Last week I provided a link to the UK's e-government efforts to provide a different perspective.  Today I'll summarize some of the ongoing efforts here in the United States.  My focus will naturally be on the benefits since, and the point does bear repeating, the goal of e-government is to save both time and money.  It is also interesting to see that no matter the form or specific goals for going online, it is entirely possible to achieve these goals.

The average person's initial reaction to the government spending more money is a roll of the eyes and a muttered, "Not again."  This is not surprising given how often we are bombarded with news of the budget deficit and government overspending.  It is rare to hear of the efforts the government makes to save money and even rarer to hear of people being happy that it has taken steps to make spending money easier.

The e-Grants Initative is that focus on spending money.  This spending takes the form of a service to the public, which is worthy of being lauded.  The results have certainly been impressive.  The number of grants available on Grants.gov has increased three-fold by the end of 2006 over the number that had been posted by the end of 2005.



The kinds of saving that can be realized in contracting cannot be as neatly graphed as in some other cases, such as payroll.  How does one determine an accurate savings per contract or bid?  Certainly it is not as cut and dry an analysis as is possible with, for example, determining savings per employee.  However, in the end the savings are what count rather than pretty graphs.

Incidentally, the EPA reduced its cost per employee by 300% by switching to online payroll processing.

Another initiative that is a bright light for e-government, and one we have all used or at least looked at privatey, is travel.  Anyone who has ever planned a holiday knows how quickly travel can become a money sink.  The e-Travel Initiative saves over 50% in both the cost and processing time of travel vouchers.  That is time and money saved.  Two departments that have taken advantage of this are realizing savings of over one million dollars per year.

There is no arguing that costs of implementing such systems are often considerable, and that even with a ROI of $1 million a year it will take years to win back the cost.  This is the present truth.  The larger truth is that now that the initial steps have been taken, future steps will be easier and the savings will increase.

The truly good news is that these initial initatives were successful.  With these results at the federal level it is only a matter of time before they are introduced at the state and local level.  This is where the real change will take place, with these thousands of departments rather than the handful of the federal government.