COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

Information Services Department

DATE:

October 21, 2005

BOARD MEETING DATE:

November 8, 2005

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

None

VOTE REQUIRED:

Majority

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Chris Flatmoe; CIO/Director of Information Services

SUBJECT:

Status report on eGov

RECOMMENDATION:

Accept this status report on eGov

VISION ALIGNMENT:

Commitment: Responsive, effective and collaborative government

Goal 21: County employees understand, support and integrate the County vision and goals into their delivery of service.

This report supports this goal because eGov will enable the County to increase the availability of services and information over the Internet.

Performance Measures:

Measure

FY 2004-05
Actual

FY 2005-06
Projected

Percent of Information and Technology Availability

99.9%

99.8%

BACKGROUND:

In FY 2000-01, the Board approved funding for a Countywide study of services that could be offered over the Web. This study found a large number of services with the potential of being offered over the Web. A significant proportion of these services were related to improving information dissemination. As a result, the Board approved funding for the eGov project in FY 2001-02.

Under the original eGov project we have:

§ Established a common look and feel for the County web site

§ Designed an award winning Information Architecture¹

§ Converted departmental web sites to the common look and feel

§ Implemented a decentralized content management system that enables departments to independently post informational content to the County web site

§ Formed the Web Advisory Group (WAG), a cross-departmental, cross-functional group that works collaboratively to enhance the County web site from the resident/user experience perspective

Recently, many departments have expressed an interest in providing transactional services over the web.

DISCUSSION:

Industry analysts categorize the evolution of local government web sites into 4 phases – Presence, Interaction, Transaction and Transformation. With the completion of the original eGov project, the San Mateo County web site is well into the Interaction phase – Phase II of IV. With the addition of transactional services, the County is poised to move into the next phase. We are calling this next move forward ‘eGov Generation II’.

The transactional-services phase of eGov, eGov Generation II, is in close alignment with the County interest in providing residents with services ‘on-line, not in-line’. With your Board’s guidance and a collaborative cross-departmental, cross-functional approach, the County’s eGov initiative can continue to evolve in an orderly fashion. The proposed methodology leverages the existing eGov governance model - to organize efforts across departments, to develop and apply appropriate standards, and to upgrade the common infrastructure to include portal technology.

There are challenges to overcome, like data security and integrity of data, competition for IT resources and the difficulty of establishing standards that meet the diversity of County services. Working collaboratively with County departments and the WAG, we do not believe these challenges are insurmountable.

FISCAL IMPACT:

The near term plans for eGov Generation II are included in Fiscal Year 2005-06 Budget. As we work collaboratively with the WAG to identify common solutions that can be leveraged Countywide, we will bring those forward to your Board for additional guidance.