This report, State E-Government Strategies: Identifying Best Practices and Applications, is based on research conducted in 2005-2006 under contract by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs as a Policy Research Project (PRP). PRPs are designed to give students a realistic policy research experience, culminating in a final research product for a client. This PRP involved nine students from the Masters of Public Affairs Program. Professor Sherri Greenberg served as the faculty director. Electronic government ("e-government") is currently one of the leading approaches to government reform, with initiatives being carried out at the local, tribal, state, national, and international levels. However, frequently there is little meaningful coordination or communication between various e-government initiatives. As a result of independently maturing technologies, there is a risk of creating more so-called "islands of automation" and "stovepipes" within and between levels of government. These problems are further exacerbated by human and financial resource constraints. To address these issues, Congress is actively overseeing e-government initiatives and is attempting to work with OMB and state governments to identify best practices, common standards, and successful strategies. Due to their variation in geography, demographics, and infrastructure, states serve as laboratories of experimentation for e-government. Federal policymakers may find aspects of state e-government planning and implementation useful examples for future decisions regarding the integration of federal information and services. To that end, graduate students from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin undertook a two semester research program to identify some of the best practices in e-government strategies and management being carried out by state governments. For the purposes of this report, electronic government is defined as the use of information technology (IT) to integrate government information and services for citizen, business, government, and other institutional uses. Many consider e-government as part of the evolution and extension of traditional governance. Just as in earlier times when the telephone and fax machine were innovations for government transactions, so is e-government today. Increasingly, e-government is an important component in the study of governance. Its role in providing services in a quick, efficient manner to people who may not have had a direct connection to governing institutions in the past makes it a ripe subject for study. In addition, federal and state e-government programs have evolved considerably since their inception in the early 1990s, and are now much more prevalent. These changes parallel the ever-changing technological environment and shifts in attitudes regarding the relationships between government, and citizens and business. In this report, the students identified several critical factors that influence state e-government programs. They are summarized below: Strategies are essential to e-government formulation because they provide objectives for state agencies and governments. The report identifies and analyzes numerous types of strategies. Outsourcing is a controversial issue in many states. The students' research revealed that state governments develop a spectrum of outsourcing policies from balancing in-house projects with outsourced projects, to prohibiting outsourcing, to promoting outsourcing. Funding is an important e-government issue because IT projects are costly and their success is uncertain. Legislatures must choose between multiple programs during the budget process and, in many cases, e-government competes with other needs for funding. State politics and culture can impede or support e-government development. Public agencies are often averse to IT changes because they can alter employee and agency functions. However, IT enhancements do not typically cause agencies to be eliminated. Strong leadership can support e-government programs and drive IT improvements by encouraging and promoting new projects among civil servants and citizens. The degree of centralization or decentralization is a key component in e-government management because it determines the level of interaction between administrative agencies involved in IT projects. Web portal centralization is a common trend among many states, and it is often separate from agency organization and decision making. E-government performance measures are essential in evaluating the success of programs, identifying challenges, and addressing specific formulation and implementation challenges. Surveys and site visits can provide valuable information regarding e-government management and strategies. The students at the LBJ School of Public Affairs created the survey by researching similar surveys, contacting e-government experts, and consulting with CRS specialists. They sent 51 surveys to all 50 states and the District of Columbia and received back 38 completed surveys. They conducted site visits in six case study states: California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Texas, Utah, and Washington. A set of core questions was used for each case study interview, along with state-specific questions. The survey results also provide general understanding of e-government differences among the states. The survey trends indicate that most e-government leaders have access to the state governor as needed. Questions about outsourcing show that most states either outsource the majority of their projects (75—100%) or outsource very little (0—25%). The most frequent leader in state e-government initiatives is the state Chief Information Officer (CIO). However, there are multiple departments involved in e-government, including Finance and Accounting Offices, IT Departments, and Information Resources Departments. States finance e-government from a variety of sources, including operating budgets, federal funds and grants, user fees, and capital funds. The majority of states use at least these four funding mechanisms in addition to secondary sources. Some states voice e-government security concerns for citizens and agency employees. Survey results show that many states are aware of legal restrictions on certain e-services, whereas other states are unaware. States use multiple performance measures to track programs; the most popular methods are customer satisfaction surveys and web tracking using specified metrics for evaluating site and service use online. The types of strategy documents used by states vary widely. Documents named in the survey include IT Plans, information management plans, and IT business plans, among others. The case study site visits elicited insightful information about interagency management strategies and decision-making processes. States vary in how they conduct e-government initiatives. Some governments, such as Texas, prefer to outsource software and applications development to consulting firms, while other states, such as Massachusetts, emphasize in-house development. Some states, such as Kentucky, encourage public-private partnerships and work closely with community leaders, while others use only intra-agency methods to create e-government programs. Each case study in the report includes state specific information on leadership, strategy documents, implementation, outsourcing, funding, centralization, and state politics and culture. In addition, this report contains a best practices section for each state case study that discusses successful program attributes such as effective communication on all levels, pilot projects for specific applications, and diversified methods of funding. The findings section of the report discusses the importance of strong leadership in furthering e-government initiatives. Devising a strategy is important, but not all states follow the same process. State e-government strategies vary significantly. Through the survey results and site visits, it was found that multiple entities are involved in the e-government implementation process, ranging from educational institutions to government agencies. In addition, survey respondents contend that there is a trend towards creating centralized systems and procedures for citizens to obtain information through state web portals and other forms of enterprise architecture. Survey evidence also found that funding sources in many states are diverse. While e-government is often implemented as a measure to provide efficiencies and to save costs (e.g., reducing the need for employees to perform some routine tasks such as customer service), actual dollar savings are not always realized by the states. However, e-government presents management challenges, and cost savings typically do not occur until the later phases of e-government implementation when at least a 30% adoption rate is realized. Identifying e-government planning and management concepts can facilitate a comparative analysis of state programs. In addition, strategies and management at the state level may provide important "lessons learned" for potential federal e-government initiatives. President George W. Bush has described new goals and policies for government reform that include citizen-centric online governance and the establishment of the E-Government Fund. This federal mandate proposes to "shift power from a handful of leaders in Washington to individual citizens" by increasing interagency cooperation and reducing redundant applications and procedures. Chief among the federal government changes is the establishment of USA.gov (formerly Firstgov.gov). This portal acts as the official gateway to federal government information and services, and facilitates citizen interaction with the federal government. Furthermore, e-government is one of the primary oversight jurisdictions of both the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform and the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Members of Congress will continue to propose and contemplate legislation regarding e-government. Future legislation could address a number of e-government issues, such as: citizen privacy and safety, national security, intergovernmental coordination, funding and management innovation. In addition to federal transformation, states also have implemented changes in governance. Many state governments started instituting e-government programs nearly a decade ago to improve interactions with citizens and customers. This report examines the e-government policies and strategies of state governments to provide effective practices and processes. While the public face of e-government tends to be a web page, the larger focus of this report is on management and strategies. Although service provision and site design are critical for effective e-government implementation, management structures and government culture define the direction of the e-government development process. This report includes an examination of existing e-government research to determine critical factors for state e-government evaluation. The students at the LBJ School of Public Policy devised a survey to obtain information on e-government practices which was sent to state Chief Information Officers (CIOs) or equivalent positions. In addition, the report provides a detailed review of the six case study states that were selected for site visits: California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Texas, Utah, and Washington. The students reviewed other surveys related to e-government management, service provision, and policy implementation.