Range of Models

To date the most prominent self-funding deals have been signed in the US, often within the government sector, and they have come in a variety of guises.

While the TexasOnline project relies on small charges to citizens being passed on to the developer, officials in Massachusetts chose a different model for the development of Enhanced Comm-PASS, an upgrade of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts procurement system. Instead of charging small fees to citizens, Comm-PASS pays for itself via subscription fees from vendors looking to do business with the government.

"Enhanced Comm-PASS is a great model because it's a win for everyone," says Mary Kurkjian, director and head of BearingPoint's state and local government and education practice in New England in the US. "The Commonwealth gets a better procurement system, vendors get added value and taxpayers don't have to pay the bill. Massachusetts officials should be proud of their vision in conceiving this project."

Then there is eFiling for Courts, also powered by BearingPoint, this time in conjunction with Microsoft. This managed service allows US state and county courts to accept electronic filings without incurring the costs of acquiring, building and operating systems of their own. The solution is funded through transaction fees charged to the filing attorney, which typically amount to substantially less than the traditional fees charged by couriers, express mail services and other court delivery mechanisms.

The State of Georgia has made the money to pay for its interoperability infrastructure by charging for some government data. Singer says that although Georgia has had legislation for some time allowing for the sale of some government-held data, the state began making money out of the information it holds only since it adopted a more entrepreneurial approach that recognised information as a public asset and took the position that when the private sector wanted to use that asset it should pay for it.

"Now they shouldn't pay exorbitant rates," Singer says. "For example, when an employer hires a new employee, they want to do a criminal records background check. By law, those records are publicly available, and the way most companies vet those records is that they would hire a third party who would simply come to the state and fill out all the appropriate forms and stand in line and pay for the file to be released, and they would pay something like $10 for a file. I was able to offer an online service for $25 - which was still less than the $50 the private sector guy charges - that could give you instant access to that record.

"So by having better use of systems - and by the way, that's how I funded my interoperability infrastructure - that paid for systems that we didn't make money on," he says.