A white paper on the successful creation of public-private technology partnerships

1. Essential Partnerships:
[ A Guide to the successful creation
of public-private partnerships
]

2. Essential Partnerships:
A Guide to the Successful Creation of Public-Private
Partnerships
Produced by Cathilea Robinett
Executive Vice President
e.Republic Inc.
Executive Director
Center for Digital Government
www.centerdigitalgov.com
Written by Michelle Gamble-Risley
Executive Editor
Center for Digital Government
E-mail: mgrisley@centerdigitalgov.com

3. Table of Contents
Introduction
State and Local Government
E-Government Services Page 1
The Synergy Project Page 3
Education
A+ Certification Page 5
Big Buy for Dell PCs Page 7

4. INTRODUCTION
Over the years, IT leaders often mentioned that it's critical to create a partnership between government
entities and suppliers to deliver IT services or systems. This notion of a partnership implies an
association with another in an activity, as well as a clearly defined split in the responsibilities. A true
partnership creates a successful blend of project management coordination, delivery of a valuable final
product, and an ongoing relationship that exceeds basic installation of that product or service. The lack
of a successful partnership may lead to a critical IT project failure.
While many leaders stress the importance of partnerships, few have really taken the time to fully explain
the essential ingredients that go into making one work -- let alone what makes one exceed expectations.
The Center for Digital Government decided to examine the exact ingredients required for successful
public-private partnerships. After interviewing dozens of IT directors, managers and chief information
officers, we reached several conclusions. Leaders cited the following as the keys to creating a successful
partnership:
• 83 percent stated that suppliers, who are willing to make financial concessions or help in the
planning process to reduce expenditures, make excellent partners.
• 50 percent said that a desirable partner is proactive and responsive to providing technical
support, aid and assistance to answering questions.
• 25 percent said that honesty and trust are important among partners.
• 25 percent also said that working together on the procurement process was important.
• 16 percent said that it was important that the supplier staff worked closely with government staff
and fully participated in meetings.
• Another 16 percent said that scheduling flexibility for things like meetings and installation time
played a critical role.
The remaining issues cited as significant related to the individual project's needs. Among the other
issues noted were: technical collaboration, group planning and the development of a cooperative vision,
formation of user groups, willingness to assist with training, open lines of communication and consistent
response times.
While the application of some of these ideas is important, others were not relevant to a particular
project's needs. What stood out is the 83-percent response in regard to financial matters. In today's
current economic climate, the willingness to work with IT leaders to fit budgets often means the
difference between a project launch or cancellation. In the education space, many IT leaders are willing
to do things like pilot a new process or help create a new application in exchange for things such as new
hardware and systems.

5. Additionally, IT professionals wished for the partner to sit down with them and examine ways in which
the project budget might be reduced or managed differently to decrease expenditures. In some cases,
such as the San Diego Synergy project, this analysis resulted in the savings of millions of dollars and
became a make or break point.
Another issue related to staffing problems, and a lack of technical expertise drove the other 50 percent
regarding partner responsiveness. Government and education entities cannot afford to have their systems
go down and not be able to fix them. They also cannot afford to have technical problems without
recourse; therefore, an overall willingness and capability to help maintain and repair systems was noted
as important.
This information ultimately explains what government and IT suppliers expect from each other as
governments continue to build or replace technology systems. Insightful and innovative IT leaders who
apply these ideas to their projects set up win-win situations for both sides. Finally, it appears that the
essential partnership will continue to play a major role as IT leaders face continually shrinking budgets
and increased demands from citizens who expect to receive services via the Internet.
Cathilea Robinett
Executive Vice President
e.Republic Inc.
Executive Director
Centers for Digital Government and Education
www.centerdigitalgov.com

