Costis Toregas Business Process Reengineering Subscribe to Newsletter Tell a Friend Print this Page 08/03/2007 Private–Private Partnerships Can Help Bring Technology to Governments We hear a lot about Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and how they can help break logjams and move agendas forward in areas where a simple government structure or a private initiative will not work on its own. Financing and operating infrastructure projects like roads and water works have been the poster children for PPPs, and more recently the marketplace is also beginning to see these interesting forms in the Broadband deployment arena. Using public assets such as vertical mounting rights and private assets such as access to technological skills and investment capital, entire regions are being “lit up” with WiFi and WiMax solutions that are the product of such partnerships. But there is another kind of partnership that is surprisingly difficult to find today, and yet may hold the key to rapid deployment of wireless broadband solutions: Private-Private Partnerships (P2P) which offer joint services of application and connectivity to a public entity! The reason for the success of such a strategy is simple: government goes to market for technology solutions such as ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Planning) or Public Safety Communications Systems constantly. On the other hand, Broadband deployment networks are an item which may not often rise to the level of procurement under its own steam. Therefore, the idea of focusing on a major system acquisition and identifying broadband wireless solutions that can improve that system’s value to the governmental client can lead to procurement decisions for broadband systems that would not be reached based on the network value itself. Let’s take a look at some great examples and opportunities for such partnerships: one of the most recent and well developed examples can be seen in the city of Corpus Christi TX, where an Automated Meter Reading (AMR) solution brought about by Northrop Grumman was able to use the Mesh network connectivity provided by Tropos Networks to the benefit of the city. Perhaps the Tropos solution would have been installed on its own merits; but the reality is that its implementation was promoted and hastened by the champions of the AMR capability in the Water Department of the city. A similar linkage of application and communications platform would be possible in an ERP implementation; there, one of the fist steps in implementation is to provide Business Process Map analysis to the client, and to use these existing processes as a springboard for requirements analysis which would streamline and improve them. Is it possible to imagine a wireless capability superimposed on top of these process analyses? Surely mobility will always suggest process improvements and productivity gains. Although it would make much sense, it is debatable whether the companies offering ERP solutions would currently find the incentive to think about superimposing a broadband solution on their own work. A P2P could be helpful…. Public Safety Communications Systems are another significant procurement activity in government today, with the requirements for interoperability, cellular advances and new bandwidth availability all providing challenges. Is there time to consider the infill capabilities of a wireless broadband solution? The idea of bringing citizen connectivity through WiFi and WiMax solutions which involve standard, non-secure devices to the Public Safety system? These opportunities again will not be pursued if there is no P2P structure established which might pursue the synergy between the traditional pubic safety structures and the more citizen oriented WiFi and WIMax ones. Of course the terms and conditions of such a partnership would have to be carefully negotiated. It is unfortunately true that brilliant partnerships end up with bad results because of an inability to “carve up the pie” and establish a mutually beneficial profit sharing plan. The smart business people would recognize the importance of win-win solutions and find common ground quickly so that the benefits of synergy could flow both to the customer and to the partners. As the faltering economy begins to provide challenges to government revenue streams in the next few months, technology industries with strong Broadband deployment credentials would do well to look around for other technology leaders in application verticals, and establish P2Ps. Such a move would multiply their footprint on the government marketplace and offer strong, comprehensive solutions to government clients who may be swayed to jump in and invest in this technology if it is linked to additional, on-going efforts that have their own constituency and funding mechanisms well established. Costis Toregas is President Emeritus, Public Technology Institute, and a lecturer at George Washington University. He chairs the Business Processes reengineering Roundtable at the W2i Digital Cities Convention. back Related Items: • Groningen • W2i Finalizes Program Agenda for Digital Cities Convention in Washington, DC • City Services Drive Network in St. Louis • New-Technology Rollouts: Avoid Putting Lipstick on the Pig! • Doug Townsend, IT Director, Medford (OR) - Part 2 Comments No records were found. Post new comment: Only registered users can add comments. Please Log-in

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