Coordinated state-local information systems offer the hope of integrated services to citizens and streamlined operations within government. Many government and professional organizations are searching for ways to make these essential systems more successful. The Council for Excellence in Government, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, is identifying exemplary intergovernmental programs that involve city, county, and tribal governments as well as state agencies. Public Technology Inc. (PTI), a nonprofit group sponsored by the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, and the International City/County Management Association is researching local priorities for intergovernmental IT projects and policies.

NASIRE, the National Association of State Information Resource Executives, maintains an intergovernmental relations committee and recommends policies and technologies that help state governments streamline their operations. Recently, the Industry Advisory Council, a private sector group formed by the Federation of Government Information Processing Councils to advise federal agencies in their information systems efforts, established a committee to discuss intergovernmental projects. Other groups searching for best practices in intergovernmental systems include the National Governors Association, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and the National Newspaper Association (Federal Computer Week, February, 1997).

Since governments all over the country often conduct similar programs, there is great interest in effective ways to carry out common public services. In Florida, for example, hunting and fishing licenses are now available online via the Internet. Some states, such as Minnesota, have been thinking about state-local information systems for a long time. Minnesota established the Intergovernmental Information System Advisory Committee (IIAC) in 1974, and since then it has been encouraging local and state agencies to share data in an integrated way. The IIAC has offered grants to localities as well as technical assistance that enables local governments to transfer information more easily to state agencies.

Integration in human service delivery depends on a coordinated, integrated information system. In Oregon, Clackamas County has integrated the referral and eligibility screening service for welfare clients in the Pathways project (Newcombe, 1996). Rather than requiring clients to go to a particular agency for intake and eligibility screening, they can walk into any one of several state or local agencies to receive service. In San Diego, the New Beginnings project provides comprehensive service delivery, including medical care and housing, in a project that required cooperation among city and county governments, a school district, a housing commission, health center, nonprofit agencies and state agencies. Implementation of the integrated case management information system overcame barriers of intra- and inter-institutional communication in order to deliver effective services to families (Marzke et. al., 1994).

Reducing crime and tracking criminal activity is a concern of most states and local criminal justice agencies. In New York, CRIMNET offers a model of integrated criminal information that is moving forward to become a comprehensive database on the World Wide Web. Developed originally to support client/server computer architecture, CRIMNET allows all criminal justice agencies, from the New York City Police Department to small local authorities and town courts, to locate rap sheets on suspected criminals. Over 300 agencies are now using the state-developed system to do background checks on individuals arrested for any crime.

Similarly, integrating health care information has become a prominent concern in states and among local health care providers throughout the country since more emphasis is being placed on the well-being of children and families, and since managed care has become the order of the day. Managed care requires coordination if the client is to be well-served. The primary care giver needs to communicate with other health care providers and often with multiple agencies to provide the best preventive care and the most effective overall health treatments. The New York State Office of Mental Health has cooperated with a county mental health center in Ulster County and the University at Albany to develop a decision support system that tracks clinician productivity within an environment of managed health care. The system allows administrators to track face-to-face time with clients, other clinician activities, and the overall picture of providing health care. They can find the root causes of financial difficulty and intervene before problems become severe. The mental health care center was able to leverage the information system to improve management practices.

Despite these examples, there is very little reliable information about what makes state-local projects succeed or fail. This study is one of the first attempts in the US to analyze and document practices that lead to success.