Testimony of Barry Ingram, Vice President
EDS Global Government Industry Group
on behalf of the
Information Technology Association of America (ITAA)
 U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee
July 11, 2001

Good morning.

  Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today on this important topic.  My name is Barry Ingram, and I am Vice President for EDS' Global Government Industry Group.  EDS is the leading global services company and provides strategy, implementation and hosting for clients managing the business and technology complexities of the digital economy.  I personally have over 37 years of experience in information technology ---over 20 of those years working with governments --- and have led many innovative e-government initiatives locally, nationwide and globally for EDS.

This morning, I am representing the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), which is the nation's leading trade association for the information technology industry.  ITAA represents over 500 member companies across the United States which produce products and services in the IT industry.  The Association plays a leading role in public policy issues of concern to the IT industry including taxes and finance policy, intellectual property, telecommunications law, and critical infrastructure protection.  ITAA has a broad-based membership ranging from the smallest IT start-ups to industry leaders in the software, services, systems integration, telecommunications, Internet and computer consulting fields -- ITAA has been a longtime proponent of electronic government, and, as you know, helped to provide input on principles used early on to develop this legislation.  ITAA has worked at all levels of government to improve efficiencies and showcase the benefit to the citizen.  We are particularly eager to generate the same interest and progress in e-government at the Federal level that we have witnessed at the state and local level.  We believe "The E-government Act of 2001" contributes in a meaningful way to those goals.  

E-government holds the real potential to enable a citizen-centric transformation of our government.  Utilized effectively, e-government efforts can bring a 24x7 service capability to meeting the needs of citizens, while improving government efficiency, accountability, and transparency, helping to produce a more results-oriented government.  ITAA's leading edge member companies have already migrated the private sector to Internet e-business technologies and applications and we look forward to your commitment that the Federal government will engage the private sector to achieve the e-government goals set forth in your legislation.

Therefore, Mr. Chairman, ITAA applauds you, Senator Burns, and the colleagues that have officially joined you in introducing "The E-Government Act of 2001.”  Your leadership and vision in forwarding a strong e-government proposal is both highly welcomed and timely.  We are particularly pleased with the importance the legislation places on the need for a well-funded e-government innovation fund, and with the emphasis on the existence of someone at the highest level who has the responsibility and the authority to move the Federal government into the e-government sphere.  It is crucial for this person to have the means (budget and staffing) to implement and oversee these efforts for the enterprise and we hope that these resources can be made available in the 2002 budget.

I travel around the globe, and work with many companies and governments on e-government projects.  When I say “e-government, however, I do not mean only Internet-related efforts, but also any effort where governments are using newer technologies to improve their business processes and provide enhanced services to citizens, businesses, government employees or other governments.  If we limit our thinking to only the Internet-related efforts, we are limiting the scope of the possible.

In these efforts, I have seen a mixture of successes and challenges.  The challenges are being overcome.  As you are acutely aware, finding and achieving innovative ways of funding e-government is difficult.  Curtailing stovepipe or purely single-agency oriented development, while still promoting innovation and productivity improvements requires a vision and an execution plan.  Sharing of essential information across government to improve productivity and improve citizen services is often counter to citizens’ privacy requirements, but can be done.

Fortunately, the success are many, and, in general, I see that state and provincial governments are leading the charge--- for several reasons:  They have more transactional processes, such as license renewal and property tax payments; they have somewhat smaller systems than the Federal and national governments; and the most successful ones have senior leadership in the form of a chief executive or CIO who is sponsoring and visibly behind the e-government efforts.  Funding is also being made available to the enterprises for these activities and a common architecture across the entire enterprise is being enforced.  This effectively stops development of non-leverageable stovepipe systems and results in increased productivity and sharing of systems.  Some state and local governments are also using incentives for savings to be reinvested in other needed activities in those agencies where they have achieved the savings.

    Some of the most successful implementations are also taking place at the national level.  In the 

    UK for example, the Inland Revenue, the equivalent of our Internal Revenue Service, is 

    undertaking a massive rejuvenation of the tax system, and they are already implementing some 

    of the improvements.  They have developed a National Gateway to Government and have 

    implemented the ability for citizens to self-assess and pay their taxes over the Internet- directly 

    to the government, without an intermediary.  Our own portal, FirstGov.gov, is an excellent start, 

    but now needs to be expanded to encompass citizens’ transactions with agencies.  Simply put, 

    e-government efforts can help clients and users of government services achieve superior value 

    in the digital economy.  E-government initiatives are where the "new ideas" are; where trust is 

    built and sustained between the government and the consumers of government -- its 

    constituents --; and where the value is delivered to the client/customer.  Well thought-out 

    e-government efforts foster more e-government initiatives and ideas – and this synergy creates 

    a demand for more e-government capabilities -- a shared and common goal.  Your 

    "E-Government Act of 2001" contributes greatly toward this endeavor.

Without going onto a lot of detail, let me put forward a short "Top Ten" list of lessons learned for e-government.

1.      Implementing successful e-government requires sponsorship and visibility from the top- senior leadership and championing.

2.      Cross-agency government standards are essential- across departments, agencies, and governmental levels—in order to most effectively share and reuse applications, information, and capabilities.

3.      Bringing services on line raises expectations – technologies and infrastructures need to be robust- we cannot build new high-performance systems on shaky foundations.

4.      Build in rapid scalability- when it works- they will come—and at a speed and volume that must be anticipated.

5.      Ensure citizens’ privacy and security with good information assurance capabilities—build this into the architecture before privacy and security become a problem.

6.      Many existing business processes will need to be re-engineered, but don’t just reengineer-- reinvent wherever possible and look at new ways of doing business.

7.      Provide incentives for citizens and businesses to use the new e-government services—incentives will enable the move to the new methods.

8.      Counter services also need to be preserved and improved with e-government innovation—the Digital Divide will be with us for a long time, so we have to maintain current capabilities.  They can be bolstered, however, with the same new technologies and improved business practices.

9.      Heavily promote new on-line services—we must market the newer capabilities to the citizens and to other government agencies.  Make them aware of new capabilities, services and improvements.

10.  Adopt new and innovative funding methods and develop new partnership models with the private sector.

In conclusion, as this important piece of legislation moves through the legislation process, I leave you with two thoughts

• ·        E-Government modernization is the use of technology to transform government from “silo” organizations to a seamless organization (one-stop shop), centered around citizen needs and focused on productivity improvements.

• ·        The success of e-government modernization is not only experienced in building and operating web sites - it is in the transformation of government processes--wrapped in the security of a robust infrastructure supporting and enabling that transformation.

Thank you for your time and attention.  ITAA and EDS both 

look forward to working with you as we go forward and I 

welcome any questions or comments you may have.