A Minnesota consortium finds benefits in sharing.

• Author: Norton, Paul
• Position: Sharing of local government resources

When members of a community agree to pool some of their resources for the common good, they likely will get back more than what they put in. A group of Minnesota cities and government agencies have been reaping the benefits of sharing for more than 20 years. Their consortium, named LOGIS (Local Government Information Systems Association), has provided them with data processing systems and services that have unique advantages only sharing can provide.

Sharing and cooperation are central to the LOGIS consortium, composed of 24 Minnesota municipalities and government agencies. By combining their resources, LOGIS members have been able to attain a level of data processing service that would be difficult or prohibitively expensive to acquire separately. Along the way, they discovered that sharing and cooperation through a consortium had benefits beyond just cost savings - benefits that have improved their operations in many ways.

Structure and History of LOGIS

Cities and agencies become members of LOGIS by signing a joint-powers agreement. (Thus, in a legal sense, LOGIS is a governmental unit.) LOGIS is controlled by a board of directors containing one representative from each member municipality/agency. The board approves the broad aspects of LOGIS, such as its direction and annual budget. An executive committee, composed of five representatives elected by the members, oversees more detailed aspects, such as approval of expenditures, setting operating policies, and service charges. The executive director handles day-to-day management duties and works with the executive committee and board of directors to develop long-range policies.

The consortium is organized and controlled by nonelected officials rather than city councils or mayors, which removes it somewhat from political pressures. Like any publicly funded organization, however, some political considerations still apply.

The funding for LOGIS comes from monthly charges billed to its members. These charges cover almost every aspect of LOGIS services, including facilities, unlimited support, hardware and software enhancements, "bug fixes," hardware and software consulting, training and other project work. These charges are difficult to compare with other vendors because other vendors' "maintenance" charges typically consist of only enhancements and bug fixes. For example, if a legislative action requires a change in software, LOGIS provides that change at no additional charge.

LOGIS was created in 1972 as a response to the needs of municipalities at a time when cities were beginning to understand the advantages of data processing, but the cost of data processing hardware, software, and staff were too high for all but the largest cities. Seven municipalities reasoned that they could afford access to data processing by cooperating with one another and sharing costs. Thus, LOGIS was born.

Operations began in 1973 with a remote communications link to computers in Santa Clara, California. The initial applications were financial, fixed assets, payroll, and utility billing. (These "core" applications continue to be the most heavily used systems offered by LOGIS.) It soon was apparent that a local data processing provider was needed; so in 1974, LOGIS moved its operations to the Hennepin County Computer...