Local Governments: What to Do with All That Stimulus Money?

President Obama’s economic stimulus plan is currently pouring billions into local and state governments. A lot is going toward construction – highways, bridges, and your usual slew of New Deal infrastructure projects. I, however, think some of that money should go in a different direction: innovation, investment in increasing the agility of the American business and, of course, software.
 
Initially, buying new software doesn’t seem like the kind of job-making initiative the President had in mind; not a lot of shovels involved. But it would be an investment in our future: not in physical roads, but instead in technical infrastructure. Let’s take this sudden windfall and invest in the technology behind public services like schools, hospitals and social programs to help them work better, faster and cheaper.

Implementing Alert Management software would allow public sector organizations like local governments to automatically call or email residents to warn of anything from a terror attack to an overdue water bill. Schools could automatically send students SMS messages about emergencies or changes in schedule and parents could be notified in real-time of important announcements. Hospitals could send out thousands of emails to a blood donor registry in seconds and allow doctors to answer health questions and concerns from patients over their mobile phones.

The increased efficiency would mean millions in savings every year, and unlike other automation initiatives, it would not result in layoffs. All these organizations are struggling to hire enough people. Wasting precious employee time on manual, repetitive tasks helps no-one, and eliminating those tasks would allow staff to move to more productive projects.

Obviously, if government and public services start buying software, the IT industry would benefit, too.  As the CEO of a software company, I certainly can’t say this didn’t occur to me. But with IT spending declining at 9% annually and technology companies slashing jobs at an alarming rate, a combined push for buying new software and revolutionizing social services seems like it would be right up Mr. Obama’s alley.