The results "we're higher than I expected them to be," said John Gillispie, chief operating officer for Iowa's Information Technology Enterprise and co-chair of the NASCIO committee that conducted the survey and reported some of the findings. "I think everybody is seeking efficiency."

There are a number of factors driving state action, including aging IT workforces, legacy systems and the advent of technologies many staffs aren't prepared for, said John Lovelock, an analyst at Gartner Inc. The Stamford, Conn., research firm predicts that by 2010 at least half of all major governments will investigate outsourcing initiatives to support major operations.

Lovelock sees the use of shared services as "an enabling step" that moves a state closer to outsourcing because it's "taking responsibility a half a step away" from the state agency that uses the service.

The data center consolidation in Texas, for instance, is seen as a step toward improving interoperability between various agencies, setting the stage for the use of shared services.