Government Slow to Get Online
With many people using the Internet to conduct the daily business of their lives--from basic shopping to ordering medical prescriptions to trading stocks and managing bank accounts--having government services online would seem like an easy next step.
Indeed, for those who have used the few government services available online, the impression has been an indelible one.
“I was so impressed that this was being done by a government agency,” said Kathy Kasten, a West Los Angeles resident who paid her traffic ticket using the Los Angeles Municipal Court’s Web site. “Everything was like instant. Not the normal government hassle.”
But the online traffic ticket paying feature, which began last June, is a rarity among government services.
Moving paper and information is what technology does best, yet government services, particularly local ones that touch consumers, are hobbled by rigid decision-making structures, tight and highly scrutinized budgets, the year 2000 computer problem, and a civil service system that makes it difficult to move people from their jobs.
“In a word, the state of the industry is embryonic,” said James Macauley, an analyst with the research firm Dataquest. “While e-commerce has garnered a good deal of mind share among government CIOs, the dollars have not been flowing in that direction.”
Most implementation of electronic commerce in government has dealt with back-office functions such as procurement and receiving bids electronically. Dealing with relatively few suppliers allows them to test their computer networks before rolling out publicly.
Government agencies also have a harder time dedicating large amounts of resources to multiyear projects because it could mean one administration’s binding the hands of following ones.
And the monopoly nature of government means it doesn’t have to hurry to build new features or gain market share.
“The government is the only government you can go to,” said Arthur Malinski, chief of the information services division of the Los Angeles Municipal Court, which in June began using the Internet to accept payments for traffic citations and to handle requests for traffic school extensions and sign-ups.
Recently, however, Los Angeles’ Web-payment option, along with the mail-in and telephone payment services, fell victim to a backlog of unprocessed tickets, forcing some people to appear in court to resolve their citations. The backlog has since been worked through.
And the matter does not end when e-commerce goes smoothly. Other issues are waiting around the corner.
“When you’re in government and you transform through e-commerce, what do we do with the savings?” said William Kilmarten, head of the state and local government practice at American Management Systems Inc., which develops information systems for public agencies. “Do you reduce taxes? Do you reduce employees? Do we redistribute the employees to other areas? This is a big matter in government, and those kinds of determinations are easier in the private sector.”
AMS is one of several companies selling e-commerce abilities to government agencies, and it recently installed an online permit-application process for truck drivers in Iowa.
The state of Michigan has its vehicle registration system tied in with the networks of auto insurance companies, allowing for online registration renewals of automobiles and boats.
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In many instances, the Internet has opened opportunities for private companies to act as middlemen for government services. VitalCheck, a Tennessee-based company, has employees stationed at numerous state and local agencies, ones in Los Angeles County among them, to process requests coming through their Web sites for documents such as birth certificates.
“Obviously, governments aren’t designed to be profit-oriented,” said Michael Barrett, president of VitalCheck, which charges users a fee for its service. “They react a little slower, and more methodically.”
But change is coming, and Orange and Los Angeles counties have taken baby steps toward electronifying their offerings. People looking for copies of birth certificates, death certificates and marriage licenses from either county can order them online.
Since last October, when it began offering electronic means to request marriage licenses and birth and death certificates, Orange County has filled 5,200 such requests.
Orange County’s implementation of the e-commerce system, though, highlights differences between government and the private sector.
When a commercial product or service moves to the Internet, the price to the customer typically goes down. But with Orange County--and its implementation is a typical one--the price went up, with the county charging an additional $4 fee. The county works with Lockheed Martin, which developed and runs the system and receives $4 for every order processed.
Kathy Bohnstedt happily paid the fee. The La Habra resident needed a copy of her son’s birth certificate for a trip to Mexico. “I needed it right away and I couldn’t wait, so I don’t mind paying the extra money,” she said. “I called them on the phone, and it was going through the menu of ‘Press 1 if you want directions, press 2 if you want to do that.’ I just finally hung up and went to the Internet.”
The City of Los Angeles recently awarded a $1.4-million contract to PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct a five-month study of all city departments. Among the study’s purposes is to make recommendations for an Internet services strategy.
“There is an urgent sense from the city council to develop a plan,” said Jim Crain, acting executive officer of the city’s information technology agency.
Since June, the city’s building and safety department has been testing a system that allows developers who deal frequently with the city to use the Internet to file some of their simpler permits, Crain said.
The city also plans to abandon the convoluted domain designation of ci.la.ca.us in favor of the more elegant lacity.org, Crain said.
In its first full month of accepting payments online, the Los Angeles Municipal Court took in $30,000 on the system, which cost $14,000 to build. “At this point, it’s not so much saving money as it is an opportunity to keep staffing down,” Malinski said.
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The state of California has been so wrapped up in addressing Y2K issues that it has no strategic plan for a push into electronic commerce, according to Oscar Gonzales, a spokesman for the state’s department of information technology.
And it may be that electronic commerce will not be where the state decides to spend the money allotted for technology.
“Once Y2K is handled, we’ll start to open up the gates to important and critical technology initiatives,” Gonzales said. “To make a legitimate case to fund technologies to deliver services to the average Californian, policymakers have to address the so-called digital divide.”
Many in government cite the preservation of equitability as a challenge to moving online.
“We’re in business for everybody, like it or not, and we have to give everyone equal access to services,” said Leo Crawford, of the County of Orange.
Perhaps the biggest reason electronic commerce is not more widespread is the lack of a vocal push for it, said Dataquest’s Macauley. Government moves to where politics pressure it.
“The more you are used to ordering your plane tickets from Priceline or your music from CDNow, you get conditioned to expect it,” Macauley said.
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Who, What & Where
* Who it is: Los Angeles Municipal Court
* Where on the Web: https://www.lamuni.org/trafmainin.htm
* What you can do there: Check on the status of a traffic ticket, pay the citation, sign up for traffic school, request an extension for traffic school.
* Who it is: County of Orange Clerk-Recorder
* Where on the Web: https://www.oc.ca.gov/recorder/govlink.htm
* What you can do there: Request certified copies of birth, marriage and death certificates and search fictitious business names.
* Who it is: Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk
* Where on the Web: https://www.co.la.ca.us/regrec/main.htm
* What you can do there: Request certified copies of birth, marriage and death certificates and search fictitious business names.
