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Virginia Travels The E-Procurement Path
by Chloe Albanesius
With the help of public-private partnerships, Virginia's e-procurement project recently reached the $1 billion mark.
The project, dubbed eVA, is handled by Fairfax, Va.-based American Management Systems. It enables users, vendors and government offices to communicate with one another in a more centralized forum regarding procurement opportunities.
"We need to continue to expand our economic development efforts," Gov. Mark Warner said on Monday at the Commonwealth of Virginia Information Technology Symposium (COVITS) in Roanoke. He said his "initial focus" as governor was to "revolutionize how we deliver technology services ... [and make sure] that we didn't leave out small businesses and minority-owned businesses."
That commitment to partner with the private sector led Virginia to award AMS a five-year contract to run eVA. The program "has streamlined several of [Virginia's] business practices by removing many of the traditional [one-agency approaches], both among agencies and inside individual agencies," AMS Chairman and CEO Alfred Mockett said Monday at COVITS. "It is cutting costs by turning expensive, one-of-a-kind technology into commodity-based, shared infrastructure, which saves a lot of money."
The Virginia system demonstrates precisely what e-procurement can do for governments, according to Caroline Rapking, vice president for AMS' public-sector group. "To my knowledge ... other states don't open up [their e-procurement systems] as broadly as [Virginia] to the enterprise," she said. "Every type of government in Virginia is encouraged and does use eVA for procurement, and I don't think any other states have that model."
In addition to eVA, AMS worked to overhaul Virginia's tax-collection system. Funding for the program is done via a system called benefits funding. "In partnership with the state, the contractor provides the up-front project investment dollars, without compensation at the time," Mockett said. "The private sector partner is reimbursed later on a fixed-price basis from the increased revenues that the system generates."
AMS also has benefits-funding projects in the works in California, Hawaii and Kansas. And the service has been asked to implement the state's tax-amnesty program, Rapking said. The two-month program, begun the first week in September, allows delinquent taxpayers to avoid late fees and incur only half the interest on late payments. AMS will be involved with everything, from "hiring the public-relations firm to making sure information systems are changed, [to] setting up call centers to handle increased call volume," she said.
Rapking credits the success of Virginia's tech initiatives with its willingness to collaborate. "It's a partnership-oriented state," she said. "It really is a model that other states should look at."
N.J. Governor Signs Safety Measures
New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey started the state's "Public Safety Week" on Monday by signing into law a bill requiring all convicted criminals to submit DNA for inclusion in the state's DNA databank.
The measure also will provide for a larger staff in order to speed turnaround time. Forty DNA scientists will be added in order to increase crime-scene analysis from 210 days to 30 days within 18 months. The databank will connect to the FBI's Combined DNA Indexing System.
"Our overall crime rate dropped 4 percent in 2002, but there is more we can do to catch criminals," McGreevey said in a release. "By expanding DNA sampling and expanding our staff to process DNA evidence, we can have a very immediate impact on public safety."
In the past, DNA collection usually has been reserved for people convicted of sex crimes, violent offenses, aggravated assault or child endangerment. Now anyone person convicted of first- through fourth-degree offenses must submit samples.
"New Jersey will now join 23 other states that require all criminals to submit to DNA samples," McGreevey said. "Expanding our DNA arsenal substantially increases the chances of solving a crime."
On Thursday, McGreevey also plans to sign a bill increasing the penalties for identity theft.
Pennsylvania Schools Receive Broadband Grants
In an effort to speed the deployment of high-speed Internet access, the National Science Foundation last week awarded a $7.5 million grant to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and seven other institutions.
The center, a joint effort between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, will provide networking experts and infrastructure for the development of a high-speed test beds in Pittsburgh, Houston and Princeton, N.J.
The goal of the project, dubbed "100x100," is to connect 100 homes with 100-megabit-per-second (Mbps) Internet connections -- or 100 times faster than current broadband systems. "For 100 Mbps to every home to work, we have to rethink the fundamental design of the network," Matt Mathis, the center's network engineer, said in a release.
The other partners to the project are ATT Research, Fraser Research, Internet2, Rice University, Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley.
Texas Cuts Technology Education Programs
Texas technology is in jeopardy with the Texas Education Agency's September decision to liquidate its educational technology division, eSchool News Online reports.
One of the first programs to go will be the Texas-School Telecommunications Access Resource (T-STAR) network. T-STAR provides TV communication and videoconferencing to school districts, regional education centers and the agency. Funding woes, however, have forced TEA to close it.
Programs in limbo include the state's "virtual school" test program and Internet-based technology planning tool. An online network that lets school districts swap excess textbooks is safe.
To reduce the number of layoffs, the agency said it will transfer some tech workers to the textbook division because they think they will play a vital role in how students access texts and other information in the future.
"This pretty much demonstrates a complete turnaround in how the state of Texas is supporting educational technology in schools," said Jim Hirsch, associate superintendent for technology services for Plano's Independent School District.
In other Texas news, Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday announced a $5 million marketing campaign intended to continue the state's job-creation efforts. Dubbed Texas One, the project will open development offices throughout the state aimed at business expansion and recruitment efforts.
"New jobs mean more money for schools and healthcare needs, and new jobs mean more money recycled through our economy," Perry said in a release.
States Join Terrorist-Tracking Project
More than a dozen states have joined a terrorist-tracking project known as "Matrix," AP reports. The project will allow state and local authorities to track potential terrorists and average criminals via cross-referencing of personal data provided for a multistate database.
The federal government allocated $12 million for the project, which is operated by a private company. It has drawn fire from privacy advocates, however, who claim that it is an invasion of personal privacy.
Matrix, which stands for Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, already has been in place in Florida for more than a year. Other states involved are: Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Utah, according to the Matrix Web site.
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