EdTech Talks: Exploring the Impact of Technology on Student Growth and Development

Posted on by Tim Boltz

Schools and universities strive every day to give their students an effective, fulfilling, successful personal growth and academic learning experience. Harnessing technology innovations can pave the way to achieving those goals. During Carahsoft’s annual EdTech Talks Summit, experts in education and the IT industry discussed how existing and emerging solutions such as observability, the ‘secure by design’ approach and analytics can enhance education to personalize experiences, provide developmental insights on learning approaches and achieve maximum support for all students.

Addressing Post-Pandemic Digital Transformation with Observability

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, there were many education challenges including a rapid shift to remote learning, the need to adapt quickly to new technologies and evolving cybersecurity threats. Schools and universities play a major role in the nation’s critical infrastructure along with the transportation sector, water and pipeline management, utilities and more making them vulnerable to cyberattacks. Bolstering the strength of cybersecurity infrastructure is a key component of the student experience as schools are responsible for safeguarding student’s educational, health and personal identification records.

One step towards achieving cybersecurity is observability. In a time when education leaders are asked to do more with less, observability allows institutions to understand what is happening within their networks and why. Observability should be used to empower education IT teams and in conjunction with active monitoring platforms, which will help them understand the full scope of the data in their network management systems to then apply actionable intelligence to solve issues. When exploring this data, IT staff should consider these questions:

Is the network following the proper compliance rules that are in place? If not, what change was made to take the network out of compliance?
What is the user experience like right now?
What vulnerabilities are there within the network?
Are students able to reliably access what they need and are those systems performing correctly?
Are the internal safeguards working as efficiently as external safeguards?
Do students have proper online safety awareness to aid in avoiding potential risks?

Implementing observability best practices can boost the security and manageability of schools’ network infrastructures, leading to improved experiences for students, faculty and cross-campus communities.

Secure by Design for Education

One of the leading ways manufacturers, developers and education institutions can ensure their products are safe and efficient for students and staff is to create and utilize products that are secure by design. This holistic approach establishes that each product code, solution bundle and packages is tested and validated before an end user receives them, and therefore, contains a built-in cybersecurity insurance policy. In the future, this will save schools time and costs by decreasing the number of cyber threats they face. Students and faculty will experience an increased learning capacity. For example, these solutions help keep students in schools and experiencing less interruption and downtime because of ransomware attacks. This approach empowers faculty to seamlessly adopt and integrate the use of secure solutions into their curriculum and lesson plans. With secure by design solutions, educators and students can rely on the fact that their data will be protected by modernized products tailored with them in mind.

The Importance of Analytics in Higher Education

Data plays a crucial role in educational infrastructure, offering valuable insights into the ever-evolving trends in learning. Most schools have siloed data in multiple areas such as learning management systems, enrollment systems and alumni engagement systems. Some colleges and universities within the Public Sector are only able to perform localized, descriptive analytics such as running spreadsheets and creating dashboards to see enrollment and graduation rates. The key to valuable, actionable and intelligent analytics is being able to discern how data intersects and correlates for more predictive and prescriptive analytics across the various digital spaces where institution data is stored. To do this, schools can leverage the power of automation through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to augment data and use the insights gained to improve analytic maturity, helping faculty and administrators better serve students and their education missions.

From increased security through observability and intentional technology designs to data-driven insights, the impact of these solutions on student growth is reshaping the educational landscape and creating an environment where students can thrive both academically and personally.

Visit the EdTech Talks Conference Resource Center to view panel discussions and other innovative insights surrounding security, AI and student success from Carahsoft and our partners.

About Carahsoft in the Education Market

Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Education IT Solutions Provider™.

Together with our technology manufacturers and reseller partners, we are committed to providing IT products, services and training to support Education organizations.

Carahsoft is a leading IT distributor and top-performing E&I Cooperative Services, Golden State Technology Solutions, Internet2, NJSBA, OMNIA Partners and The Quilt contract holder, enhancing student learning and enabling faculty to meet the needs of Higher Education institutions.

Learn more at http://www.carahsoft.com/education.

AI Paving the Way for New Healthcare Innovations

Posted on by Tim Boltz

With the boom of consumer facing artificial intelligence (AI) through Chat GPT and other tools, the discussion of AI applications within healthcare has also become a priority with exciting new developments. Pre-COVID, there was some hesitancy with telehealth, whereas now it has become a highly valued, main offering within the healthcare ecosystem. Similarly, AI is becoming a key mobilizer for improved patient outcomes and more efficient provider processes. Through the power of the cloud and supercomputing, AI is opening doors for transformational results throughout all aspects of healthcare including personalized medicine, medical research and trials, treatment efficacy and more. Once healthcare organizations better understand the benefits that AI unlocks for all stakeholders, they can take the next steps to apply it to their individual health networks.

