The potential of information technology for transforming state government is widely recognized. There are many available strategies for achieving these transformative effects, such as increased transparency and improved service quality. However, in most cases the strategies themselves require significant changes in the way governments and government leaders operate. Exploiting the potential of information technology for government transformation requires new forms of coordinated action across the boundaries of government agencies and with other partners outside the formal institutions of government. Making information technology decisions in this way, through coordinated action across the boundaries of multiple organizations, requires new resource allocation models and new capability for consensus building and collaboration.

In response to this increased attention toward goals that require coordinated action, New York State officials began to ask questions about current enterprise IT governance capabilities and to consider what additional value could be created for the state through enhancements to that capability. Identifying how to enhance public value through new governance arrangements was central to preparing this report. The project used a collaborative and consensus-driven process to seek descriptions of the desired results. Project participants were asked to identify value propositions for an enhanced enterprise IT governance structure and the characteristics of a governance design that would most likely achieve the objective of an “inclusive and collaborative decision-making process for future IT investments.”⁹ Three questions were posed to participants and stakeholders throughout this project; their responses provide the foundation for the recommendations. We returned to these questions repeatedly throughout the project to ensure that our attention would remain on value creation. The value focus also helped maintain awareness of the technical and political context of IT governance and avoid simplistic generic strategies that did not take the New York State context into account.

The way we focus on value creation distinguished our approach from many of the existing efforts of IT governance development. The foundation of this approach rests in the public value framework developed by the Center for Technology in Government.¹⁰ In this framework, public return on investment (ROI) is defined as a measure of the delivery of specific value to key stakeholders and the improvement of the value of government as a public asset. The framework identifies five types of public value: financial, political, social, strategic, ideological, and stewardship. For each type of value, there are three possible value-generating mechanisms: increases in efficiency and/or effectiveness, enabling of otherwise infeasible but desirable activities, and intrinsic enhancements to the stakeholders, such as improved transparency.

The task of assessing value is challenging because not every aspect of public value is relevant for a particular governance structure or investment. Drawing on this framework, the project activities were organized to identify what value must be realized through enhanced enterprise IT governance to justify the investments necessary to create that enhanced capability. This project was designed to incorporate multiple stakeholder perspectives on the value proposition for enhanced enterprise IT governance for New York State government. For more detailed information about the project methodology, see Appendix B.

Table 1. Mapping the Value of Enhanced Enterprise IT Governance
		Scope of Governance
Recipient of Value		Agency	Domain Level	Enterprise* Level
	Agency	Better alignment with agency business, improved sharing of services within agency, simpler standardization.	Ability to benefit from the collaboration by allowing smaller agencies to have a voice in a larger forum.	Benefit from aggregate buys such as with e-licensing and PC contracts.
	Domain	Ability to coordinate resources.	Leverage skills and technology. Ability to create a “domain vision” that represents the whole versus individual silos.	Economies of scale.
	New York State Government	Statewide cost savings.	Better alignment within the policy domains of the State.	Multi-year planning and ability to weather the changes in political swings.
	Public	Customer centric focus of agency mission and vision.	Provides a streamlined perspective of a policy domain. Better customer service.	Overall cost savings and improved customer service.
*In this case the enterprise is New York State Government

We asked participants on several occasions how new governance structures and capabilities could generate value for the state. The stakeholders identified four possible recipients of value: agencies, program domains (e.g., criminal justice), New York State government as an enterprise, and the public (see Table 1). They considered the mechanisms for creating that value as well. Recognizing that IT governance does not exist at just one level in the state, participants noted that many entities have created enterprise decision making capability and are delivering value to their stakeholders as a consequence. This capability for coordinated action within and across the levels of state government was considered to be a great strength of the state. Participants noted that the greatest value from enhanced enterprise IT governance would accrue to individual agencies, program domains, and the state not by replacing multi-level IT governance, but by building on it and leveraging it toward a new level of coordinated action.

Drawing on the principles of the public value framework and the value map in Table 1, a set of value propositions for enhanced enterprise IT governance emerged. Participants in this process included CIOs and technology staff from state agencies, authorities, and local governments; results were also reviewed with other key stakeholders. Together the value propositions provide the rationale for pursuing enhanced enterprise IT governance in New York State and the basis for evaluating any enterprise IT governance strategy the state pursues.