KM provides transparency for stimulus funds

ArcInfo is the GIS application from ESRI that allows creation of maps and geospatial analysis. It is used throughout Oregon state government to integrate data related to transportation, health, natural resources and socioeconomic issues into a common view.

"Operational or business data drawn from enterprise resource planning systems or other sources can sit on top of the base layer of the map to provide a meaningful picture," says Rob McDougald, account manager at ESRI. "It is a very effective way to provide visualization of government services."

The next phase of ORSTATS, which provides more detailed project information, is being used by state agencies, but it is not yet publicly available. In that phase, ORSTATS reporting will allow Oregon to track and report on the number of jobs created and/or maintained through the expenditure of state and federal stimulus funds over time. Furthermore, ORSTATS is being designed to potentially interface with the federal recovery Web site to streamline the process of rolling up the data to the federal level.

Future phases of ORSTATS may lead to more sophisticated capabilities for determining the most effective use and highest potential impact of stimulus funds across Oregon. "We will be able to plan and prioritize projects across the state by matching them with areas of high unemployment," McSpaden explains. "Our mapping data includes the location of businesses as well, so we can make the best choices for the types of projects we fund based on the local resources available to carry them out."

KM solutions for tracking

Every organization providing funds and every organization receiving them must track expenditures and progress. Some agencies have extensive infrastructures and existing solutions that can be leveraged, while others may have to develop a tracking system for the first time. A variety of technologies can contribute to meeting the requirements for tracking.

Data integration: In most cases, data from multiple sources will need to be pulled together to present the full picture of ARRA expenditures and achievements. Informatica offers a data integration platform that includes its flagship product, Informatica PowerCenter. It provides a unified view of data from any source, including spreadsheets, databases and documents.

"We can deliver a single view of information in a complex computing environment that involves many applications," says Chris Boorman, CMO of Informatica. "PowerCenter can collect data from any legacy system, verify it is trusted and accurate, and present it in whatever system the customer chooses."

Mashups: Another method of presenting an integrated view of data is the mashup, which extracts information from multiple sources and displays it in a user interface. Presto, the enterprise mashup solution from JackBe, is designed to allow business users to create their own mashups with minimal guidance from the IT department.

"Mashups are a very flexible way to present data from disparate sources," says Jacques Jarman, VP of worldwide sales at JackBe. "Presto leverages trusted production systems and their native security, while allowing very rapid development and agility when changes are needed."

JackBe has developed several demonstration projects for federal agencies to display funding information from granting agencies, which, like recipients of the funds, have to track expenditures and report on progress. A demonstration can be found at jackbe.com/recovery.

CRM strategy: Acumen Solutions has developed a program built upon Salesforce.com to track and manage ARRA funds. The Stimulus Tracking and Recipient Transparency (START) program is pre-loaded with Recovery program data for each federal or state agency.

"The START application allows agencies to track, manage and oversee projects, and they can get up and running in 30 days," says Greg Sanders, senior manager, public sector practice at Acumen Solutions. START was created to allow a rapid launch of a tracking system by government agencies. "The executive dashboards show the top projects and their risk categories, as well as contracts by vendor," Sanders adds. START supports aggregation of data from numerous funding recipients and rolls it up automatically.