Benefits of AI in Healthcare

Patients

The potential uses for AI in the medical field are endless and apply to all levels of healthcare with improvements for patients, healthcare providers and healthcare administrators. When organizations invest in AI, it decreases wait times for patients, optimizes appointment availabilities and increases overall access. AI can also interpret imaging and detect illnesses faster which minimizes treatment delays. Through wearable technology and personalized medicine, AI is enabling patients to gather health data and manage treatment from home. This customizable capability is especially valuable for rural or low-income patients to level out the social determinants of health and offer treatment through telehealth while saving on costs for all involved.

Medical Providers

AI can significantly reduce the administrative burden for medical providers by automating routine tasks and increasing bandwidth for front line staff to complete other medical duties. A hallmark capability for AI is analyzing data which it can aggregate from wide pools of information to suggest electronic health record (EHR)-based interventions, predict possible future patient ailments and offer a more unified, comprehensive picture. In a post-COVID-19 world, AI healthcare data applications offer the extremely relevant and desired ability of anticipating future public health crises through research and analytics. These AI forecasts can accelerate understanding for policy creation, reinforce healthcare resources and provide precision public health.

Healthcare Administrators

Applying for grants can be a time-consuming process, but with AI evaluating grant proposals, healthcare administrators can quickly identify which grants to apply for and which to pass. AI can also detect potential fraud cases. It is currently being implemented at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to make sure that applicable citizens receive the proper care and services they deserve, and by the Department of Health and Human Services to analyze counterfeit drugs to prevent fraud and preserve the efficacy of vital medications.^[1]

Making AI a Reality for Individual Healthcare Networks

With these groundbreaking benefits, instituting AI is a clear case. Currently about 98% of healthcare organizations have or are planning to implement an AI strategy.^[2] To make this a reality, healthcare organizations must focus on three main areas:

Understanding the technology capabilities, requirements and use applications
Educating providers and building trust with patients
Instituting privacy and security policies

Understanding what AI can do, which applications to pursue for individual hospitals’ use cases and what it takes to operate the technology, needs to be a collaborative effort between all levels of a hospital system. Many clinicians are burned out and looking for tools that will ease their burden while also improving care. Through proactive conversations with medical providers and C-suite stakeholders, CIOs and management can present the investment benefits and ultimately increase full system buy-in and ability to scale effectively and efficiently.

Educating medical ecosystems and patients with the digital skills and knowledge to utilize the technology resources is also important for proper usage and increased adoption. Once providers understand the potential of AI and the practical ways it can improve their workflows, they can be confident in using the tools and clearly articulating the information to patients. Trust is a huge component of thriving, effective care. Clearly presented information establishes that rapport with patients and clinicians. Overall, training re-establishes for providers and administrators the priorities of patient safety, professional accountability and protection from reputational, legal and financial risk to ensure that the AI technology is used responsibly. Through proper education, patients also feel empowered with how AI is being implemented in their care and the commitment of their medical team to pursue the safest and best outcomes.

The last key element to establishing the use of AI in healthcare and maximizing its benefits is keeping privacy and security top of mind. Hospital management need to consider what policies and procedures they will institute to protect patients’ data and prevent bad actors from exposing personal information or disrupting care. Data integrity is also vital to keep AI algorithms’ predictions and assessments accurate. Healthcare network administrators will need to evaluate the best method to securely store that data whether through a cloud provider or building encrypted data storage on premises using private AI with an internal high computing platform specific to the individual hospital. These management policies and governance frameworks will not only offer standardization, they will also help build trust with patients while providing enough flexibility for AI innovation and growth.

Ultimately the partnership of AI with medical experts enables the perfect balance to deliver rapid, actionable insights and improvements while humans manage the usage of the technology to ensure quality care for each medical case. The future of healthcare is patients being able to take greater ownership of their health through aggregating additional data and applying AI to achieve better treatments. Providers and staff will be able to maximize their time through AI optimizations and provide more proactive care based on AI predictions. These advancements will revolutionize the healthcare industry as we know it and pave the way for a healthier society. Some are calling AI the next quantum leap in technology, and healthcare should be at the forefront of leveraging the resources to drive improvement, accelerate innovation and save lives.

To learn more about how Carahsoft is enabling healthcare organizations to achieve technology innovations such as AI, visit our Healthcare Technology and AI and Machine Learning solutions portfolios and speak to a representative who can help meet your solution needs today.

