Taking charge of technology.

• Author: Esser, Jeffrey L.

GFOA members are no strangers to the revolution in technology that has profoundly affected all aspects of government finance in recent years. Articles on various aspects of technology as they apply to the public sector have frequently appeared in this magazine. Similarly, members attending GFOA's annual conference have been greeted in recent years by an ever-increasing number of technology-oriented concurrent sessions and roundtables. In the same way, technology is becoming an important focus of GFOA national training programs. Most important, technology has become an integral and inescapable part of how all of us "do business" on a daily basis, regardless of the size or type of government we serve.

It is only natural that government finance officers would turn to their professional association to provide leadership in helping to make the best possible use of existing and emerging technologies. It was with this objective in mind that GFOA past-president Timothy Riordan made technology a key theme during his term of service; this emphasis has not diminished under his successors, presidents Arthur Lynch and Linda Savitsky. The GFOA Executive Board established a special Technology Task Force in 1996 to assist the board in planning how this organization can best help its members to make the most of technology. To achieve this goal, the Task Force set about three specific tasks. First, it undertook an inventory of existing and developing information technologies and applications. Second, the task force sought to identify emerging technology-related opportunities and challenges for public finance professionals. Finally, it committed itself to making specific recommendations on how the GFOA could help members to deal effectively with these opportunities and challenges.

The Technology Task Force recently completed its work and made a final report to the Executive Board. The technology inventory portion of the report reviews a wealth of currently available technical resources, which are classified into the following categories: 1) basic technology environment, 2) application software, 3) telecommunications and electronic software (e.g., automated clearinghouse transactions, electronic data interchange, interactive voice response systems, constituent access systems, Internet/intranet systems), and 4) additional technology tools (e.g., geographic information systems, imaging systems, data warehouse). This inventory should be of great value in ensuring...