Technology solutions.

• Author: Kinney, Anne Spray
• Position: From the editor

As economic conditions continue to strain budgets everywhere, jurisdictions are examining their technology expenditures, looking for lower cost technology options. This issue of Government Finance Review highlights some of these options and illustrates how public managers can use them to enhance productivity, make government more accessible to the public, and improve decision making.

In "Digital Government: Creating the Social Media Game Plan," Spencer Stern and Patrick Ibarra urge governments to think of social media as an improved way to interact with the community and provide examples of how governments can go beyond posting undifferentiated information on Facebook and Twitter.

If you have worked on an enterprise resource planning (ERP) project, you will likely agree that how employee issues are addressed is one of the most important factors for success. In "Managing Change in ERP Projects," Dave Melbye explains why a planned approach to guiding staff through a business transformation is at least as important as technology deployment or process change itself.

Many jurisdictions are in the position of trying to determine the best uses for their limited technology budgets. While it might be tempting to distribute technology money proportionately to all departments, in "Cutting IT Costs...