Building a Foundation for an AI Future

Posted on by Mike Adams

It might seem like agencies are hesitant to adopt artificial intelligence. But really, it is quite the opposite. As Lori Wade, the Intelligence Community’s chief data officer, put it: “It is no longer just about the volume of data, it is about who can collect, access, exploit and gain actionable insight the fastest.” The realization is clear: Humans alone cannot keep pace. They need AI so they can make decisions based on the most relevant and most current information — and make those decisions in a timely manner. It is really as simple as that. Download the guide, “Building the Foundation for Your AI Future,” to pick up pointers on data management and AI, plus take a glimpse at the latest technology developments, tips for best practices and an explanation of the early value that AI is delivering to agencies across government.

How to Revolutionize Government Translation with Generative AI

“In situations where accurate and timely translations are crucial, the shortage of qualified and vetted linguists poses significant challenges. Equally, non-linguist analysts are not equipped with secure, at-desk tools to translate foreign language material at the speed of relevance. For example, during the ongoing war in Ukraine, there has been a scarcity of linguists available to provide real-time updates on the ground. This shortage not only has affected the ability to gather vital intelligence but also hindered the timely dissemination of information to national security and defense agencies in the U.S. and abroad.”

Read more insights from Jesse Rosenbaum, Vice President of Business Development and National Security at Lilt.

How Graph Databases Drive a Paradigm Shift in Data Platform Technology

“Federal agencies are awash in data. With recent modernization efforts, including the wide-scale adoption of cloud platforms and applications, it is easier than ever for agencies to receive streaming data on everything from logistics to finances to cybersecurity. But that volume of data requires new solutions to process and analyze it. Older methods like SQL and NoSQL simply are not up to the task of analyzing all of the connections between the government’s many massive databases. That is where the new graph paradigm of data platform technology comes in.”

Read more insights from Michael Moore, Principal for Partner Solutions and Technology at Neo4j.

How Agencies Can Upskill in AI to Achieve a Data Mesh Model

“Data mesh behavior actually goes a step further. AI has become so easy to use, business owners can actually join in the development alongside the data scientists. Therein lies the challenge: Upskilling subject matter experts across an entire organization is a big lift. The way it works best is to start with a center of excellence, a small group of people who begin working with business owners across the enterprise, office by office. They can then prove the value and evangelize it, and then the agency can move to a hub-and-spoke model, where the data scientists are co-developing alongside business owners. As successes pile up, the data scientists can take a step back and allow frontline workers to do the development, governing the new data products on their own.”

Read more insights from Doug Bryan, Field Chief Data Officer at Dataiku.

How Agencies Can Build a Data Foundation for Generative AI

“Generative artificial intelligence tools are making waves in the technology world, most famously ChatGPT. Although the code of these tools is significant, their real power stems from the data they are trained on. Gathering and correctly formatting the data, then transforming it to yield accurate predictions, often represents the most challenging aspect of developing these tools. Federal agencies that want to start leveraging generative AI already have massive amounts of data on which to train the technology. But to successfully implement these tools, they need to ensure the quality of their data before trusting any decisions they might make.”

Read more insights from Nasheb Ismaily, Principal Solutions Engineer at Cloudera.

How to Democratize Data as a Catalyst for Effective Decision-Making

“One of the key best practices in the Office of Management and Budget’s Federal Data Strategy calls for using data to guide decision-making. But that is easier said than done when the ability to analyze the data, much less access it, is limited to an agency’s often overworked and understaffed data science specialists. But now that every line of federal business has their own data silo and a mandate to use that data to guide decisions, agencies need a way to democratize access to that data and empower every federal employee to become an analyst.”

Read more insights from Kevin Woo, Director of Federal Sales at Alteryx.

Download the full Expert Edition for more insights from these artificial intelligence leaders, additional government interviews, historical perspectives and industry research.

Innovation in Government: How to Change Things Up (and Make it Stick)

Posted on by Mike Adams

In government, we could say that innovation is invention that solves a problem or meets a need — in the community or within an organization undertaking the work. Big changes make government agencies more effective, prepared and useful, and they touch all aspects of agency operations — from IT to employee morale to digital services and more. In recent years, federal agencies such as the Census Bureau, General Services Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Office of Personnel Management have launched innovations labs, innovation libraries, and other innovation-focused resources and programs. Cities and states have as well, such as through Philadelphia’s Technology and Innovation group within the city’s Office of Innovation and Technology (OIT). Being innovative is not easy, of course: It requires a little bravery and lots of planning. But local and federal agencies are creating the space and resources to launch innovations that will, in the future, become standard operations. In this guide, we share case studies and best practices regarding some of government’s most pressing issues — workforce, customer experience and data use, to name a few — and we hear from government experts who know a thing or two about helping innovative initiatives succeed.

