Project Goal
To develop a deeper understanding of the strategies and tactics appropriate for building a business case for government-to-business electronic commerce project selections
Notes:
As part of our program at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, we work on a semester-long consulting project.
We were commissioned by General Services Adminstration, Office of Electronic Commerce, to investigate funding strategies in practice across various government agencies and come up with ideas on what strategies could serve as funding models.
So we checked out government websites, govt. documents, followed what being said in the traditional newspapers and magazines. We looked at ideas from the private side and from the international arena. There is a lot of public discussion going on about the capabilities of technology. However, there is little being written or said about how to fund IT initiatives. For that kind of information, our interviews proved invaluable.
We conducted interviews with over 3o people from the private and public sectors. These individuals represented a depth and breadth of experience in IT and government forays into electronic commerce. .
From the interviews, we were able to get a grasp on what is currently happening fundingwise, in addition to getting an historical frame of reference.
It is only through these interviews, that we were really able to understand the current creativeness and "work around" energy that is being used to build and IT infrasture.
It is now time for Amit to go into the funding strategies we studeid.