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NASCA 2000 Midyear Conference
 Photo
Album Attendance
List NASPO
Marketing Meeting Proceedings - coming soon |
| Proceedings |
| Download Agarwal's PowerPoint Presentation |
Electronic Commerce The council's activities for 1999 were the annual conference, 6 issue area workgroups, 4 surveys of state practices in electronic commerce, and the release of two white papers, an EC Blueprint for the States and the Electronic Payments Primer. Current workgroups are Electronic Financial Transactions, Integrated Services and Portals, Privacy and Electronic Procurement and Funding. Ancell introduced P.K. Agarwal. Agarwal started the discussion by giving a definition of E-Government. Agarwal stated that an e-government is one that is passionate about using technology to reshape government. In the short term, e-government consists of value creation, portals, technology, change management and case studies. Value creation consists of making radical changes and then measuring success by the customer or constituent and the return on investment. Successful value creation results in value proposition changes which positively effect cost, utility, convenience and experience. Portals are used as an integration to create values. The portals must be designed in a fashion that is usable to the constituent. To design effective portals, one must think outside of the boundaries. To measure the success of the portal or integrated service, the states' icon will appear on the most important real estate today-the user's computer desktop. Creation of these portals is not necessarily a technology-based issue but a leadership issue. In the long term, e-government faces challenges in a strategic future consisting of a digital state framework, the digital divide, tax facts, and further strategies of the digital age and a report card on performance by the states. The framework of the digital state will possess information technology as an economic force. Growth of the digital economy parallels that of the industrial revolution. This new economy has created a new competition between states and countries as each entity tries to become the most advanced digital state. The framework of the digital state must start with a vision driven by policy (economic development), infrastructure (telecommunications, technology) education (better-educated citizens), increased accessibility to government services and a return on investment. Currently, electronic commerce has only affected the states with a tax loss of less than 1/10%. As the usage of electronic commerce increases, state governments will have to evaluate methods to collect revenues from electronic transactions. The increased use of technology has created a divide in our culture. The most usage of e-government technologies tends to be Caucasians from urban areas with higher incomes and higher degrees of education. The successful future of electronic government relies heavily upon
value creation to the users, effective portals and strong leadership
in state government roles to increase usage of these technologies.
State governments today are finding themselves in the digital age
with the exciting task of charting a very unknown future. |
| Download
Bippert's PowerPoint Presentation Download the Ownership vs. Leasing Decision Model |
Facilities
Management: Lease, Lease for Purchase, or Build? Tom Torti, Commissioner, Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services Bob Bippert, Assistant Director for Real Estate Services, Washington Department of General Administration Tom Torti opened the discussion by stating that general services and administration are faced with no greater challenge today than that of managing state government facilities. Torti used his state, Vermont as an example of how they solve their space issues. Torti reported that for large changes in space, the state of Vermont tends to build. Building facilities allows for better quality, lower costs and the ability to provide input into the design and construction of the facility. The problems they face are the state's debt ceiling, politics of location and purchase distress. The state is also not exempt from the permit process; therefore building can be tedious. The private sector can build faster but the state must follow a bid and pre-qualification process that can add as much as 18 months to the project. Torti stated that the state of Washington has developed a program that assists them in best handling the decision of building or leasing of state office space. Torti introduced Bob Bippert. Bob Bippert began his discussion by presenting the history of the dilemmas that the Washington Department of General Administration faced which encouraged them to design a program to assist the legislature in fund allocation. Washington experienced steady growth in the 1980's that ultimately increased number of FTE's necessary to effectively operate the state government. This growth in population effected other institutions as well. The department faced tough competition in the capital budget committee against schools and prisons. In 1991, the legislature created a Capitol Master Plan to solve the dilemma or office space demand. In the plan, two additional satellite campuses were established and preferred development areas were defined as locations for state offices. Because of the increased budgets for development, concerns were raised about costs. As a response to these concerns, a legislative audit was conducted in 1995. The audit concluded that given similar facilities, development and operation costs of government ownership could result in significant savings. If alternatives being compared are not similar, then the conventional wisdom that government ownership is less costly might fail. The recommendations of the study were that comparisons of alternatives should use the same units; all quantifiable costs should be considered; net present value costs analysis, cash flow analysis and sensitivity analysis should be considered; the discount rate should be higher than the state borrowing rate and the state should set aside reserves for major maintenance. As a result of these findings, the Lease vs. Ownership Analysis Model was developed. By using this model, the outcomes can be compared across alternatives to determine the preferred choice. The model provides the ability to find easy answers to multiple variable manipulations, improved decision-making, faster decision information, assumption validity and reliability, cost savings and trust and confidence by decision makers and those affected by the decision. |
Next
Conference:
NASCA 2000 Annual Conference
September 15-20, 2000
Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg Marriott Hotel
Room Rate $119 per night, plus tax, single or double occupancy
For reservations, call the hotel directly at 757-220-2500