Analytics Innovations Draw a Complete Data Picture

“Spreadsheets are structured things: They have clearly defined lines, cleanly labelled columns, and rules that govern what goes where. Government analytic programs have become skilled at working within those parameters, even if it means spending hours manually manipulating data to fit. Spreadsheets are 30-year-old desktop technology. But other data exists, doesn’t it? The world is full of PDF documents, audio and video files, social media posts and other ‘messy’ data sources — the unstructured data that most agencies overlook. And most agency analytics programs are fragmented and overly manual. Recent innovations seek to change this.”

Read more insights from Alteryx’s Solutions Marketing Director for the Public Sector, Andy MacIsaac.

Driving Innovation to the Edge

“Across government, innovation is happening at the edge. By leveraging cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and related technologies, agencies can deliver services more quickly and effectively at the far reaches of operations, whether that’s in the battlefield or on the International Space Station (ISS). At the Red Hat Government Symposium held in late 2022, government and industry leaders discussed how agencies were leveraging these technologies to accelerate mission delivery. Their discussions and examples help illuminate how agencies are adapting to make the most of modern technological opportunities.”

Read more insights from Red Hat’s Government Symposium.

Build an Innovative Ecosystem Through Cloud Architecture

“In data transformation and innovation, it helps to view things through a different lens. Within the data ecosystem are three core pillars for transformation: people, processes and technology. Simple, singular data platforms should work with an architecture that breaks down information silos rather than creates them. That facility comes through in qualities such as data mesh or a decentralized data architecture that’s organized by business domain and operates through self-service. The architectural design also must help strengthen system security. That’s enormously important for federal data.”

Read more insights from Snowflake’s Chief Technology Officer for the Global Public Sector, Winston Chang.

Overcoming Challenges With Observability

“As agencies take steps to innovate — such as expanding reliance on the cloud and adding new apps, integrations, and automations — their IT ecosystems become more complex. There are more places where things can go wrong and more pressure to fix them quickly. The task of monitoring these complex systems gets more complicated, too. ‘The question is, how do I know there’s an issue?’ said Brian Mikkelsen of Datadog. ‘Is it when the tickets start flowing, when complaints increase, when your leadership team asks why something isn’t working?’ None of those options are ideal. Datadog’s application performance management platform provides a real-time window into the digital environment, identifying performance and security issues quickly. Its ‘full stack’ hybrid infrastructure capability means everything from the back end to the front end is monitored and reported via infrastructure metrics, application performance traces, and correlated logs.”

Read more insights from Datadog’s Vice President and General Manager, Brian Mikkelsen.

Download the full GovLoop Guide for more insights from these digital transformation leaders and additional government interviews, historical perspectives and industry research.

A Guide to Building Constituent Engagement

Posted on by Tiffany Goddard

In the past two years it seems like every function that could be done remotely was, and state and local agencies scrambled to ramp up digital services. Although organizations stepped up to the challenge in impressive ways, the situation was chaotic. Two of the experts we interviewed for this guide described elements of digital outreach as “the Wild West.” But now that the initial rush has passed, it’s time to look at how those community engagement initiatives contribute to the larger project of connecting — and building trust — with constituents. Although governments offer more ways than ever for constituents to engage, there’s still work to do. In this guide, leaders from state and local agencies share their challenges, solutions and recommendations for reaching residents in a digital and hybrid world, and industry experts offer their thoughts on the current landscape. Download the guide to learn how to improve accessibility, reach constituents and address various digital divides.

In San Francisco, Accessibility Means Better Engagement for Everyone

“Understand that accessibility helps everyone. Don’t assume you know who’s disabled, or what accessibility resources they’re using. Recognize that there are people whose impairment may be less apparent but who still benefit from accessibility measures. ‘It’s not a separate thing for a separate group of people,’ Kaplan said. Build accessibility into the whole organization. Don’t confine the work of accessibility to an office like MOD. Agencies need to develop their own internal expertise to deal with the more predictable accessibility issues in their work. Save the experts for when something complex comes along.”

Read more insights from Deborah Kaplan, Deputy Director of Programmatic Access in the San Francisco Mayor’s Office on Disability.