Resources:

[1] “HHS CIO Karl Mathias Details 3 Promising Applications of AI in Health Care Sector,” GovConWire, https://www.govconwire.com/2023/05/hhs-cio-karl-mathias-details-3-promising-applications-of-ai-in-healthcare/

[2] “AI Survey: Health Care Organizations Continue to Adopt Artificial Intelligence to Help Achieve Better, More Equitable and Affordable Patient Outcomes,” Optum, https://www.optum.com/about-us/news/page.hub.ai-survey-health-care-organizations-adopt-artificial-intelligence.html

Transforming State and Local Government in Ohio Through Technology

Posted on by Robert Moore

Innovation and collaboration are imperative to drive growth and transformation in State and Local Governments, as well as the need to invest in education and training to prepare the workforce for the jobs of the future. At the Carahsoft Digital Transformation Roadshow in Columbus, Ohio, Government IT and industry leaders engaged in dynamic discussions around the role of technology in shaping the modernization of the state of Ohio and beyond.

Technology Innovation in State and Local Government

Ohio State and Local agencies have begun to integrate innovative technologies to drive better decision-making while lowering the cost of ownership for IT systems; however, this requires significant investment in infrastructure, training and talent acquisition. Agencies must also ensure cybersecurity and risk management, as the use of new technology can create new vulnerabilities. There is a critical need for education, collaboration and innovation as State and Local agencies reimagine the future workforce which is an ever evolving complex and diverse ecosystem.

When faced with implementing technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) and other transformational technologies, comprehensive planning is the best way forward for State and Local agencies. By doing the planning upfront, agencies can ensure that they have the right tools to manage vulnerabilities, mitigate risks and drive innovation.

Utilizing a single platform that connects automation of other tools into that platform helps agencies get real-time data reporting and addresses risk within the organization. By using multiple endpoint management and security tools in a single platform, agencies can streamline their operations, reduce costs and improve their overall security posture.

A local agency in Westerville, Ohio has started using data for applied analytics and customizing citizen experiences using a feedback model. This approach involves analyzing and interpreting data to improve services and provide a more streamlined citizen experience for services like trash collection, public safety and traffic management. By using data to drive decision-making and improve services, agencies can become more efficient, effective and responsive to the needs of citizens.

Building a Resilient Government

Modernizing systems, which is the top priority for building a resilient Government, will improve citizen services, generate cost savings, increase security and provide a more holistic, human-centered Government experience. Many State and Local agencies have outdated systems and need to modernize their infrastructure and business processes to make commerce more accessible and efficient. This involves evaluating areas for improvement, such as replacing fax machines with modernized digital tools and platforms and consolidating multiple systems into a few with all the key functionality they need.

The Ohio Department of Aging (DoA) implemented a tenant of rapid response in which automated systems provide emergency staffing within 24 hours for long-term care facilities and nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to this day. The DoA has also worked on predictive modeling utilizing the Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) organizational strategy to identify potential issues and respond proactively. Additionally, it has focused on meeting citizens’ needs through an omnichannel approach, using interoperable data analytics and predictive modeling to provide a more personalized and efficient experience.

Combating Cyber Threats in Government

Public Sector organizations face a range of cybersecurity risks, including data exploitation, insider threats, third party vulnerabilities, ransomware, identity theft and fraudulent access to State Government services. To mitigate these risks, agencies can take steps such as implementing strong access controls, regularly updating software and systems, conducting employee training on cybersecurity best practices and partnering with other organizations to share threat intelligence and collaborate on incident response.

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) offers several services to assist Government agencies with cybersecurity, including assessments and external dependency mapping. These services are provided at no cost to agencies, as they are already paid for by federal taxpayers. The services include:

Cybersecurity assessments: conduct cybersecurity assessments, which can help identify vulnerabilities and areas for improvement.
Ransomware readiness assessments: prepare for and respond to ransomware attacks, which are a growing threat to State and Local Governments.
External dependency mapping: identify and assess third-party vendors and other external dependencies, which can be a source of cybersecurity risk.
Threat intelligence sharing: provide agencies with information on emerging threats and best practices for defending against cyber-attacks.
Incident response planning: develop and test incident response plans, which can help ensure a coordinated and effective response in the event of a cyber-attack.

As cybersecurity threats become more sophisticated, it is increasingly critical for individual employees to be aware of the risks and take steps to protect their agency. Following best practices for password management, avoiding suspicious emails and links and reporting any potential security incidents to IT or security personnel is imperative. Agencies should provide regular training and offer resources such as phishing simulations to help employees become more vigilant.

