Government online exchange for reusable components launched
AN ORGANIZATION COMPRISED of state CIOs is constructing an online exchange to promote the reuse of components when building applications.
The private marketplace, National Software Component Exchange (NSCE), is being built by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and will run on a platform specifically for reusing components, supplied by ComponentSource, a component broker based in Kennesaw, Ga.
NSCE will serve systems engineers and developers that work for the 50 state governments by enabling them to locate and use components that are registered and stored in the national repository.
"When the same functionality has to be provided to citizens in all states, it makes more sense to share components that enable that functionality," said Bill Wilkerson, CFO of ComponentSource.
Every state needs a set of applications for driver's license issuing, for instance, but not all the states move to a computerized testing process or online registration at the same time. Thus, if New Jersey already has a specific functionality and Alaska is looking to incorporate it into its system, developers for the state of Alaska could go to the online exchange, find the components New Jersey built, and use some or all of them instead of starting from scratch.
Under the program states will have their own local exchanges, which will link into the national repository. The advantage of local exchanges is that if a state or even a county government mandates that a certain system be in place across its police stations, for instance, immediately there are numerous developers with the need for that application.
The primary benefits of reusing components include faster application development, higher-quality software, lower risk, and cost savings. And that is just in the corporate sector, where enterprises and developers have myriad options.
The government sector, on the other hand, is a different story altogether, according to Larry Singer, CIO for the state of Georgia and the chairman of reuse at NASCIO. He said states are particularly challenged in that there is virtually no horizontal application market for the government because there are only 50 potential customers and they rarely need the same applications at the same time.
"This gives us a vehicle to collaborate, especially for areas like HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] regulations, where the government mandates what we have to do," Singer said.
Singer added that the exchange also serves as a forum in which developers across the nation can share information and experience about using components or building particular applications.
As a result of reducing development costs, Singer expects savings to spill over to taxpayers as well. "We think this can not only save taxpayers money in the initial process, but we think also the business process management will save them even more money in the long term," Singer said.
Citing an example of the multilayered savings potential, Singer said that the state of Georgia, while constructing an online Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) registration program, discovered that Arkansas already had a similar application built and used a number of those components as the foundation of its won application.
Georgia citizens immediately benefit from the application because the state can run its registration operation with fewer employees, thus reducing salary costs, and individuals no longer have to spend time and moneyy going to a physical location to register.
On the technology side, Singer and his team filled in 80 percent of the application with existing components that Arkansas had written. Without Arkansas' components, Singer estimates, it would have cost Georgia $150,000 to build the system.
Although not commenting on the specific dollar amount that Georgia saved, Singer said that his team reaped some of the other rewards associated with reuse as well. "The cost was reduced enough that we didn't have to wait for budget approval, which got it up and running faster," Singer said.
A ComponentSource spokeswoman said the private exchange is a foreshadowing of more public component marketplaces to come.
The organizations did not say when NSCE will be completed.
InfoWorld
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