Therefore, the state turned to Dublin, Ohio-based Sypherlink Inc.'s Harvester metadata discovery and mapping tool to automate the process.

Automating the process was seen as the easiest way to encourage participants to share data, because it didn't require that applications be rewritten, Phillips said. In addition, the tool should speed the metadata management process by 50 percent.

"The metadata management or understanding the common elements is a huge part of [an integration project]," said Ken Vollmer, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. "Trying to combine information from two agencies -- that is hard enough. [In Florida], you're talking 500 agencies, and they have to have some software to help them determine what the common data elements are."

State officials are now completing the training of users on Harvester and have compiled a dictionary of basic data elements within the regions.