6. Essential Partnerships
State and Local Government
E-Government Services The Partners: Utah and NIC
Government Website:
PARTNERSHIP ESSENTIALS http://www.cio.utah.gov/
• NIC developed flexible funding models. NIC Website:
• The state leverages NIC's experience with other government http://www.nicusa.com/html/
entities. index.html
The state of Utah's partnership with Utah Interactive, another division of the Contact: Val Oveson
Title: Chief Information
National Information Consortium (NIC), has gone so well that the state Officer
recently extended its e-government services contract for another four years Department: Governor's
Office
and the site took first place in the Center for Digital Government's 2003 Best Tel: 801.538.1000
of the Web contest. Utah Interactive built and managed the state's official
Web portal (www.utah.gov) since its launch in May 1999.
"In just four years, this partnership has transformed the way state
government interacts with the people it serves," said Gov. Mike Leavitt. "We
provide better services faster and with less cost. The extension of this
contract will continue Utah's momentum as a leader in online government."
Val Oveson, chief information officer, approved the contract extension on
April 22, 2003. He oversees the Web portal's e-government operations and
reviews individual agency agreements with Utah Interactive, sets policies and
approves new portal services. "Utah's relationship with NIC has been critical
to our ability to provide high-quality interactive services to Utah citizens,"
said Oveson. "Gov. Leavitt's vision of a seamless online government has
quickly become reality."
Utah officials cite the quality of their longstanding partnership with Utah
Interactive as the primary reason for extending the contract. In addition to
designing and managing the state's official Web site, Utah Interactive helped
build dozens of state and local government Web sites and developed more
than 154 interactive online services during the past four years.
Oveson also attributes the momentum the state has gained in developing e-
government services to the relationship with Utah Interactive. "We are
Essential Partnerships 1

7. pleased with Utah Interactive's services," he said. "The acceptance by the
individual departments in working with them to develop Web applications is
very good. They developed our portal, and they are operating it, while we are
working to ensure that development continues, and refreshing and updating The Partners: Utah and NIC
the services moves ahead on the same path; but we're right in the throes of Government Website:
doing it. For example, we're working on our main Web page right now." http://www.cio.utah.gov/
NIC Website:
Utah Interactive officials also sat down with agency representatives to http://www.nicusa.com/html/
index.html
discuss how they could fund projects, and this has been particularly critical
as many states face difficult budget deficits and cuts. "They have been very Contact: Val Oveson
flexible with us," said Oveson. "We've been working with them on direct Title: Chief Information
Officer
funding methods and convenience fees charged to the customer. I don't know Department: Governor's
if they're doing any benefit funding mechanisms, but that is possible under Office
Tel: 801.538.1000
this new contract."
Oveson continued by noting that the real power of the contract is that they
get to leverage NIC's experience with 30 other entities with which they have
relationships. "They are communicating with us across boundaries -- that is a
major benefit they brought to the table," he added.
Essential Partnerships 2

8. The Synergy Project
PARTNERSHIP ESSENTIALS
The Partners: City of San Diego
• Private partners ESRI and SAP collaborated to help reduce the and ESRI
overall project cost and help get it launched.
• Cost reductions made it possible to upgrade the system in other Government Website:
ways. http://www.ci.san-
• The technical collaboration between ESRI and SAP made it possible diego.ca.us/
to add features the city wanted included in the system.
ESRI Website:
These tight fiscal times necessitate that government entities devise cost- http://www.esri.com
cutting measures if they want to get IT projects launched. In the case of the
Contact: Liz Mueller
city of San Diego's Synergy Project, IT leaders leveraged a public-private Title: Information Systems
partnership to reduce the proposed $5 million budget down to $1.8 million, Manager
Department: Synergy Project
thus saving more than 50 percent of the projected project expenses. The Tel: 619.527.7516
tremendous cost savings evolved from the city's relationship with national
software providers, ESRI and SAP.
The Synergy Project itself was created to provide citizens of San Diego with a
unique tool to keep them informed in real time when things like a pot hole
gets fixed. This up-to-the-minute information is available through a system
created by the Synergy Project, which allows users to submit a street repair
request online (pot holes, streetlights, traffic-light repair, graffiti, etc.) using
either traditional text entry or by a GIS viewer to isolate specific geographic
areas. Users can go online and directly access the SAP work-management
system and see the status of their submittals.
The Synergy Project team first came into contact with ESRI when they began
working on the change management process and discussions started on the
new project.
"We needed to identify what we had and where we were going to go," said Liz
Mueller, information systems manager with Synergy. "Then we needed to
come up with a scope and direction. We began examining either using an
enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, customizing existing systems or
finding some off-the-shelf application. An ERP application caught our eye,
and we began looking at business operations and how we would be able to
interface with different packages we were already using. We finally came
down to SAP that had the main selling point of being able to work with ESRI
Essential Partnerships 3

