This special advertising feature presents white papers and other resources provided by companies and other organizations active in state and local government. In some cases, visitors seeking to read or download the documents may be asked to provide contact and other information. New documents are posted periodically, so check back frequently.

New in October:

Women and Retirement: Facing Unique Challenges
Retirement saving in the U.S. is a national issue that cuts across race, gender and income lines. But the reality is women workers face unique challenges that often make it difficult for them to achieve retirement security. In fact, nearly one in three women over age 65 in the U.S. is living at or below the poverty level. To download the document, click here.

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SAP Customer Success Story: HOUSTON INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest public school system in Texas and the seventh largest in the United States. Operating with a $1.65 billion budget, the District's 30,000 full- and part-time employees provide pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade education to 207,000 ethnically diverse students.

With the strategic context for technology defined and the need for a new financial system clearly identified, HISD began evaluating potential vendors using a detailed evaluation and scoring process to help ensure the selected vendor best met the District's requirements. In the end the nod was given to SAP R/3.

The total investment made by HISD to implement the SAP R/3 systems was $10.1 million. HISD is projected to realize savings and benefits from reduced transaction costs, the more productive use of invested capital in inventory, a one-time reimbursement for warranty claims, and a reduction in purchased materials costs. This stream of investments followed by savings yields an attractive ROI of 42%.

SAP Customer Success Story: ERIE COUNTY
Erie County lies in the western part of New York State, bordering on Canada. Encompassing the city of Buffalo and surrounding territory, it is home to approximately 960,000 people, distributes a budget of about $900 million to some 44 agencies, and employs 8,400, of whom nearly 1,000 are now SAP solution users.

"SAP was very quick to pick up on our strategic requirements for this region, thinking out of the box and using ERP as a backbone for common processes not only in Erie County but throughout the region." - Art Telaak, CIO, Erie County, New York.

SAP Customer Success Story: PORT OF SAN DIEGO
The Port of San Diego, California is using the mySAP Customer Relationship Management (mySAP CRM) solution to strengthen customer relationships and foster a world-class port through excellence in public service.

Technology Investment Curve
CDW Government, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CDW Corporation and leading source of Information Technology solutions to governments and educators, launched the second in a series of the State & Local Government Technology Investment Curve (TIC), an assessment of State & Local government purchasing behavior since 2000. The TIC maps all potential state, county and city government customers against five years of CDW-G customer data. Encompassing all 50 states, more than 100,000 products and 1,000 manufacturers, the Technology Investment Curve provides the most accurate, unbiased assessment of State & Local government technology investment currently available.

Securing Water Distribution Systems
Various terrorist activities over the past five years have led government officials to recognize the urgent need to secure the nation's infrastructure. Fears of bioterrorism against the nation's drinking water facilites in particular, led to the passage of the Bioterrorism Act in 2002. To this end, American Water has been developing a comprehensive approach to improve protection of distribution system water quality by employing a combination of technologies that facilitate real time feedback of water quality information.

Hitting the Road
Now more than ever alternative fuel autos are changing the way Americans drive. But with more than 200 million vehicles on the road, it will take about 20 years before a majority of vehicles are running on alternative fuels. Ultimately, wider adoption of hybrid vehicles and alternative fuels, this report from the Auto Alliance says, will require a mixture of policy and market forces.

Connected Transportation
The essays in Connected Transportation deal with the considerable challenges facing today's $3 trillion transportation industry. Ports, air, rail and roads are straining to meet escalating demand for their services and traditional strategies such as building more infrastructure are no longer sustainable. Industry leaders must focus on increasing capacity by optimizing existing infrastructure. These essays from Cisco Systems explore the current state of the industry, viable strategies for meeting its challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Secure and Assured Solutions for Municipal Wireless Networks
With the ability to offer broadband speeds over the airwaves, governments and service providers have all looked at municipal wireless networks as a way to enhance their services to the community. Over 300 governments have created such networks, and many more are planning deployments in 2006. This report from Juniper Networks talks about the varied approaches to building wireless networks, the requirements and solutions.

Government Multi-Service Transport Infrastructures
This report from Juniper Neworks covers the self-funding power of converged government infrastructures. By deploying multi-service infrastructures to support legacy services and connections, governments stand to recapture a significant windfall that may be repurposed for 311, education, health, and human service initiatives.