Intergovernmental Software Collaborative joins Council of State Governments, departing Georgetown’s Beeck Center

The Council of State Governments on Tuesday shared in a post to its website that the national and multi-state Intergovernmental Software Collaborative will join the National Center for Interstate Compacts, departing its previous home at Georgetown University’s Beeck Center.

The Intergovernmental Software Collaborative, which was launched in 2020 at the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University, with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, was initially called the State Software Collaborative. It was designed as a collaborative by a pair of former federal digital service employees to help similar agencies in different states procure, develop and maintain essential government software solutions together.

“The Intergovernmental Software Collaborative’s work has always been rooted in a simple idea: when governments work together, people get better services,” Lynn Overmann, executive director of the Beeck Center, said in a press release. “When the Beeck Center built the collaborative, it created space for states to learn from each other and build shared solutions instead of starting from scratch. Transitioning this effort to The Council of State Governments ensures it can grow within a strong network of state leaders, and Beeck is thrilled to see the impact continue to expand in the years ahead.”

In 2022, with new funding from a number of philanthropic groups like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Blue Meridian Partners and the Ballmer Group, the group grew and expanded. It helped create solutions for government agencies to address common policy and technology challenges, in areas such as transportation, health insurance, unemployment benefits, tax systems and emergency management.

The collaborative has grown over the last six years, housing more than 90 software information-sharing groups, aimed at addressing shared government policy and operational challenges. It allows the 56 states, territories and Washington, D.C. to avoid separate purchases of near-identical software, aiming instead to allow them to join on procurements. The group claims this has helped to address inefficiencies often found in IT projects, reduce costs and improve outcomes.

The collaborative’s new home, the NCIC — which provides technical assistance for more than 250 interstate compacts — will support the collaborative’s members as part of its broader work of helping states design and operate shared systems. According to the press release, the NCIC has already been working on interstate digital infrastructure. Recently, it developed the CompactConnect platform, an open-source data system that helps state licensing groups safely share information with each other.

“The Intergovernmental Software Collaborative works best when it is closely connected to the people who can put shared solutions into practice,” Waldo Jaquith, a government delivery manager at U.S. Digital Response who helped found the collaborative and previously led it at the Beeck Center, said in the release. “CSG has a direct relationship with state leaders and that makes it the right home for this work to have a real impact in states.”