The "E-Government Act of 2002," signed by President Bush on Dec. 17, authorizes $345 million in e-government spending over four years to make the federal government more efficient embracing technology and putting more agency information and services online. Already, analysts who track government IT spending are predicting a big upsurge related to e-government work.
Input, based in Chantilly, Va., last week forecasted that spending by federal agencies on e-government-related systems and services will rise at a compound annual growth rate of 12 percent, from nearly $3 billion in fiscal year 2002 to more than $5 billion in fiscal year 2007. The federal government's overall IT-related spending is pegged at about $38 billion for fiscal year 2002 and is projected to jump to $63 billion by fiscal year 2007, according to Input. The Department of Defense leads the pack on e-government spending, with the $450 million it spent in fiscal year 2002 climbing to $780 million in five years, Input said.
E-government efforts were first launched during the Clinton administration, but under President Bush it has become a top White House priority, headed by Mark Forman in the Office of Management and Budget.
Payton Smith, manager of Input's public sector market analysis services, noted that the new e-government law "codifies a lot of what OMB has already been doing." Many of the current e-government mandates sprung from the so-called Quicksilver task force of 2001, which pinpointed 24 e-government projects to connect the public with government agencies, Smith said. For example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency recently launched a new Web site -- www.disasterassistance.gov -- to provide people with resources on major emergencies. The site spawned from an OMB e-government project.
Government contractors expect that a number of e-government-related contracts will grow after the New Year, and many view the new law as an important milestone. "It commits some real money to the importance of e-government," said Greg Pellegrino, a Deloitte Consulting partner, who heads the company's global e-government practice. "It's a huge step forward."
"We are certainly hearing a lot from folks in industry about e-government and their interest in tapping into the opportunities," said Susan Milich, president and founder of Federal Marketing Associates Inc. of Herndon, a government contracting consultancy.
Pellegrino, whose group at Deloitte works on a number of state and federal agency contracts, said the Input report might be too conservative of an estimate of the growth in the sector, since most of the federal government will be working quickly to fulfill the e-government vision of delivering more information and services via the Web. There is a huge "momentum in the marketplace" to embrace e-government work, he said.
Much of the first wave of new e-government spending will go towards "back office systems," including payroll and Web-based human resource programs that employees can access, instead of services geared toward the public, according to Input's Smith
When Opportunity Will Knock
Expectations that a wave of government IT spending will result in pay dirt for the private sector may not match up to reality.
"Business will come from this [legislation]," said Raymond Bjorklund, vice president of market intelligence and chief knowledge officer of McLean-based FSI/Federal Sources Inc., an Input competitor. However, Bjorklund warned the White House's e-government push includes a heavy emphasis on consolidating IT functions so that one application can be used for different needs at various agencies. As the government streamlines the types of applications it uses, the result could be fewer e-government contracts.
"While the opportunities may be a bit larger, item by item, there are fewer of them because of the consolidation," Bjorklund said. "There are going to be winners and losers in it."
The winners most likely to get a piece of the e-government funding are the larger system integrators, according to Smith. Smaller firms, or "subs" (contracting lingo for sub-prime contractors) will typically have to partner with the "primes" to get e-government work.
MELE Associates Inc., a Rockville IT management and consulting firm, is doing just that on a major e-government-related project for the Transportation Department, working as a subcontractor to Deloitte, according to Pellegrino. The nature of the project can't be disclosed due to stipulations of the contract, he said.
"We're definitely gearing up to do more" e-government projects, said Ginger M. Cruz, MELE's vice president of government and public relations. "The e-government initiatives are really starting to have an impact." MELE has seen a step up in requests for proposals, or RFPs, related to e-government work over the past six months, Cruz said.
Some e-government RFPs expected to pop over the next few months, according to Smith, include a General Services Administration project in January tied to adding authentication technology to the FirstGov portal, an online resource of both government-wide opportunities and resources. Another RFP is expected in February related to the U.S. Air Force's Enterprise Information Management Web-based project, Smith said.
Putting E-Government To Work
One agency that has a strong track record for embracing technology is the U.S. Department of Navy, which covers both the Navy and Marine Corps. In October 2000, it started its massive Navy-Marine Corps intranet project, aimed at connecting 360,000 department-wide computers and work stations to a central network for information sharing and e-business transactions. Plano, Tex.-based EDS is the prime contractor on the nearly $7 billion project, which is the largest "seat-based" IT contract taken on by the federal government, according to Department of Navy Chief Information Officer Dave Wennergren.
However, the project has been criticized for falling behind schedule. Wennergren acknowledged Friday that the program got off to a slower start than anticipated since it took awhile to test out systems and get ready to connect computers to the intranet. "We are now rolling fast," he said.
The project has connected close to 50,000 work stations so far and is targeting connecting 150,000 to 200,000 "seats" over the next year, he said, or about 15,000 per month.
"This sharing of knowledge allows everyone to work smarter, faster, harder," Wennergren said.
The department also has set up an "e-business operations" office to serve as a clearinghouse for department-wide e-government projects and to link Navy and Marine units with the private sector, Wennergren said. About two years ago, the office helped the Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego secure $100,000 for a pilot to give doctors hand-held computers to make it easier for patients to schedule appointments and for doctors to check patient records, Wennergren said. The pilot was so successful, and cost less than other alternatives the Department of Defense was considering, that now the Pentagon is pursuing a system-wide system using similar technology, he said.
The Department of Navy plans to embrace other e-government projects in the near future to move information to the Web or to mobile applications to make the Navy and Marine Corps more efficient, Wennergren said. "There's a tremendous amount of opportunity for our private sector partners," Wennergren said.
Quelle: Washington Post
