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Understanding the eGov marketplace
Reduced budgets have forced Governments to new ways to streamline their operations. eGov can enable them to achieve their missions in spite of reduced staffing. Budgets for eGov have been rising. However, the eGov environment is complex, and understanding it can mean the difference between success and failure.
eGov services are attracting interest at all levels of government, including local governments, state governments, the Federal Government, and even international Governments. The size of the market, level of effort to reach it, and customer requirements are completely different for each type of government. Determining where to position yourself is key and largely dependent on how well you can reach the market.
If you trying to enter the market you can either determine which type of government you want as your customer and then develop eGov solutions that meet its needs, or you can look at your technical capabilities and see how they align to which type of government. The latter approach is probably the hardest as it is easier to develop the means to help a specific customer than it is to find a customer for a capability.
Even though each type of government is in effect a separate market, they do cooperate at some level. This is primarily driven by the technical integration requirements needed for successful eGov implementations. For example, a state and local government eGov application for law enforcement may have to share data with multiple Federal agencies or even foreign governments. A number of inter-agency committees and task forces have been created to coordinate eGov efforts. At the Federal level, these groups are coordinated through the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is also sponsoring a number of pilot programs to establish “best practice” models and eGov standards.
The complexity of the eGov marketplace is also driven by the complexity of the technical environment. eGov applications can incorporate the functionality or integrate with all of the capabilities normally found on intranets and extranets, including project management, collaboration, workflow, document management, electronic commerce, supply chain management, CRM, and ERP. They also run into serious obstacles in the form of legacy systems.
But all of these touch points for eGov service delivery are also points of entry into the marketplace. A contract in any of these areas can be used as a foot-in-the-door towards an eGov offering. This approach requires developing an understanding of your customer’s strategic direction. They may know that “things are going towards” eGov, but not know how to get there. You can help them by implementing infrastructure and capabilities today that can be part of a larger, fully integrated, eGov platform tomorrow. Once you have your foot in the door, you can help them solidify their plans and recommend standards and platforms for future eGov initiatives.
Don’t just wait for an eGov-like RFP to be announced. If you do, you may already have lost before you bid to whoever helped craft the requirements. Long term success in the Government marketplace comes only to those who plan ahead.
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