How Automation Supports Better Community Engagement

“It might seem obvious, but the goal of constituent engagement is to get services to the people who need them and to include resident voices on policies that affect them. But often state and local government workers spend too much of their time wrangling incompatible systems, struggling to get data, and meeting reporting requirements. And while they’re doing that, they’re not serving the community. One way to lighten the burden is to automate time-consuming, repetitive processes. Another strategy is to provide platforms where people and processes can work together seamlessly.”

Read more insights from Craeg Strong, Chief Technology Officer at Ariel Partners.

Social Media Gives an Oklahoma Agency Its Voice

“In 2020, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation adopted a unique—and often delightfully irreverent—approach to its use of social media. In lieu of the dry language so typical of government communications, the agency uses Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram to reach constituents through a mix of quirky humor, fun facts, and attractive photos and videos. The digital outreach works, and it’s a model for other agencies. The agency depends on communicating with and growing its target audience because it receives no state tax appropriations and is funded entirely by hunting and fishing licenses.”

Read more insights from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s Communication and Education Supervisor, Kelly Adams, and Communication and Education Specialist, Smokey Solis.

A Trust-Engagement Model: Intuitive, Sequenced and Service-oriented

“Democratized analytics is the technological capability that enables data workers of various technical skill levels to leverage data and share its insights with other employees of various skill levels. Put simply, it’s analytics accessible for and inclusive to all. Unified analytics is technology that allows data workers to perform the entire analytic life cycle in one place. From data prep and blend, which identifies and combines data for descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics, to machine learning, an advanced form of AI that gets smarter over time — unified analytics allows a range of data transformation processes to be done in a single location, no matter the data source or type. No-code/low-code analytics is analytics that does not require coding skills to prep, clean, analyze and share data. And we’re not talking spreadsheets here.”

Read more insights from Alteryx’s Director of Solutions Marketing for the Public Sector, Andy MacIsaac.

Let’s Get Back to Basics for Collaboration

“Leveraging data can lead to more sequenced services, more graceful engagement, and the best outcomes for constituents. An optimal sequence, with natural steps between services, is cost-effective for both the user and agencies. That’s Red Hat’s focus as it works with agencies to implement open hybrid cloud approaches that integrate data, modernize system components and transform legacy systems. Cloud-based datasets that are accessible to agency personnel can help significantly. In recent years, Red Hat assisted the Tennessee Department of Human Services modernize to deliver better constituent experiences. The department wanted to improve the continuity of platforms, set open standards, and use adaptive, flexible, and broadly accessible technologies.”

Read more insights from Kevin Tunks of Red Hat.

(Contact-Free) Human Touch Helps Transform a Riverscape

“The city of Middletown, Connecticut, is focused on a decades-old goal: to revitalize and redevelop the riverfront. The underused Harbor Park area along the Connecticut River has great potential for residential, commercial and recreational use. But in the past, the city struggled to get feedback about the project from many stakeholders and constituents. That created a problem: How could the city design a community space without the input of the community? The Return to the Riverbend campaign, launched in fall 2021, yielded community input that the city used to create a master plan, released the following summer, for a new riverfront area.”

Read more insights from Brianna Skowera, Director of Information Systems for Middletown, Connecticut.

The Link Between Experience and Trust

“Think about a recent online interaction. Maybe you were buying something or applying for something. How did the experience make you feel? A great online experience is simple, fast and reliable. And when that great experience is consistent, it builds trust. That’s why it’s crucial to understand the link between government service and trust, said Dean Scontras, Vice President of State, Local and Education at Okta. ‘State and local agencies are modernizing their technology and transforming the way they serve their residents,’ Scontras said. Identity and access management (IAM) are critical infrastructure for digital services.”

Read more insights from Dean Scontras, Vice President for State, Local and Education at Okta.

North Carolina Breaks Down the Digital Divide

“Think of ‘digital divide,’ and it’s likely that a lack of access to internet connectivity and/or devices comes to mind. That’s certainly part of it. But the North Carolina Division of Broadband and Digital Equity adds another aspect: digital literacy. What good is a connected smartphone if you don’t know how to use it? Annette Taylor, Director of the division’s Office of Digital Equity and Literacy, understands. Her 72-year-old mother has a computer but is reluctant to use the internet. That became problematic during the pandemic when a digital pay stub was the only way she could see how much ‘COVID pay’ she was earning from her temporarily shuttered employer.”

Read more insights from Annette Taylor, Director, Office of Digital Equity and Literacy at the North Carolina Division of Broadband and Digital Equity.

