Government Technology - May 2008 - (Page 8)

the last mile Group Publisher: EDITORIAL Editor: Associate Editors: DON PEARSON dpearson@govtech.com BY C HA D VA NDER VEEN TECHNOLOGY AND POLITICS EDITOR STEVE TOWNS stowns@govtech.com EMILY MONTANDON emontandon@govtech.com JESSICA JONES jjones@govtech.com MIRIAM JONES mjones@govtech.com KAREN STEWARTSON kstewartson@govtech.com JIM MCKAY jmckay@govtech.com CHAD VANDER VEEN cvanderveen@govtech.com ANDY OPSAHL aopsahl@govtech.com MATT WILLIAMS mwilliams@govtech.com HILTON COLLINS hcollins@govtech.com CORTNEY TOWNS ctowns@govtech.com TOD NEWCOMBE tnewcombe@govtech.com REID GOLDSBOROUGH, EVELINA MOULDER Chief Copy Editor: Managing Editor: Justice and Public Safety Editor: Technology and Politics Editor: Features Editor: Assistant Editor: Staff Writer: Editorial Assistant: Contributing Editor: Contributing Writers: DESIGN Creative Director: Graphic Designers: Quality You Can Taste E ven if you’re not from California, Arizona or Nevada, you’ve probably heard of a fast food restaurant chain called In-N-Out. Since its founding 60 years ago, the burger franchise has built a rabidly loyal customer base even though it almost never advertises on TV. In-N-Out owes its success to a number of factors that separate the company from the rest of the fast food flock. First, each location is always — I mean always — impeccably clean. Second, In-N-Out treats its employees very well. Starting “associates” earn $10 an hour — a much higher wage than other fast food joints and comparable to some entrylevel white collar jobs. Full-time employees you continually roll out new, questionably relevant products or services in an attempt to fill ever more obscure niches? Have you ever visited a Web site that offered a host of services, only to find that the services don’t work that well? Have you ever done business with a company that keeps launching new, more specialized products while their mainstays suffer? Just compare In-N-Out to McDonald’s. While McDonald’s routinely launches new menu items, In-N-Out never has. And 99 people out of 100 would take a DoubleDouble over any McDonald’s sandwich. Depending on your line of work, it may seem impossible to do one thing and do it Illustrator: Production Director: Production Manager: Internet Director: PUBLISHING VP Strategic Accounts: VP Bus. Development: KELLY MARTINELLI kmartinelli@govtech.com CRYSTAL HOPSON chopson@govtech.com MICHELLE HAMM mhamm@govtech.com JOE COLOMBO jcolombo@govtech.com TOM MCKEITH tmckeith@govtech.com STEPHAN WIDMAIER swidm@govtech.com JOEI HEART jheart@govtech.com JUDE HANSEN jhansen@govtech.com JON FYFFE jfyffe@govtech.com TIM KARNEY tkarney@govtech.com EAST PAM FYFFE pfyffe@govtech.com WEST, CENTRAL LESLIE HUNTER lhunter@govtech.com EAST SHELLEY BALLARD sballard@govtech.com WEST, CENTRAL KRISTA O’SULLIVAN kosullivan@govtech.com WEST, CENTRAL MELISSA CANO mcano@govtech.com EAST ERIN HUX ehux@govtech.com WEST, CENTRAL GLENN SWENSON gswenson@govtech.com SHANNON DURHAM sdurham@govtech.com SABRINA SHEWMAKE sshewmake@govtech.com ANDREA KLEINBARDT akleinbardt@govtech.com WHITNEY SWEET wsweet@govtech.com LANA HERRERA lherrera@govtech.com KARIN PRADO kprado@govtech.com STACEY TOLES stoles@govtech.com JIM MEYERS jmeyers@govtech.com VIKKI PALAZZARI vpalazzari@govtech.com PETER SIMEK psimek@govtech.com MICHELLE MROTEK mmrotek@govtech.com JULIE DEDEAUX jdedeaux@govtech.com GOSIA USTASZEWSKA subscriptions@govtech.com Sr. Director of Sales: Regional Sales Directors: Account Managers: “Look around your organization. Do you do one thing better than anyone else?” are offered an extensive benefits package and restaurant managers generally earn more than $100,000 a year. But what really makes ex-West Coasters living in the Midwest or on the East Coast long for In-N-Out? The food. While most restaurants offer near-endless choices of mediocre food, an In-N-Out menu offers a total of 10 items: a hamburger, a cheeseburger, a Double-Double (a double cheeseburger), french fries, milk shakes, soda, coffee, lemonade, iced tea and milk. And therein lies the secret to In-N-Out’s perpetual popularity: In-N-Out does one thing, which is make hamburgers, and they do it better than anyone else. It’s a business model that seems to have fallen out of favor with organizations, both public and private, especially those that deal in technology. Look around your organization. Do you do one thing better than anyone else? Or do better than anyone else. It may just be out of your control. But even if your organization adheres to a quantity-over-quality strategy, that doesn’t mean you have to. In-N-Out doesn’t advertise anywhere but on billboards because their customers do the advertising for them. A government Web site, for example, should operate the same way. Citizens should know about it not because it keeps adding new services, but because the services it offers are excellent. Trying to be all things to all people is a tried-and-true business practice, but the result is usually a line of products that are of average or worse quality. If you have the guts to do one thing better than anyone else, loyal customers will line up. In-N-Out’s slogan used to be “That’s what a hamburger’s all about.” They proved it by making the best hamburger around. What’s your organization all about? Business Development Dir.: National Sales Administrator: Regional Sales Administrator: Dir. of Marketing: Dir. of Custom Events: Custom Events Manager: Custom Events Coordinator: Dir. of Custom Publications: Custom Publications Writer: Dir. of Web Products and Services: Web Services Manager: Proj. Manager, Web Products and Services: Web Advertising Manager: Subscription Coordinator: CORPORATE CEO: Executive VP: Executive VP: CAO: CFO: VP of Events: Marketing Director: DENNIS MCKENNA dmckenna@govtech.com DON PEARSON dpearson@govtech.com CATHILEA ROBINETT crobinet@centerdigitalgov.com LISA BERNARD lbernard@govtech.com PAUL HARNEY pharney@govtech.com ALAN COX acox@govtech.com DREW NOEL dnoel@govtech.com Government Technology is published by e.Republic Inc. Copyright 2008 by e.Republic Inc. All rights reserved. Government Technology is a registered trademark of e.Republic Inc. Opinions expressed by writers are not necessarily those of the publisher or editors. Article submissions should be sent to the attention of the Managing Editor. Reprints of all articles in this issue and past issues are available (500 minimum). Please direct inquiries to the YGS Group: Attn. Erik Eberz at (800) 290-5460 ext.150 or governmenttechnology@theygsgroup.com. Subscription Information: Requests for subscriptions may be directed to Circulation Director by phone or fax to the numbers below. You can also subscribe online at www.govtech.com. MAY_08 100 Blue Ravine Rd. Folsom, CA 95630 Phone: (916) 932-1300 Fax: (916) 932-1470 www.govtech.com PRINTED IN THE USA 8 http://www.govtech.com http://www.govtech.com http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - May 2008

Government Technology - May 2008 Contents Point of View The Last Mile Big Picture On the Scene Four Questions for … Turning Over a New Leaf Crash Diet Budget Blues? Failing Grade? Running the Numbers The 311 Report High-Tech Corrections How It Works Spectrum Two Cents Products Personal Computing Signal: Noise

Government Technology - May 2008

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