Government investments in enhancing the interoperability of ICT systems have the potential to improve services and help governments respond to the diverse and often incompatible needs and interests of individual citizens, organizations, and society at large. These diverse needs and interests encompass a broad range of value propositions and demands that can seldom be met by single programs or assessed by simple metrics. The diversity of stakeholder needs and the complexity inherent in interoperable systems for connected government require an architecture that is up to the task. Such an architecture must include the reference models and components that can accommodate and integrate large portfoliosof applications and support multiple kinds of performance assessments. The value propositions that underlie the architecture’s performance assessment or reference model are fundamental. The propositions must be broad enough to span the full scope of the government program’s goals, asubstantial challenge. In recognition of that challenge, this chapter puts forward two perspectives for assessing the value of interoperable ICT investments, incorporating outcomes beyond financial metrics. The first is the network value approach to assessment of investments in interoperable ICT systems for government. The second is the public value framework developed by the Center for Technology in Government, which expands on the network value approach to include a broader range of public value outcomes. These approaches are illustrated in two case studies: the I-Choose project designed to produce interoperable government and private sector data about a specific agricultural market and the government of Colombia’s interoperability efforts with expanded metrics based on the expansion of interoperability networks.

Why evaluate information technology (IT) choices? Because IT innovation is risky business in every organization. The public policy choices and public management processes that are part of government make it an especially difficult environment for IT managers. These layers of complexity present a daunting challenge to public managers who are responsible for choosing, funding, and building IT innovations.

Government managers need to evaluate IT choices because they are among the most complex and expensive decisions they are expected to make.

There are three ways to mitigate the risks inherent in these complex decisions: thoroughly understand the problem to be solved and its context, identify and test possible solutions to the problem, evaluate the results of those tests against your service and performance goals. This handbook is designed to help any government manager follow a well-tested methodology for evaluating IT innovations before deciding (with greater confidence) to make a significant investment.

Based on findings from CTG's Advancing Return on Investment Analysis for Government IT project this paper discusses the similarities and differences of approaches, models, and methodologies developed and utilized for measuring ROI in IT investment, particularly in the public sector. The paper also provides a descriptive data analysis of trends in IT investments in the United States.

This paper considers open government (OG) within the context of e-government and its broader implications for the future of public administration. It argues that the current US Administration’s Open Government Initiative blurs traditional distinctions between e-democracy and e-government by incorporating historically democratic practices, now enabled by emerging technology, within administrative agencies. The paper considers how transparency, participation, and collaboration function as democratic practices in administrative agencies, suggesting that these processes are instrumental attributes of administrative action and decision making, rather than the objective of administrative action, as they appear to be currently treated. It proposes alternatively that planning and assessing OG be addressed within a “public value” framework.

New information technology (IT) systems are serious, and potentially risky, investments for government agencies and nonprofit organizations. This guide is designed to help public sector managers better understand how a return on investment (ROI) analysis can take some of that risk out of their next IT investment.

Service New Brunswick was launched in a time of high pressure from citizens in New Brunswick, Canada for improved service delivery. Today it serves the province through its award winning service delivery model, and also and maybe more importantly in the long run, through its innovations in economic development.

The goal of the Austrian Federal Budgeting and Bookkeeping System project was to redesign and integrate the electronic workflow of the federal government’s budget and bookkeeping processes. The strategy they chose was to implement a single Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software standard throughout the federal government, along with the adoption of necessary legal authority.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Integrated Enterprise System Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software implementation put in place the technical infrastructure and enterprise standards for core government administrative functions with improved public value.

The Government of Israel’s Merkava Project is an effort to restructure the financial, logistics, and human resource components of government-wide administration into an integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Merkava is also part of a comprehensive eGovernment initiative that includes five layers of new technologies and operational systems for enhanced internal operations and improved benefits and services to citizens.

Washington State’s investment in digital archiving for government records provides a highly focused and successful example of pursuing public value through information technology.

This presentation was delivered by one of CTG's SAP partners (Ian Swann, Vice President, SAP Public Sector) at the Impact of eGovernment in Europe conference in Helsinki, Finland on September 13, 2006. The PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded from this Web page http://www.egov-goodpractice.org/event_details.php?eventid=125 under the "Documents" heading by selecting the seventh item listed, identified as "SAP (Swann).ppt."