How Voice Recognition Can Improve Constituent Satisfaction

“Today, every government organization needs to be where the public is — and that means being everywhere. Meeting customers on voice, digital, and messaging channels, and providing a consistent, contextual, convenient experience across every one. In one case, Nuance worked with a government agency that was struggling to handle incoming calls. They answered less than half, with the others getting a busy signal or a message asking them to call back later. Using Nuance’s solutions, they’re now able to answer all their incoming calls, and nearly half are handled within the interactive voice response (IVR) system. ‘Citizens are calling in, getting the information they need, and never talking with a customer service rep,’ Brodsky said.”

Read more insights from Nuance Communications’ Regional Vice President, Government Sales, Russell Brodsky; Senior Principal, Industry Solutions Marketing and Strategy, Vance Clipson; and Director of Professional Services, Joseph Solt.

San Antonio Deepens Trust With Constituents

“Let’s say you launch a constituent engagement initiative and within one year you see a significant rise across various metrics: website hits, comments received and event registrations. Do you call it a success? For Alanna Reed, San Antonio’s Director of Communications and Engagement, numbers tell only part of the story. San Antonio launched an initiative called SASpeakUp in 2015 to gather better input on the city’s budget and its services. Although the city held public meetings for that purpose, city officials noticed that the same people were attending all of them. Through SASpeakUp, they provided numerous channels for input, including a website, social media and in-person meetups.”

Read more insights from Dean Scontras, Vice President for State, Local and Education at Okta.

Download the full GovLoop Guide for more insights from these state and local government thought leaders and additional government interviews, historical perspectives and industry research on the future of data.

Your Data Literacy Guide to Improve Everyday Collaboration

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

The world of data analytics is changing faster than ever. And government employees have to keep up or get left in the dust. By 2024, 60% of government data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) projects are predicted to directly impact real-time operational decisions and outcomes. As public servants, you need to increase your literacy of the larger data ecosystem to do your jobs efficiently and effectively. This guide will help you learn four key competencies inspired by that lifecycle so you can enhance everyday collaboration and bring continuous improvement to your team and agency. The four key competencies are data visualization, data storytelling, automation and innovation. With the help of experts who do this work every day, here are best practices to help you better use and share data at work. According to the Federal Data Strategy 2021 Action Plan, “By the end of 2022, agencies should have a solid foundation throughout their workforce, including a minimum level of data literacy among all staff and a sufficient accumulation of data skills to allow for effective performance of all aspects of the data lifecycle.” Download the guide to learn how to reach these goals with the four key competencies.

Data Literacy for Government Transparency

“Technology has changed so much, but our skill sets haven’t kept pace. People and organizations that previously didn’t use data all that much suddenly have to start using it at a more advanced level. That’s why it’s imperative to establish a data literacy program at your agency. First, it needs to be agile. Data training cannot be a one-and-done deal. Second, have accessible assessments. Are you developing sustainable programs that meet people at the skill levels they’re at? And are you assessing the actual skills of your target audience, or the employees who are impacted by data? Third, co-design, or design solutions with users and stakeholders from the start. People can resist change especially when they are not involved in it. When you build data solutions or programs, you need the perspectives of users to inform the journey, particularly when they’re non-data experts.”

Read more insights from Tableau’s Senior Manager of Customer Success, State and Local Government, Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) and Higher Ed, Sarah Nell-Rodriquez.

What Story Is Your Data Telling?

“Let’s say defense analysts are trying to connect the dots around terrorist activity. Using various data points such as bank account numbers, location coordinates, equipment types and names, analysts can derive a cohesive “story” from the data that aids the mission. To do this, traditionally, analysts combed through data from various sources — spreadsheets, databases, cloud storage, etc. — to manually input into an Excel file and then make connections between the fields. ‘To get to a story or result on one particular mission-critical use case, it was taking six to nine months of two full-time employees just combing through this data,’ said MarkLogic’s Eric Putnam, who has worked in the U.S. defense community. In other words, this manual integration was taking too much time and too much effort.”

Read more insights from MarkLogic’s Senior Account Executive for National Security Programs, Eric Putnam.

How AI Opens Up Other Types of Data

“Imagine you have a massive cache of digital family photos, and you’re looking for images of your child’s kindergarten graduation. Sure, it’s great having all those photos on the computer, but unless you tagged them in some way, there’s no quick way to find what you need. This dilemma mirrors how valuable information can be so difficult to find when it comes in the form of ‘unstructured data.’ Unstructured data includes images, video, audio and other types of information that cannot be stored in traditional databases or analyzed with traditional data tools. Structured data appears in rows and columns that are clearly labeled, making it easy to sort and analyze. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with unstructured data.”