Agencies must continue to leverage technology, utilize resources like CISA, stay up to date on the latest best practices and remain committed to meeting citizens’ needs. By embracing technology innovation, State and Local agencies can create a brighter future for all.

Explore more resources and learn more about Carahsoft’s State and Local Roadshow Series: Digital Transformation by visiting our Roadshow portfolio.

*The information contained in this blog has been written based off the thought-leadership discussions presented by speakers at Carahsoft’s Digital Transformation Roadshow.*

EdTech Talks: The Changing Face of IT Security in Education

Posted on by Tim Boltz

Co-contributors:

Tom Dugas, CISO, Duquesne University
Aquilla Hines, Threat Intelligence Specialist, Proofpoint
Doug Thompson, Chief Education Architect, Tanium
Nick DiDonato, Emerging Technology Lead, HashiCorp
David DeVries, SLED CTO and former State/Federal level CIO, Commvault
Randy Watkins, Chief Technology Officer, CriticalStart
Khalil Yazdi, Resident EdTech CIO, Carahsoft

The transition to remote and hybrid learning over the past few years has increased the need for digital and physical devices to support K-12 and higher education campus-wide operations. Unfortunately, this has heightened vulnerabilities for security breaches in schools. While online security strategies like a Zero Trust approach can be beneficial for institutions, those same communities often strive to remain an open and collaborative educational ecosystem. Balancing the creation of a secure and fortified digital campus while ensuring personal privacy and data, as well as physical security is challenging; however, there are many opportunities and methodologies for educators to keep their students and staff secure.

Carahsoft’s three-day EdTech Talks series concluded by diving into cybersecurity and what education leaders should know, best practices for meeting compliance requirements, data management strategies and tactics for acing cybersecurity with limited resources.

Cybersecurity: What Education Leaders Should Know Now

Since early 2020, there has been a surge in the need for digital transformation to accommodate emergency educational services due to the pandemic. Higher education institutions saw a meteoric increase in cyber-attacks and the cost of paying out ransomware, and therefore, cyber-insurance fees, have skyrocketed. Now more than ever it is essential for campuses to have a robust cybersecurity strategy in place.

Digital Transformation Within Institutions

Many organizations are deep into the process of digital transformation. Schools and universities are looking to achieve MultiCoud hybrid infrastructures to reframe the way they approach cybersecurity, which can be established through containerization, tracking user management, access tokens, hybrid workload models with secure networks and shifting from IP-based security to an identity-based security. These methods ensure trust is being granted on an individual platform and application basis instead of on a general perimeter basis within an institution’s digital environment.

Ransomware and Phishing

Phishing continues to be one of the most common attack vectors for ransomware and is increasing in its sophistication. Since 2020, attackers have leveraged COVID-19 themes, and now are targeting student loan forgiveness, building believable digital communications for users to click and open containing threats. While simple cybersecurity training is a productive start, it is not always the most effective solution to fend off all phishing attempts. With multiple gateways for phishing–email, SMS messaging, QR codes, etc.–trainings should be expanded to include all avenues of danger. Additionally, institutions should take a student-centric approach to trainings, focusing on who is most at risk of falling for these attempts and sending out tests that mimic students’ familiar digital environment.

The Changing Cybersecurity Landscape

Staying ahead of everchanging cybersecurity threats is vital for institutions to protect themselves from ransomware and other dangers. Artificial intelligence (AI), automation and upskilling IT talent are among the most successful solutions to implement in digital environments because they reduce the burden on already strained manpower. Leveraging AI to perform simple patches and reboots that bad actors continuously try to exploit allows IT teams to focus on the higher-level risks at hand and operations that require human intelligence. Additionally, giving IT employees opportunities to upskill their cybersecurity knowledge creates a more advanced team that can better support those higher-level solutions and improve their relationship with an institution for little to no cost with free trainings and programs widely available.

Meeting Compliance Requirements and Managing Data Differently

With an overwhelming amount of data held by educational institutions, data sprawl increases the surface for cyber-attacks. Security solutions alone may be ineffective, so proactive data management is key. On the educational front, many institutions utilize multi-cloud solutions, and it is imperative to understand that data responsibility remains with the owner, not the cloud-provider. Institutions must create a holistic management system by getting to know their data, cleaning it up, backing it up and maintaining healthy data governance.

An effective security strategy begins with critical leadership involvement to make security posture decisions. Organization members should agree on and align with a standard compliance requirement that will benefit them best, then hire and challenge the talent that will support the mission to achieve that compliance. This way, sharing authority, accountability and responsibility with a team and encouraging open communication becomes easier for ensuring progress. Lastly, minimizing the number of tools and automating as much of the process as possible will lead to a simpler and less costly road to compliance.

