He said agencies will need to change their business processes to benefit fully from electronic government, and most agencies do not have the funds to do that. Katzen said agencies will have OMB s support for funds but they have to do their homework first. Agencies will have to develop a good business plan to get the funds for automation, she said. Smith said agencies will have difficulty convincing Congress to fund automation because it is hard to demonstrate cost savings. The savings found in automation come from using fewer people.
Nobody wants to eliminate jobs.
Not Congress, not OMB and certainly not the agencies, Smith said. There are other justifications for the costs. Laura Callahan, deputy chief information officer at the Labor Department, said improved customer service was enough. Her agency has automated 53 percent of its forms and found layoffs were unnecessary. We put people to work on providing better service to the citizens.