Read more insights from Micro Focus Government Solutions’ Senior Solution Architect for AI/ML/Data Privacy/Data Governance, Patrick Johnson.

Finding the Solution in Unexpected Places

Read more insights from Alteryx’s Director of Solutions Marketing for the Public Sector, Andy MacIsaac.

Let’s Get Back to Basics for Collaboration

“Everyday work is more than what happens at the task level. You may think updating spreadsheets and responding to emails are low-value chores, but these and countless other tactical to-dos impact how the larger mission is carried out. How task-level activities get done reflect the health and success of strategic-level goals and initiatives. However, some federal agencies are missing out on the efficiencies and insights that can be captured at the tactical level. A survey commissioned by Smartsheet, a cloud-based work management platform provider, found that 76% of government officials estimate that using collaborative work management software could increase their organization’s efficiency. However, nearly one in three federal workers today are prevented from achieving success because their teams are siloed. Federal workers need visibility and access to information if they’re expected to collaborate with others and make informed decisions.”

Read more insights from Harvard Kennedy School’s Senior Advisor for Insight Partners and Senior Fellow, Nick Sinai.

Download the full GovLoop Guide for more insights from these data literacy thought leaders and additional government interviews, historical perspectives and industry research on the future of data.

Turning Vision into Reality: How Agencies Can Forever Improve

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

In the past two years, agencies have taken a hard look in the mirror. Often on short deadlines, they had to stand up new IT systems, design innovative customer experiences, collect and manage hordes of data, provide tools for a newly remote workforce, and evaluate funding and other resources. Some agencies managed with what they had; others were exceptionally ill-prepared. The immediate challenge was a health care crisis that had overwhelmed much of society. But now that we’ve entered what’s known as the post-peak phase of the pandemic, it’s time for agencies to consider, “What next?” The purpose of this guide is not to help organizations prepare for the next disaster. The purpose is to go beyond that — to explore how agencies can take a broader, more overarching and continuous approach to self-improvement. Download the guide to read more about how to institute continuous modernization to exceed your goals.

Digital Transformation Starts with Strategy

“For many people, the first and only interactions they have with a government agency are through its website, and good first impressions can go a long way. It’s not just having an exciting color palette, cool graphics and boxes that flip over when you hover your cursor on them. It’s about building a site, a platform, that appeals to and serves the public and is intuitive, quick and secure. It needs to highlight the work an agency does, the services it offers consumers and the resources it makes available.”

Read more insights from Mobomo’s Chief Executive Officer, Brian Lacey.

Videoconferencing: Modernizing How Employees Connect and Collaborate

“At the intersection of all the types of reforms we cover in this guide — people, technology, innovations and budgets — lies one that has reimagined what it means to communicate: videoconferencing. Indeed, when agency offices temporarily closed nearly two years ago, employees who knew little about their laptop cameras suddenly became webinar proficionados. They scheduled video meetings, learned to read body language from the chest up, and got a peek into coworkers’ home lives. And many agencies discovered that video technology not only made remote work a viable long-term option, but it allowed organizations to expand their customer services in a forward-looking, energized way — akin to what the private sector often provides.”

Read more insights from Zoom’s SLG Industry Marketing Manager, Elijo “Leo” Martinez.

How to Cross the Analytic Divide and Democratize Data

“In one of America’s largest counties, a public health agency struggled with collecting and interpreting COVID-19 test results quickly and accurately because of data quality issues requiring hours of manual review. Analytic automation made a difference. This technology unified processes across analytics workflows by analyzing data quality and format before notifying relevant parties about potential compliance issues. Ultimately, analytic automation saved the agency five full-time equivalent employees manually reviewing data quality and notifying reporting labs about errors in this information. Reducing the amount of manual labor also accelerated the time needed to map COVID-19’s spread and address related public health challenges.”

Read more insights from Alteryx’s Director of Solutions Marketing, Public Sector, Andy MacIsaac.

Are People at the Center of Your Modernization Efforts?

“Agencies have to be mindful of the narrative that people believe about the nature of government work. They must be skilled at cutting through the noise and using language that speaks to the heart of what government does and why that work is critical. ‘Government matters, and we have seen that very dramatically for the past two years,’ Heimbrock said. ‘Not only is government’s ability to respond to crises the difference between people living and dying, but our government institutions are under attack.’ Agencies can’t afford to be stymied by bureaucratic entanglements and dated technologies, which are steep prices of not paying attention to modernization.”

