Spotlighting Government Transformers

Posted by Wendy Wu, Google Apps for Government Team

Two months ago, we launched the Government Transformers initiative to find government employees who are improving the way government operates. They build more transparent systems, save costs and improve services to the citizens. We have received many nominations in just two months. In the next few days, we’d like to recognize a few of these government employees and share how Google Apps has helped transform the way their agencies work.

Group purchasing in government, made simple

Virginia cities and counties have a cooperative purchasing agreement. Once a vendor signs a contract referencing 'cooperative purchasing' with a Virginia government entity, other cities and counties can buy under the same terms. In the past, the information sat with each individual agency and was not visible to others. In order to benefit from this procurement policy, T.W. created a Google Group for area managers to share contract information and purchase support items and services cooperatively. “We now have about 30 members from 12 cities and counties,” said T.W., “and we simply send out an email to the group, and everyone gets the notice. Or people can go to our website to check out the discussion thread or history to find the contracting information they need, with complete transparency.”
(T.W.Sawyer, Purchasing Agent, York County, Virginia)

Responding to constituents faster

People in Wyoming have a constant goal of innovating and searching for ways to make their state a pioneer in technology and efficiency. Under Governor Matt Mead’s leadership, the IT department built an automated system to manage constituent inquiries with faster and more efficient responses. With Google Apps for Government, they used Google APIs along with traditional web development to build a robust solution in approximately four months. “Now, we see the status of every communication—whenever and wherever we are connected to the Internet,” said Bob, “and our staff assigns tasks, routes communication through Gmail, and places follow-up items on calendars so constituent requests are handled timely and efficiently.”
(Bob Mathews, Manager of Enterprise Application Development, Office of the CIO, State of Wyoming)

T.W. and Bob are two of many Government Transformers who are using Google Apps creatively to help their agencies run better. We look forward to sharing their success with you so make sure to check back this week for more transformer stories.