9. solutions. SAP had even recently announced a partnership with ESRI, and we
decided to become partners with those partners."
The partnership with ESRI and SAP soon took a strategic and financially The Partners: City of San Diego
advantageous direction. After the city hired a consultant to come and provide and ESRI
assistance in the planning process, the projected cost soon became an issue. Government Website:
The consultant was suggesting that the project might cost upwards of $5 http://www.ci.san-
diego.ca.us/
million, which the city wasn't willing to pay. ESRI and SAP turned around,
looked at the figure, and quickly devised a solution that would only cost $1.8 ESRI Website:
http://www.esri.com
million. This less expensive estimate actually resulted in pushing the project
forward, whereas the other price had become prohibitive. Contact: Liz Mueller
Title: Information Systems
Manager
The partnership between SAP and ESRI has been extremely beneficial in how Department: Synergy Project
the application works. “In about a year, we had integrated the two products, Tel: 619.527.7516
ESRI and SAP, and had a live connection up and running,” she explained.
“We were at the point where you could click to any point on the map, do
queries on pot holes, map it, draw circles and go to the SAP product to
manage the information. Now we are working on a Web extension that allows
users to go into street services and use a zip code or address to do things like
show a drain problem and click on it to say what’s wrong and then send it
through the Internet and intranet.”
In the end, Mueller was pleasantly surprised by the project’s huge success --
and certainly the supplier partners played a significant role in making it
happen. If the project had stayed at the $5 million mark it is unlikely it would
be where it is today -- moving toward the next upgrade, a GPS component in
the city sweepers to relay back real-time data. The city is also working on
providing field technicians with personal digital assistants so crew leaders
can enter information directly into the system. "We're having a lot of fun
with it," added Mueller. "It's great."
Essential Partnerships 4

10. Education
A+ Certification The Partners: Poway Unified
School District and Gateway
PARTNERSHIP ESSENTIALS
District Website:
• Trust and commitment went a long way toward cementing the http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca
partnership and developing the RFP. .us/default1.htm
• Gateway was willing to make a tremendous investment and take
the project well beyond a simple pilot process. Gateway Website:
• Gateway was very hands-on in the organizational and planning http://www.gateway.com
phases.
Contact: Charlie Garten
Wouldn't it be the epitome of great customer service if every vendor came to Title: Executive Director
a K-12 school and said, "How can we make student learning better for you? Department: Educational
Technology and Information
How can we help you support student learning?" This is exactly what Services
Gateway, a national computer, consulting and training company, did with Tel: 858.748.0010
California-based Poway Unified School District when it proposed helping
establish an A+ Certification program to help train high school students.
According to Charlie Garten, executive director of educational technology
and education services at Poway, Gateway offered to meet the district's
needs. He sat down with a Gateway representative and told the person in an
"offhanded" way that the district never had enough people to support
technology. "I told him they could give us free tech support, and he said,
'Well, let's talk about that,'" said Garten. "So we sat down and talked about
how we had all these kids who are interested in computers and want to learn
about them, and we have a need to support our machines. I asked what we
could do?"
The answer came in the form of a proposal to Gateway that they would fund
and train teachers at each of Poway's high schools to learn how to certify
students. Gateway also provided curriculum, books and computers for the
kids to tear apart and put back together again. "Over a summer they trained
our teachers," said Garten. "We started this five years ago with one class at
each high school. Now we have two classes at each high school with a waiting
list."
The program creates a win-win relationship, because the students that come
out of the classes take the A+ Certification exam and pass. "What happens is
Essential Partnerships 5

11. they take the class their junior year and then in their senior year they come to
work for us or other companies," said Garten. "The payback for Gateway is
that their resellers hire these kids. We've given them a trade and they can
then go out and work for our business partners. They work in Gateway stores, The Partners: Poway Unified
and they get credit for it their senior year and they make money. One of our School District and Gateway
students landed an administrative assistant job and within a year he had District Website:
moved up to assistant director and was making $90,000 a year straight out http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca
.us/default1.htm
of high school."
Gateway Website:
http://www.gateway.com
In the process of working on this project, Poway cemented its relationship
with Gateway so much so that the company actually opened an office near Contact: Charlie Garten
Title: Executive Director
the district to help better meet their needs. "We've really established an Department: Educational
ongoing partnership with them," said Garten. "I believe without their Technology and Information
Services
flexibility and assistance the A+ Certification project would have never Tel: 858.748.0010
happened. They sat down with us, looked at the high schools and examined
where they could help. We formed a level of trust, and the RFP was born
from this trust and commitment from both of us to have a long-term
relationship."
This ongoing commitment means that Gateway is always willing to provide
assistance and work with the district to increase the learning experience for
all students. "They helped our teachers learn how to use the technology,
which was really important," said Garten. "If you purchase technology and it
goes unused, there is a huge expense in that. So they helped our teachers
embrace the technology, which keeps the student learning and the program
running."
The partnership has been an overall learning experience about the power of
business and education coming together to make something happen. "We
learned that a partnership can be a two-way street where both entities help
each other out," he added. "I think we were pleasantly surprised that
Gateway representatives were willing to come out and talk about long-term
commitments and partnerships. I think at the time that was surprising, but
now we see more of a long-term trend going in this direction. It was also
incredibly surprising that when I said let's pilot this in one class, Gateway's
representative said let's put this in every school -- and we did in a very
organized and well-planned way."
Essential Partnerships 6