Read more insights from Qualtrics’ Chief Industry Advisor for Government, Sydney Heimbrock, Ph.D.

Making a Case for Continuous Improvement

“Home improvement shows are something of a metaphor for government modernization. You can superficially update an old home for quick sale and profit, or you can do more intensive and long-term improvements that require additional time, talent and, of course, money. And as outdated as the home may look, it’s worth remembering it probably was impressive in its day — kind of like the bygone technology that still supports many government agencies. That’s the parallel Brandon Shopp with SolarWinds drew when asked about the need for continuous agency modernization. ‘Technology is evolving constantly,’ he said, ‘and so unless you want to end up with something like a house that looks very dated and old, you need to stay on top of things.’”

Read more insights from SolarWinds’ Group Vice President of Product, Brandon Shopp.

USAID Learns New Tricks of Training Trade

“Officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) were on a path to harmonizing numerous data-related training when COVID-19 made virtual work a necessity. For USAID, this proved the perfect opportunity to roll out a training curriculum that worked for employees who were working remotely. Before the pandemic, USAID leaned heavily on classroom-based instruction. In exploring options for virtual training, it recognized an opportunity to rethink instructional design, said Julie Warner Packett, a Data Scientist at USAID who helps lead training on data use and governance.”

Read more insights from USAID’s Data Scientist, Julie Warner Packett.

A Federal Vision for Enterprisewide IT

“The state of Connecticut has launched a new “Information Technology Optimization Process” to replace the state’s disparate approach to agency IT. The yearlong initiative aims to deliver coordinated, modern solutions for agencies and the public alike — and recognizes that nearly 50% of the state’s IT workforce is older than 55. The new strategy has three overarching goals to improve state operations now and into the future. First, the plan aims to optimize existing technology by completely rethinking the structure of Connecticut’ IT delivery system. Second, the plan will accelerate efforts to deliver more digital government services. Using enterprise technology, officials aim to hide the “seams” between agency operations and user interactions. And third, the state will enhance its cybersecurity protections.”

Read more insights from OPM’s Chief Information Officer, Guy Cavallo.

Empowering Frontline Employees to Lead a Culture of Innovation

“Within the Veterans Affairs Department (VA), the Veterans Health Administration’s Innovators Network (iNET) stands out as a leader for several reasons. High on that list is the reality that innovation is just as much a mindset as it is concrete actions, and Allison Amrhein, Director of Operations for iNET, has the kind of growth mindset that’s needed to sustain and expand new ways of working. The program launched in 2015 in response to VA’s annual employee survey, which found that some employees did not feel encouraged to try new things at work. Today, the program operates across 34 VHA sites, but all sites may participate.”

Read more insights from iNet Director of Operations, Allison Amrhein.

Wayne County Is Making Funding Last

“After Superstorm Sandy in 2012, New York City received Community Development Block Grant funding from the federal government to help rebuild storm-ravaged neighborhoods. Nearly a decade later, many of those projects — and the contracts that support them — are still going strong, said Rachel Laiserin, Chief Financial Officer of the city’s Department of Design and Construction. The key to those projects’ success has been a commitment to including contracting officers, procurement staff, legal teams and finance team members early in the process and maintaining a long-term perspective.”

Read more insights from Wayne County Michigan’s Chief Financial Officer, Hughey Newsome.

Download the full GovLoop Guide for more insights from these modernization thought leaders and additional government interviews, historical perspectives and industry research on the future of modernization.

The Best of What’s New In Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

State and local governments are dramatically expanding their deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), moving the use of these technologies from theoretical to practical. More governments are using AI in the form of machine learning to scour system activity logs to detect suspicious behavior that may signal a cyberattack. Intelligent software can automate this task and perform it at a scale that’s difficult for humans to match. But although states and localities are moving rapidly to take advantage of AI and ML, the first wave of deployments often focused on individual programs or tasks: chatbots, for example, that answer questions about unemployment insurance claims or help utility customers restore service. Broader and deeper use of AI will require governments to rethink traditional data management policies and upskill IT teams. Read the latest insights from industry thought leaders in artificial intelligence and machine learning in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government® report.

From Call Center to ‘Experience’ Center

“Agent assistance is a great example of how AI can improve both the agent experience and the customer experience. An agent assistance solution detects keywords within a spoken or written dialogue, and then uses those keywords to automatically present helpful information to the agent. In the case of new hires or agents who lack subject expertise, this type of solution not only saves time. It provides “training wheels” for the agent until they’re up to speed. AI models like agent assistance can also learn from agent feedback. Agents basically agree or disagree with the information that the AI presents, which helps the AI solution continually refine what it provides based on the context.”

