 |
|
|
|
Government Leader home > news stories
10/18/05
Government managers look to right technology for e-government
By Edmund X. DeJesus
Special to Government Leader
As electronic government has moved apace under the President’s Management Agenda in the last four years, managers have discovered the power of using the right technology to build e-government sites, especially those aimed at serving citizens.
The Office of Personnel Management, for example, scrapped an ineffective Web-based job-search system that relied on ancient code and outsourced the site instead. The new site, USAJobs.gov, uses modern software and well-designed pages to attract 200,000 visitors daily, said Norm Enger, director of e-government initiatives at OPM.
Merely grafting onto outmoded systems won’t cut it for supporting expected changes as e-government services evolve. Mark Forman, executive vice president of KPMG LLP and former Office of Management and Budget director of IT and e-government, said that adopting an enterprise architecture provides a solid foundation for future development while creating opportunities for integration between agencies.
The right development environment, such as a service-oriented architecture, leads to applications that are easily maintained and flexible when new features become necessary. Attractive and functional design of Web sites doesn't take much but scores high with users. A system for refreshing content regularly is also desirable for keeping long-term users interested. Interactive sites are also more engaging than lifeless read-only pages. Built-in metrics can track numbers of visitors, what they use (or ignore) and even time spent on various pages.
Forman has another piece of advice about e-government technology: Pull the plug on legacy systems. "People are not going to move forward to new systems if they know that the old system will still be available,” he said. “For migration to succeed, plan your migration, set deadlines and then switch the old system off."
|
|
|
![Government Leader[valor]](/images/govleader_smlogo.gif "Government Leader [valor]"){kind=small}
