Digital government initiatives often highlight citizen services portals to change the way residents interact with local government. But how does government deliver on the promise?

Frozen in place by isolated IT management systems and spreadsheets for cataloging data, public sector technology buyers are now stepping out of the cold.

The Howard County, Md., government streamlined its IT operations and cut its contract approval times to a fraction of what they were by building out workflows and bundling business processes on a cloud platform, said Howard County’s Deputy CIO Tom Yeatts.