Read more insights from Genesys’s Principal Solution Consultant, Nathan Hamrick.

Why Wait? Simple Strategies Put AI and ML Within Reach

“You don’t have to be a data scientist or develop custom models to be effective. There are very good AI solutions that are purpose built for specific use cases and don’t require customization, such as our Vision AI. I would start there. A software engineer can do what’s needed, and the solution will likely address a lot of the organization’s needs. Over time, software engineers and others can expand their skillset to retrain custom models in lightweight ways for slightly different use cases the generalized AI doesn’t accommodate. For example, Google Cloud’s Auto-ML products can be used by non-data scientists to retrain our best-in-class AI models for more custom use cases. Just remember that the AI solution is only one part of a larger automated processing use case, and organizations need to plan for how AI is going to be incorporated into that bigger process, so it can be used efficiently.”

Read more insights from Google Cloud Public Sector’s Strategic Business Executive, Chris Haas.

Reducing Complexity and Preparing for Success

“Zero trust security is becoming a common expectation for managing access. The basic concept is that the network should not assume any user is trustworthy — regardless of whether they’re outside the network or already in. Organizations using a zero trust approach implement access controls inside and outside the network. Another important tactic is to minimize the number of handoffs. In other words, simplify the network architecture. Nodes — and connections between those nodes — create complexity, and complexity leads to management challenges and greater risk.”

Read more insights from Cloudera’s Senior Manager of Professional Services Strategy, Timur Nersesov.

Building a Human-Centered Foundation for Advanced Analytics

“Organizations often struggle to advance because of legacy processes. It’s important to be open to new thinking and new methodologies to accelerate the maturation process. Many organizations also lack a solid grasp of their strengths and weaknesses regarding analytics. In addition, their processes may be hostage to legacy systems, data silos or poor alignment across enterprise teams. To address these issues, organizations often need to work first on breaking down traditional barriers between data scientists, IT, citizen data scientists, analysts and domain experts. One way to support this is via a unified, human-centered analytics platform. Such a platform augments human capability regardless of one’s technical acumen, which allows everyone to take advantage of geospatial, predictive and ML-based analytic capabilities to collaborate, innovate and solve problems.”

Read more insights from Alteryx’s Vice President of Sales for State and Local Government and Education, Chuck Ellstrom.

Getting the Most from a Next-Generation Contact Center Platform

“AI enables better automation that empowers both end customers and agents through high-quality self-service and agent assistance. Numerous studies have shown that citizens and customers alike prefer self-service channels. Intelligent automation can make those channels much more effective with AI-powered virtual assistants and agents — not just for informational requests, but also for more complex transactions like understanding eligibility or checking claim status. In addition, intelligent automation can help increase agent productivity through things like agent assistance and help new agents become effective faster, which ultimately results in a better citizen experience.”

Read more insights from Talkdesk’s Vice President of Industry and Strategy for Public Sector, John Bastin.

Reimagining Talent Management

“A single platform is uniquely able to provide deep insights at scale. When you can use AI on one side to rationalize job requirements and on the other side to create a capabilities matrix of individual job seekers, you create some very powerful outcomes. So, a talent intelligence platform really becomes foundational to enabling a number of use cases such as dramatically reducing the time to re-employment, minimizing underemployment and reimagining learning and apprenticeship opportunities. And because AI is self-learning, a talent intelligence platform means these outcomes continually improve over time.”

Read more insights from Eightfold AI’s Vice President of Applied AI & Public Sector, Dan Hopkins.

Download the full Innovation in Government® report for more insights from these AI/ML thought leaders and additional industry research from GovTech.

Advancing the Art of Data Analytics

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

Within days of the transition of the presidential administration, the new administration emphasized the centrality of data in addressing both the COVID-19 pandemic and racial inequity. Before that, laws and initiatives such as the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014, and Federal Data Strategy pushed agencies to build their capacity for data-driven operations. This overall goal has led many agencies to create and appoint data-focused roles, including senior-level chief data officers (CDOs) and first-ever data analysts. They have begun advancing data strategies and investing in solutions. But through these mandates and government-wide initiatives, how can agencies bring their goals and strategies to life to address their most pressing problems? Four basic areas of data competency – governance, security, literacy and ethics – are key to becoming a data-driven agency. Additionally, to carry out a data strategy, an organization needs to ensure that its staff has all the necessary skills. In December 2020, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) emphasized the importance of making data competency part of an agency’s culture. That same month, as part of the Federal Data Strategy, GSA released the Data Ethics Framework to help encourage ethical data decision-making throughout the federal government. Download the guide to read more about how agencies at the Federal, state, and local levels are updating their data strategies with the latest technology.

