SAVE Commission's findings - La Follette School of Public Affairs ...

technology. More input should be sought, however,
by creating a high level advisory function
that goes beyond just planning.
Advice should cover the full range of converging
technologies, heeding the advice of Dan
Burrus and the recent Carnegie Commission
that advised state government on technology’s
use. The input should go beyond the business
planning process, toward helping state government
look at its technology system from the
outside in. The advice also should help state
and local government work as one system, not
as a collection of independent agencies. This
will focus coordination on program results and
not just hardware and systems.
Compared to youth, many adults are inadequate
in thinking creatively about technology.
Therefore, youth might advise the state in
using technology. Young people have been
raised on multi-media games such as SimCity
and Carmen Sandiego. They can guide adults,
especially educators, on how to use technology
for effectiveness, not efficiency. Youth also
can help adults break out of their industrialage
thinking and can guide the them on choices
for educational software to benefit Wisconsin.
COORDINATE DISTANCE LEARNING
Educational agencies are using distance
learning as a part of cost effective teaching.
However, the potential generators of distance
learning content, inside and outside Wisconsin,
present a coordination problem. Inside the
state, the University of Wisconsin should be
designated a distance learning content coordinator
for state agencies, including the technical
colleges and new Department for Education.
The coordination should not involve control
of content, but focus on best use of system
capacity and avoiding duplication wherever
possible. Simply put, there should not be two
half-filled distance learning classes at the same
time.
REVISE TECHNOLOGY PROCUREMENT
Costly procurement mistakes have been
made in the public and private sector because
purchasing policies use an industrial age model
of product uniformity, mass production and
distrust. The result of this lack of sophistication,
especially in a large state bureaucracy, can
be substantial.
Wisconsin’s rigid procurement policies
need overhauling to meet high-tech realities.
Procurement specialists, essentially hired and
rewarded for processing paper in a system that
sometimes inhibits those who want to use technology,
need to be transformed and retrained,
along with the process.
The result of this transfer: technology
purchases made for value and total cost, not
just unit price. As one employee said, that
means changing the practice that prohibits a
small office from buying a locally sold computer
with a good service agreement and forces it to
buy a computer off a list with a poor service
agreement.
In a larger sense, management must ask
better technology-related questions and get
training on how to make information technology
policy and procurement decisions to avoid
repeating past mistakes.
Actions
14.1
Create a state
technology fund.
14.2
Train and reculture
employees for the
technological age.
14.3
Affirm information
technology as the major
presentation device.
14.4
Create a high level
technology advisory
function.
14.5
Coordinate distance
learning.
14.6
Revamp purchasing
laws covering high-tech.
State Employee
“Educate upper
management in the
proper application of
technology. All they
know are buzzwords.”
R E S U L T S
Using technology will:
1 Enable citizens to interact with
government faster and cheaper.
2 Enable government to be more
responsive to citizens and to
improve the quality as well as
timeliness of their response by
giving citizens remote access to
both government and
education.
3 Encourage state government to
invest in the technological
training and equipping of its
managers and employees so
they are able to take advantage
of information technology to do
their jobs better.
4 Even out the technological
sophistication of services
across state government, which
currently varies from very high
technology to primitive.
5 Require significant initial
investment which will be paid
back in long term productivity
gains and reduced operating
costs compared to labor
intensive, non-technological
delivery of services.
6 Continue to move Wisconsin
government products out of the
paper and printed form age and
into the electronic information
age.
CITIZEN • COMMUNITY • GOVERNMENT — WISCONSIN: THE 21 ST CENTURY 41