For example, when a company manager has environmental hazard criteria or standards in electronic form, she can automatically link them to the product designer. As another example, when a CEO needs to answer a community group charge that her facility stockpiles too many hazardous materials, it is easier to run a quick computer hazmat inventory check and answer the charge, on the day of the charge. The alternative is to shuffle through paper purchasing records and copies of the Code of Federal Regulations to determine which agencies regulate which materials in what quantities, and then tote up the quantity at the facility. We think the answer is that these are business activities where government plays an unusually large role. And when it comes to the adoption of new information technology, as President Reagan used to say, government shouldn't be the answer.
Government IS part of the problem.
In the computer industry, entire product life cycles last only 6-12 months. So there is a mismatch with technology cycles, when Federal agency officials take five years to review, get comfortable, and finally approve electronic reporting or digital signature pilot projects. Second, across all levels of government, some agencies have indeed taken some risks, and tried to convert their data reporting activities to electronic form. But for reasons of budget, statute, and damage control, they have done so in virtual isolation from each other. The State of Texas got tired of waiting for someone else to lead, and developed its own waste-minimization reporting database format, which of course is now incompatible with anything used by other agencies or software companies around the nation.