Finding a partner for online services
Cities and counties that have Web sites know that providing basic information on the Internet is an inexpensive and easy way to increase efficiency in government offices. However, transacting business online is a bit more difficult.
While many information technology departments are well-versed in providing and sustaining basic Web sites, they may hit a wall when it comes to providing transactional services. For that reason, some cities and counties have turned to companies that can provide those services for them.
Choosing a company to provide online services — tax payments, license renewals, parks and recreation registration — can be daunting. “It can be hard to separate the best [Web companies] from the worst because [the industry] is so new,” says Patrick McCormack, CIO for Somerville, Mass. Fortunately, there are a few guidelines to assist local governments with selecting vendors.
Set clear goals.
Because there are so many online government services available, cities and counties should begin the vendor selection process by identifying the online services that would most benefit residents and staff members. “Just because it can be on the Web, doesn’t mean it should be,” says Kent Bliven, Web developer for Iowa City, Iowa. To determine which services have the highest use and are relatively simple to process, cities and counties should survey departments and investigate current technology.
When the Scott County (Minn.) Deputy County Administrator first considered the idea of putting county records in a digital format and making them available on the Internet, he was not sure how big the project would be. “We had a general idea, but we didn’t understand the technology,” says Gary Shelton. “The responses [to our RFP] offered more than we knew about. Once we showed the division managers what the products could do, the project grew.”
Once officials know what they want, they can develop a plan for implementation. “You have to have a strategy for what you want to accomplish,” says Bob Mulhere, planning director for Collier County, Fla. “Then you need to find people to meet that strategy.”
Research the company’s track record.
Because many companies that provide online services have been in business fewer than 10 years, they may have experience with only a few local government projects. Getting involved with a new company can be a risky endeavor.
The Davidson County (N.C.) Tax Administrator learned the hard way that checking the references of technology companies is a valuable step in choosing a company to provide online services. “Once, I [made some big purchases from] a software company, and the company was out of business in a year,” says Joe Silver. “Some other counties had [purchased the software], too, and they dropped the ball on all of us.”
Later, as Davidson County planned an online tax payment system, Silver was sure to conduct a background check on the companies that submitted promising proposals for the project. He called several references to find out what other counties thought of each company’s services. “If they’re thrilled with the company, I want them to say so,” he says. “If they’re not thrilled, they should say so, too.”
Two years ago Anaheim, Calif., planned to implement online licensing and permitting systems, and it sought the input of cities that had worked with its vendor candidates. Revenue Manager William Sell traveled to sites where the systems were in place. “We try to be close to the leading edge, but we want to make sure we’re not on the bleeding edge,” he says. “We need to know that it actually works and it’s not just a pipe dream.”
Check the company’s knowledge of local government.
Just because a company can build a Web site and process credit card transactions does not mean that it can meet the needs of local government online services. Local governments need products that will work with the varied computer systems that have been managing their information for 20 years and that work within the laws that govern local government activities.
When Somerville was searching for a company to provide a method for updating its Web site and transactional services, McCormack found that some companies were just repackaging e-commerce products as e-government solutions. Their products would not work with the city’s legacy databases, he says.
“Some companies offer e-payments without the full wrap-around back end,” he says. “They allow residents to pay parking tickets, they accept the credit card, and the department receives only the information that the residents did the transactions. [Those systems are] not verifying the ticket numbers, and they’re not pulling information [from the department’s database]. That’s not true e-government.”
Cities and counties may feel more confident working with companies that were founded by former local government officials or that have local government officials on advisory boards. That was the case with the Collier County Planning Department, which chose to work with locally based Neighborhood America partly because the group’s CEO has a background in local government land use planning.
The department needed a vendor to assist it in setting up an online outlet for public response to planning projects. “We wanted to be careful that the vendor had experience working with local government,” Mulhere says. Local governments must handle public response and public documents differently than private companies do, he says.
Make sure the product is easy to use.
In addition to a company’s knowledge of local government, usability and flexibility of its product are important. Many cities and counties want employees in several departments — not just the IT Department — to be able to update information on their Web sites. If many people can update the sites, bottlenecks can be eliminated.
Scott County wanted to invest in a product that was easy for staff members and residents to use. “We wanted the system to be as automated as possible, and we wanted to allow departments to update the Web site [even if they do not know] how the Web works,” Shelton says.
The county contracted with Eden Prairie, Minn.-based IntraNet Solutions to provide software that organizes information such as land records, property tax information and GIS parcel information for several county departments. The software also formats that information for Web posting, although the county has not yet added the information to its site. (The county commissioners are still debating whether all of the information in the records should be available on the Internet and whether users should pay to use some of the services.)
Check the company’s security measures.
Behind the façade of an easy-to-use system should be unbeatable security measures. Some online government vendors offer superior service in all of the above points but compromise security when they have ulterior motives.
Dave Kelley, Web master for Tempe, Ariz., found that some companies offered to build and host a Web site for the city in exchange for all of the residents’ contact information to use for marketing purposes. As a result, the city decided not to work with that company and to use the city’s IT department to develop as many Web services as possible.
The only way to get residents to use online services is to ensure that their online transactions are just as secure as traditional transactions. “For financial information, we wanted security and protection built in to the product,” says Joel Hartley, MIS director for Davidson County. “You have to be concerned about residents’ financial information.”
There are many other factors to consider before working with a vendor to provide online services. For example, does the company have a suitable plan for implementing the service? Does the cost of the service fit into the budget? How is the company’s customer service? Does the company have a business plan that will keep it around for at least three years? Answering those questions and taking careful steps to investigate companies will help local governments in their selection of vendors.
