Government, at every level, is responsible for providing services to its citizens. While government has many roles, the central "business" of government is the development and delivery of public services, whether it’s healthcare, education, finance, or public safety & protection. And, to be truly effective, those services must be citizen-focused and results-based.

Increasingly, government performance in the delivery of those services will be based upon the concept known as information communications technology (ICT). Government information technology management has grown into one of the largest and most dynamic IT markets, with global spending increasing from $130.0 billion in 2005 to $165.8 billion in 2009. That’s a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3%. Additionally, there is generally strong growth in the government IT services market. Worldwide, the services market is growing from $69.3 billion in 2005 to $87.9 billion in 2009, with a CAGR of 6.1%.

Both of these growth areas offer a strong sign that the public sector is committed to achieving a true transformation in the development, performance, and delivery of public services. This growth is stoked by the mounting complexity of government IT systems. Public sector agencies increasingly rely on skilled systems integrators to build their applications and structure their systems in a way that allows ongoing access to all types of data, including older data and shared data repositories.

In deference to all of the short- and long-term data and system management needs outlined above, this white paper will focus on information communications technology (ICT), and how the application of its processes, capabilities, and technologies can be leveraged to drive meaningful results.