This is undoubtedly the fastest growing area of public-private partnerships. Governments at all levels (state, local and federal) have aggressively adopted this tool for communication with the general public, as well as a means of providing a wide variety of services and information. And the public response has been surprisingly positive. The challenge faced by many public agencies is a lack of technical skills and expertise for implementation of these new technologies. This is what has driven the rising role of the private-sector in this sector.
Many of the programs are straight forward contracting of services, to a large extent because of a lack of a revenue stream associated with the service. However, some creative approaches have emerged that can lead to a more traditional public-private partnership. State procurement operations can be simplified by e-commerce listing of RFPs as well as a bid submission portal, with a service fee charged to users of the services. A percentage of fees collected can go to the private-sector partner, based on improved efficiencies and high collection rates.
Because of the widening acceptance of this approach, both by governments and the general public, this sector is expected to see strong growth throughout 2002 and beyond.