Necessity is the mother of invention--right? One "positive" outcome of the current continuing recession we are in has been that organizations, including governments, have been looking for ways to save money.
One way is to forgo always going it alone and looking for partners to provide shared services where appropriate. An example of this is the City of Fort Collins paying a local school district to provide email services to it's employees. The Mail Merge story is in the current edition of Government Technology. This partnering will save Fort Collins $55K a year.
Might there be ways that emergency management programs might collectively work together more efficiently? In many rural areas the county provides the emergency management services to all incorporated areas.
One area where I still see a lot of duplication is in 911 system operations. There is no technological reason that one jurisdiction can't provide 911 services to another city or county. It is only politics and egos standing in the way of providing cheaper, and maybe even better service to citizens.
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One way is to forgo always going it alone and looking for partners to provide shared services where appropriate. An example of this is the City of Fort Collins paying a local school district to provide email services to it's employees. The Mail Merge story is in the current edition of Government Technology. This partnering will save Fort Collins $55K a year.
Might there be ways that emergency management programs might collectively work together more efficiently? In many rural areas the county provides the emergency management services to all incorporated areas.
One area where I still see a lot of duplication is in 911 system operations. There is no technological reason that one jurisdiction can't provide 911 services to another city or county. It is only politics and egos standing in the way of providing cheaper, and maybe even better service to citizens.
