Report: Transform business processes to improve efficiencies

State and local government officials say new financial, administrative and technology initiatives provide only modest benefits for cash-strapped governments, and they are calling for more focus on business transformation to drive increased benefits, according to a study released this week.

The new study by IBM Corp. of Armonk, N.Y., is based on a double-blind survey conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value in cooperation with the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. The findings are based on a survey of 400 state and local government managers.

The managers said state and local government should focus on removing organizational, process and technology barriers to achieve more significant payoffs from initiatives.

Respondents were asked to evaluate 11 initiatives on the basis of whether they improved operational efficiency and organizational effectiveness. Overall the initiatives provided moderate benefits, achieving an average score of 3.3 on a 5-point scale.

The managers' rating suggest that government shouldn't abandon their initiatives, but should adapt their implementation approaches to resolve some of the key barriers to realizing the benefits possible from these initiatives, according to the report.

The study found that the primary benefits of the initiatives were improved information distribution and more effective or efficient customer service even when these were not the primary goals. It also found that investments in information technology infrastructure and so-called e-workplace systems and intranets provided the highest benefits in operational efficiency and organizational effectiveness.

(Click for link to report)