Published on 03-Aug-2011
Validated on 12 Mar 2013
"On the national level, there has been a lot of discussion about consolidating local governments. This technology will enable governments to share services as if they were consolidated, to foster efficiencies and more effective services." - Robert W. Elliott, former Mayor of Croton-on-Hudson, New York and former Deputy Secretary of State of New York
Customer:
New York Conference of Mayors
Industry:
Government
Deployment country:
United States
Solution:
Cloud Computing, Customer Relationship Management, IBM Research, SaaS, Smarter Planet, Information Infrastructure, Networking
Smarter Planet:
Smarter Government
Overview
The New York Conference of Mayors (NYCOM) is an association of and for cities and villages in New York State. The first conference of the New York mayors was held in 1910, at which time 49 city mayors convened to discuss city health issues. Eventually the basis of membership was broadened from strictly mayors to include entire municipal governments. Currently more than 590 municipalities and 7,000 local officials belong to the organization, which gives voice to city and village interests in the state legislature and with state agencies.
Business need:
Serving nearly 20 million residents—and under intense pressure to reduce costs—New York State’s local governments sought to increase their operational efficiency while also improving service delivery to their citizens. Though each municipal government performed similar operations with local variations, separate silos of data and systems existed within and among the various municipalities. They wanted to find a way to securely and cost-effectively deliver integrated value, eliminate overhead, and share information across multiple departments and among themselves.
Solution:
The solution leverages cloud computing to reduce manual work, lower costs, and make local government services more responsive and effective. By providing a low-cost, scalable, secure platform, the solution makes it easier for local governments to use net-delivered services, manage their operations and collaborate. The shared data management capability offered by the cloud consolidates data from multiple municipalities, agencies and applications, enabling local governments to benchmark themselves against other municipalities and share best practices in areas like water and energy management.
Benefits:
· Generated efficiency savings of almost $19,000 in one small town by saving 48 days in the first year alone due to integration of tax billing/payment and general ledger applications
· Generated cost savings of almost $8,000 in the first year, with annual cost savings of almost $19,000 projected for the second and subsequent years
· Reduced government technology costs and exponentially improved the ability of municipal departments to work together efficiently through effective information sharing
Case Study
The New York Conference of Mayors (NYCOM) is an association of and for cities and villages in New York State. The first conference of the New York mayors was held in 1910, at which time 49 city mayors convened to discuss city health issues. By 1915, a permanent organization had been created, and in 1924, the state’s villages were permitted to participate. Eventually the basis of membership was broadened from strictly mayors to include entire municipal governments. Currently more than 590 municipalities and 7,000 local officials belong to the organization, which gives voice to city and village interests in the state legislature and with state agencies.
The Opportunity
Serving nearly 20 million residents—and under intense pressure to reduce costs—New York State’s local governments sought to increase their operational efficiency while also improving service delivery to their citizens. Though each municipal government performed similar operations with local variations, separate silos of data and systems existed within and among the various municipalities. They wanted to find a way to securely and cost-effectively deliver integrated value, eliminate overhead, and share information across multiple departments and among themselves.
What Makes It Smarter
The recent economic downturn has brought many new challenges to government, but none bigger than learning how to do more with less. The solution leverages cloud computing to reduce manual work, lower costs, and make local government services more responsive and effective. By providing a low-cost, scalable, secure platform, the solution makes it easier for local governments to use net-delivered services, manage their operations and collaborate. The shared data management capability offered by the cloud consolidates data from multiple municipalities, agencies and applications, enabling local governments to benchmark themselves against other municipalities and share best practices in areas like water and energy management. By applying advanced analytics to this data, the solution is providing unprecedented intelligence that improves the efficiency, productivity and transparency of government operations.
Real Business Results
· Generated efficiency savings of almost $19,000 in one small town by saving 48 days in the first year alone due to integration of tax billing/payment and general ledger applications
· Generated cost savings of almost $8,000 in the first year, with annual cost savings of almost $19,000 projected for the second and subsequent years
· Reduced government technology costs and exponentially improved the ability of municipal departments to work together efficiently through effective information sharing
For more information
Please contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner. Visit us at: ibm.com/government
To learn more about the New York Conference of Mayors visit: http://www.nycom.org/
Products and services used
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Software:
Cognos Business Intelligence, WebSphere Application Server
Legal Information
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2011 IBM Corporation 1 New Orchard Road Armonk, NY 10504 U.S.A. Produced in the United States July 2011 All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, Cognos, DB2 and WebSphere are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at “Copyright and trademark information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. The information contained in this documentation is provided for informational purposes only. While efforts were made to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this documentation, it is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, express or implied. In addition, this information is based on IBM’s current product plans and strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without notice. IBM shall not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, this documentation or any other documentation. Nothing contained in this documentation is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM (or its suppliers or licensors), or altering the terms and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software.