The Merkava and five-layer initiative were seen from the beginning as having returns well beyond the internal reform of government operations. One return that is emerging is a result of the impact the ERP and related systems are having on the relationships between the government and the private sector. For example, the financial sector and vendors doing business with the government are being influenced to implement their own reforms based on better information integration, Web enablement, and perhaps most significantly organizing around the kinds of standards in the Merkava ERP. Nir Gilad referred to this effect as the wave rippling outward from the impact of the Merkava ERP in the center of government. The potential returns to the public from this wave could well exceed those from the government improvements alone, though no measurements of these effects are available.

The political importance of the Merkava investment is also evident in the actions of the government and the public recognition of the program. The current Accountant General, Dr. Yaron Zalika, in charge of the Merkava and overall e-government initiatives, was named the current IT Official of the Year for Israel. The local press published regular articles (monthly or bi-monthly) about Merkava and related projects. Yitshak Cohen has been invited to speak about the project in several countries. Soon after coming to power in 2001, the Sharon government endorsed the Merkava project and later sponsored legislation to support and continue it. Prime Minister Sharon issued a strong endorsement of the continuation of these initiatives in 2003. The strategic plans and numerous press releases describe both the plans for development and the expected benefits for the quality of government and citizen life. These actions suggest the political importance of the ERP and related initiatives from the elected official perspective.

The interviews and documents reviewed for this case, consistently emphasized the importance of Merkava as a source of transparency and integrated, holistic views of government resources and operations. This transparency can produce public returns in several ways:

• Provides citizens with knowledge about how government works or information about access to benefits that they would otherwise be unaware of or not know how to acquire.
• Provides citizens with knowledge about government that helps them influence actions and decisions in desired ways.
• Access to the results of government actions and decisions provides citizens with material useful in evaluating government performance and engaging in political action and participation (advocating, debating, voting, etc.).
• Provides citizens with knowledge about government that increases their trust in and allegiance to the government.
• Availability for public scrutiny of information about government processes and decisions influences decision makers and other officials to pay closer attention to public interests and desires.

Overall, there is greatly increased quality and quantity of information about government performance becoming available from the ERP and related applications. This aspect of transparency increases the likelihood that assessment and ongoing performance improvement programs based on Merkava data will result in greater public returns from government services.