continue without interruption as well as to provide for new automated service offerings to be added.

Issues of Concern

Whether interaction is person-to-person or electronic, government agencies face significant policy issues. These include:

• Privacy
• Security
• Data sharing among agencies
• Equity

These concerns and others must be considered in the near future if e-government is to impact the public sector in the way it has affected the private sector. What will be more successful: click-and-order or brick-and-mortar, or some combination of the two. Will governments who provide more services online have an economic development advantage? Electronic transactions are less prone to errors and rework and are therefore more efficient. At this time, we can only speculate that government will be fundamentally different as a result of technology and those that do not change my have a difficult time in this new economy.