Before You Start Data Governance…

“Once agencies have a strategic plan in place, they can begin to set the regular rhythms of using the data. The processes and procedures should be a well-documented plan that deals with day-to-day technology needs. Externally, it’s important to establish a communications plan that standardizes interactions with data users throughout the data lifecycle. Internally, it’s critical to create procedures that allow data management platform operators to manage services in a reliable fashion, whether that’s DevOps or backup and recovery. Ultimately, these processes should all indicate a measure of trustworthiness to data stakeholders. SAP NS2 can provide a data platform that agencies can rely on, in turn.”

Read more insights from SAP NS2’s Principal Business Processes Consultant, Michael Towles.

How to Develop Strategic Value From Your Database

“Even if they would like to, agencies can’t replatform every legacy application they have. That’s why a strategic way to prioritize development initiatives is to start new efforts with the best technology. Moving toward a modern infrastructure out of the gate will save time and effort in the long run, Leech said, particularly if it works the way people work today. For instance, relational databases are traditional storage tools that have been around for 40 to 45 years. People use data differently now, and tools like MongoDB’s document database solution keep that in mind. It functions as an operational layer over huge data repositories to help agencies extract the most applicable data for their mission, and securely through enterprise tooling.”

Read more insights from MongoDB’s Regional Vice President for the Public Sector, Brent Leech.

How Automated Analytics Can Fuel Digital Transformation

“Deriving data insights through analytics is no longer just nice to have – it is critical for the operation and improvement of government, especially in times of crisis. But there are many challenges to deriving insights, whether that’s having the data available to analyze or having the right skills to analyze the data. Automation can help. For years, agencies have strategically adopted digital technologies to transform their business processes and services. But according to a 2018 McKinsey report, only a third of initiatives have succeeded. Those who succeeded were able to flourish because they converged these three pillars for digital transformation: data democratization, process automation and people upskilling. Analytic process automation (APA) meets all three needs at once by addressing the whole analytics lifecycle through one unified platform.”

Read more insights from Alteryx’s Solution Marketing Director’s Andy MacIsaac.

How to Drive Mission Value with Your Data Governance

“When it comes to data governance, the best defense is not necessarily a strong offense. Data governance, the policies and processes that define how data can or should be used, ought to be focused on supporting an organization’s mission and its operational goals. Unfortunately, many government organizations take a defensive approach, focusing governance efforts on compliance. This creates rigid organizational practices that leave agencies unable to adapt to changing circumstances. The solution? Adaptive data governance. This flexible governance structure not only ensures compliance but also helps accomplish mission objectives amid change through empowering collaboration.”

Read more insights from Collibra’s Senior Vice President of Public Sector, Aileen Black.

How Data Analytics Complements Institutional Knowledge

“We are 90 years old, and we have been operating with a unique model since our founding. We provide library materials to Americans and individuals with disabilities. And we generally ship those materials around the country — print braille and audio cartridges via mail. Now, we’re going through an organization-wide modernization that is probably the biggest change in our operating structure since we’ve been founded. And we are shifting from a predominantly U.S. mail-based delivery mechanism to a predominantly online streaming-based mechanism. The idea with creating my position was to ensure we had the right data organization-wide to serve our patrons as best as possible, to make sure we are providing them with everything they need throughout the course of this modernization.”

Read more insights from the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled’s Data and Analytics Officer, David Spett.

Cutting ‘Data Gems’ to Train Census Data Users

“Before, we only offered data training to the public via webinar or in person, and these had to be provided based on request. So, you had to know we existed and you had to be knowledgeable about our services. And an organization could request one of our trainings, but it was only available at that time for those guests of that organization. It simply wasn’t accessible to everyone who needed it at all times. Think of a grant writer with a deadline at midnight and they need help, say, two hours before the clock. There’s no workshop for them, no presentation. A person like that is more likely to start Googling information. So we felt there was a gap there. We needed to put content for that user, who may not even visit our website but is in need of our data and in need of our help. That’s how we came about to develop the concept of Census Academy.”

Read more insights from Census Bureau’s Co-Found of Census Academy and Supervisor of Data Dissemination and Training Branch, Alexandra Barker.

Download the full GovLoop Guide for more insights from these Data Analytics thought leaders and additional government interviews, historical perspectives and industry research on the future of Data Analytics.