Cutting it costs: distinguishing between necessary and discretionary.

• Author: Boglioli, Louis J., III
• Position: COST PERFORMANCE

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Managing technology costs today is a challenge, with many constraints and competing demands on limited and shrinking resources. If your jurisdiction, like so many others, now has half the budget for information services that it had just four years ago, and half the staff as well, you need a strategy for determining what to invest in this year and what to table or scratch off the list. You need a way to determine what is necessary and what is discretionary.

IDENTIFYING THE BARRIERS

Budget constraints are the major barrier to new IT purchases, but there are others. Sometimes constituents want their tax dollars spent on community services rather than information technology. Also, management sometimes imposes restrictions on the organization to maintain a certain culture--for instance, jurisdictions might veto an automated attendant phone system because they want constituents to be able to talk to a person when they call. And in the modern era of "hacktavism"--hacking into computers and computer networks to protest or promote political viewpoints--security concerns are causing some governments to rethink their need for a web presence, since they don't have the budget to purchase additional security barriers.

Another intentional constraint on government IT spending is the economic environment--not the economic downturn itself, but rather the public's perception of government in an economic downturn. Even if they are financially sound, many jurisdictions' citizens are telling them they need to serve as examples of prudent spending, or that they need to "suffer" like the public sector they serve. For many years, the private sector joked about poorly paid civil servants, but all that has changed, and instead many are complaining about overpaid government bureaucrats with fat pensions.

LOOK AT YOUR GOALS

The City of Stuart, Florida, tries to measure all budget proposals against the city's goals. Stuart wants to maintain its current levels of service, be they street sweeping, garbage pickups, or online web presence, although slightly longer process times are sometimes acceptable. And though staffing levels have been reduced, it is still important for employees to have access to the Human Resources department, for contracts to be researched and processed as quickly as possible, and for citizens who call the city to have the option of speaking to a person at any point. The city also wants to ensure that its employees focus on the highest priority services.

The question for Stuart, then, is whether IT spending maintains a level of service, provides...