12. Big Buy for Dell PCs
PARTNERSHIP ESSENTIALS
The Partners: City University of
• CUNY's partnership with Dell resulted in a tremendous overall cost New York (CUNY) and Dell
savings on PCs.
• Dell was very flexible in negotiating an acceptable price package. CUNY Website:
• Dell has provided ongoing maintenance. http://portal.cuny.edu/portal
• CUNY users can count on Dell to be responsive and help them /site/cuny/
resolve technical problems.
Dell Website:
Brian Cohen, chief information officer for the City University of New York http://www.dell.com
(CUNY), assumed his position in 2001 and immediately began looking at Contact: Brian Cohen
how he could leverage the enterprise from an operating basis to save money Title: University Chief
Information Officer
and then turn around and use that saved money to apply it to the core Tel: 212.541.0365
mission of education. He soon looked at something as simple as buying PCs
in bulk and quickly realized that CUNY's long-term relationship with Dell, a
provider of products and services required for customers to build their IT
and Internet infrastructures, could prove to be a cost-effective one.
“There were are times where the university would buy a large number of PCs
at one time and other times where we would buy one computer at a time.
There was no coordinated effort to consolidate our procurements or
negotiations for price,” said Cohen. “While the university uses the contracts
awarded by the state of New York, for the most part the cost per PC was the
price set by the contract and there was little or no negotiation with the
vendors to negotiate the best value for the university.”
Cohen’s first goal was to approach university partners who provided PCs,
including Dell, with the consolidated-procurement approach. Cohen
explained to Dell “that the University has purchased a large number of PCs
over the past several years in an uncoordinated way.” He asked, “If we, as an
enterprise, consolidate our planning efforts and purchase in a coordinated
fashion, what can you as a partner offer in terms of product and price.”
Dell showed a willingness to negotiate an acceptable price package. Cohen
then did some research on how many PCs the university was going to buy
over a period of time. He collaborated with his university departments to
determine the quantity and general specifications of what PCs should look
like.
Essential Partnerships 7

13. “In moving forward, we began to plan and coordinate internally with the
colleges to determine the anticipated number of PCs the university was
planning to purchase. With a common specification and quantity needed The Partners: City University of
now available, the university was now in the position to negotiate with Dell New York (CUNY) and Dell
under an existing NYS contract. CUNY Website:
http://portal.cuny.edu/portal
/site/cuny/
“Dell recognized the importance and value of the relationship with the
university and wanted to continue to be a partner," he continued. "In the end Dell Website:
http://www.dell.com
the university achieved great value by changing the way we historically
approached IT procurements. We got more for less. Dell provided a very Contact: Brian Cohen
Title: University Chief
competitive price of a little more than $1,000 per PC, which is based on the Information Officer
quantity that the university bought translated into almost $2.5 million in Tel: 212.541.0365
savings.”
Dell has also been flexible in providing improved maintenance coverage for
the colleges. They have been willing to provide necessary management
reports that allow CUNY to monitor the success of the program both in its
infancy and as it moves forward. "They have been very good in ensuring that
everyone is aware of what they are offering so the colleges can take advantage
of it," said Cohen.
Additionally, Dell worked with CUNY to support other college technology
initiatives. “In one case, Dell was able to provide as a result of a grant from
Intel Corp, the funding to purchase equipment needed to create a college
computer grid and to connect that grid to other grids that were being
developed in the university. It is this type of collaboration and support that
made it possible for the college to complete its project.”
Overall, Cohen has been very satisfied with what the Dell partnership has
done for CUNY. “A good partner doesn’t stop listening to you after the
contract is signed or solely for the purpose of repeat business,” he said. “A
good partner is always there when you need them and responsive to your
needs at all times. It’s important to know that when you have a problem your
call or e-mail will get almost immediate attention. IT problems need quick
response. We don’t have the luxury of waiting 10 days for response or
resolution.”
Essential Partnerships 8