Dot-Coms Run for Goverment, Again

Charging consumers directly didn't work, so now they're selling software and services to states and localities instead

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October 29, 2002 at 5:00 AM UTC

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Imagine. An Internet portal that would let citizens pay parking tickets and property taxes online. The ease. The convenience. Sounds like hype from 2000? Startup.com, a 2001 documentary, chronicled the swift rise and messy crash of GovWorks.com. And the filmmakers could have focused their cameras on any of several e-government dot-coms that burned through a wad of venture capital only to flame out a couple of years later.

Yet, a couple of hardy survivors have gained a foothold in a sector dominated by the big systems integrators, including IBM, KPMG, Accenture, and Lockheed Martin, which get the lion's share of government information-technology spending. While shrinking state tax receipts will make the next few years tough for the remaining small e-gov players, they've found an approach that seems to work -- tailoring Netizen-friendly software for state and local governments.