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Capitalizing On Collaboration How Shared Services Are Saving Local Government Budgets
Capitalizing On Collaboration How Shared Services Are Saving Local Government Budgets
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Capitalizing on Collaboration
How Shared Services are Saving Local Government Budgets
By Todd Sander, Director of the Digital Communities program, with the assistance of
the Digital Infrastructure Task Force
Capitalizing on Collaboration:
How Shared Services are Saving Local Government Budgets
Introduction
Making it Possible
Behind every innovative idea stands many jurisdictions because it allows the digital infrastructure centrally, to save
the technology to make it work. Har- spreading of fixed costs among several locally across all units of government,
nessing the cloud is important for local participants. is a crucial part of the solution. The
governments as they begin pushing When Gopal Khanna, CIO for the private sector has utilized technological
forward in sharing services. Shared state of Minnesota, announced the first- advancements like cloud computing to
infrastructure in the cloud — either ever statewide cloud initiative he said, realize operational efficiencies for some
public or private — is gaining traction in “Rethinking the way we manage our time now. Government must follow suit.”
LOGIS
In Minnesota, the mission of Local Government In-
formation Systems (LOGIS), a consortium of local
government units, is to “facilitate the latest leading-
edge, effective and adaptable public sector technol-
ogy solutions through the sharing of ideas, risks,
and resources in a member-driven environment.”
Departments across the board are involved in this
alliance, making it easy for constituents of the
region to access government services. LOGIS, a
Local Government Shared Services
– Tom Vosburg, CIO, Fort Collins, Colo. they are continuing to research different
regions. In many areas across the U.S. In Washtenaw County, Mich., home counties of the Southeast Michigan
however, the GSSC model is still quite a to Ann Arbor and surrounding areas, Council of Governments (SEMCOG)
new idea and it’s up to local advocates Kristin Judge, the county’s commis- to discuss a shared services model. “I
to spearhead a shared services project sioner, took on the role of organizer wanted to get a commissioner or two
to get things moving. and pulled together the seven member from each county and the IT director
eCityGov Alliance
The Puget Sound region of Washington State serves as a
sterling example of the benefits to sharing Web services
across jurisdictions. In 2001, nine area cities formed the
eCityGov Alliance, an agency created to pool resources from
each government body and more easily provide Web-based
services to constituents.
Smaller government jurisdictions that once lacked the ca-
pabilities to supply quality online services have found as-
sistance through the backing of bigger agencies to bridge
the digital divide and help deliver on good government. This
has eliminated redundant services while allowing members
to retain full policy authority.
Within the Alliance, the cost of this support is based on the
population of the given city member. But no matter the loca- Another portal, MyParksAndRecreation.com, allows visi-
tion of the constituent, each citizen or business has the op- tors to search the parks, trails and facilities provided by the
portunity to benefit equally from the information provided. member cities. As to feedback from park users, Cramer de-
scribes a recent instance where a local mother of two young
The average citizen looking to obtain a building permit or
children called MyParksandRecreation.com an invaluable
buy or lease commercial property, for example, is often met
resource in terms of convenience and time savings. “She
with obstacles due to the wide range of zoning laws. But
explained that MPR.com makes it easy to find the most
the Alliance has helped constituents avoid sifting through
convenient day camps in cities between where she lives
a mess of bureaucratic confusion by providing a unified
and works,” Cramer said. “The alternative would be to use
source for a variety of service-specific portals.
several different sources to find the same information.”
The portal, MyBuildingPermit.com, is described as a cen-
These services go beyond the nine partner cities that found-
tralized location for obtaining and monitoring permits, as
ed the Alliance. Forty-six participating agencies covering
well as providing checklists for the purpose of safe and
1.4 million citizens across five counties are now represent-
proper building. It is one-stop shopping as contractors can
Local Government Shared Services
In Closing
While in totality the economic problems
of local governments are immense, areas
While in totality the economic problems of local
that are willing to change failing processes governments are immense, areas that are willing
and embrace creative solutions are finding to change failing processes and embrace creative
new paths to success. solutions are finding new paths to success.
Local Government Shared Services
If you would like more information about any of the program examples discussed in this paper or the Digital
Communities program contact: Todd Sander | Tsander@centerdigitalgov.com
Endnotes
Local Government Shared Services
1 Russell Nichols. “Fort Collins, Colo., Pays School District to Manage E-Mail Services,” Government Technology’s Public CIO.
http://www.govtech.com/pcio/Fort-Collins-Colo-Pays-School-District.html?page=1
2 The LOGIS Blog. http://thelogisblog.wordpress.com/
3 Jeff Cunningham. “Kent ISD districts to move to share accounting, technology services,” MLive.com.
http://www.mlive.com/northwestadvance/index.ssf/2010/07/kent _ isd _ districts _ move _ to _ sha.html
4 Cloud Computing: Pueblo County Shared Services Partnership.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Cloud+computing%3A+pueblo+county+shared+services+partnership-a0232177918
10 5 http://www.state.mn.us/mn/externalDocs/OET/State _ of _ Minnesota _ Signs _ Historic _ Cloud _ Computing _ Agreement _
with _ M _ 092710090511 _ MN%20BPOS%20Announcement%20Release%209%2027%20FINAL.pdf
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The Center for Digital Government and Government Technology would like to thank
the Digital Communities Digital Infrastructure Task Force members for their support
and assistance in the creation of this report with special recognition to the following
task force members for their contributions.
Bethann Pepoli – EMC State and Local Government Practice Chief Technology Officer
John Punzak – Red Hat Senior National Sales Director of State and Local Government and Education
Paul Christman – Quest Software Vice President of State and Local Governments & Education Sales
Toni Cramer – eCityGov Alliance Operations Board Chair and city of Bellevue, Wash., CIO
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