Acing Cybersecurity with Limited Resources

In the current landscape of cybersecurity expertise, talent can be hard to come by and harder to keep. With limited resources, institutions remain vulnerable to ransomware, phishing and unsecure operations. There are several risks plaguing cybersecurity teams in the education space, but there are solutions that an institution’s entire community can help support.

With the rise of remote learning and mobile communications during the pandemic, significant amounts of personally identifiable information (PII) were compromised during increased targeted attacks on education institutions. Recently, this valuable information is what attackers consider priority when executing a threat. Emails are a main source vector for bad actors to gain access to this data. To combat threats like these, institutions should build and utilize effective solutions.

Your need-to-know cybersecurity checklist:

Leverage spam filtering to get rid of risky emails that could be phishing
Consider augmentation with targeted digital solutions to further eliminate malice
Educate and quiz students and faculty, who are the most susceptible to well-masked phishing attempts
Make advancements in user awareness trainings
Launch an internal campus-wide campaign to get the community talking about the best user awareness strategies
Create a Student Security Operations Center (SOC) to assist IT teams with their daily activity and get students more involved

With many concerns at the top of educators’ minds, institutions must ensure they have the right tools, talent and technology to keep their communities remain safe and secure both on and offline.

Contributing experts from Tanium, Proofpoint, HashiCorp, Commvault and CriticalStart can help your organization understand and find the best-fit solutions for its unique needs in cybersecurity. Visit Carahsoft’s EdTech Talks 2022 resource center to view their on-demand recordings and learn more about the featured education technology providers.

*The information contained in this blog has been written based off the thought-leadership discussions presented by speakers at Carahsoft’s EdTech Talk Series 2022.*

The Best of What’s New in Automation

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the conversation surrounding automation in government featured a lot of skepticism. For some, automation seemed too difficult or risky to implement. For others, it represented a threat to human workers. And for many, change in general is hard to embrace because it means leaving behind the familiar and venturing toward the unknown. But when COVID-19 infection rates skyrocketed, and when programs like unemployment insurance (UI) faced unprecedented spikes in demand, governments felt compelled to consider and adopt technologies they may have once resisted. And so, in 2022, the dialogue on automation has a much different tone. The focus has shifted toward identifying opportunities, challenges and best practices so that agencies can figure out where automation fits best. Learn how your agency or municipality can take full advantage of the growing momentum behind automation in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government® report.

Modernizing Expense and Payment Management

“When you have an automated system, if someone is about to do something that is noncompliant, the system flags them. Depending on how an organization sets policy, the system can stop the employee completely or allow the spend to proceed but with a warning that the behavior is out of compliance and will be flagged. That impacts how people make their buying decisions. As part of auditing overall, AI, ML and other technologies also work together to detect abnormal or potentially fraudulent behavior. Continual noncompliant behavior is tracked, marked and reported on. In terms of decision-making, intelligent automated solutions give organizations actionable data—sometimes for the first time ever. Organizations can see where they are in their cash flow, their debts, and so on and use that data to make decisions that drive the business outcomes they need.”

Read more insights from SAP Concur’s senior director for state and local government, Jim McClurkin.

Having an Automation-First Mindset

“Some executives don’t realize how much repetitive work their teams do until we talk to their staff and then show them the power of the possible. The best ideas for automation come from the people doing the work, so simple education is the best way to prepare employees. We partner with organizations to help educate their end users and show them what’s possible. It’s also helpful to use terms like “digital employee” or “digital workforce” rather than the term “bot,” which isn’t always well received. People understand they can have a digital assistant right on their desktop. Adoption is important because state and local governments need digital workers to address their current and future workforce needs, just like the private sector.”

Read more insights from UiPath’s vice president of sales for state, local and education (SLED), Phil Calzadilla.

Getting Intelligent Automation Right

“We’ve seen the most success where there’s initially enough investment to have an impact and get the organization behind it. Projects that are too small often pass below the visibility of executive leadership and tend to die on the vine. At the same time, projects can’t be more than the organization can chew at one time. The Covered California project started in a discrete area around document processing. Over time, they decided to apply analytics to it, and then improve workflows. Eventually, they added robotics to move the data to various systems. It became this very large but modular step-by-step layering in of different levels of automation. All of this resulted in an incredibly robust automation system that handles 50 million records a year and 300,000 processes per month, but it was done judiciously.”

Read more insights from Kofax’s vice president of public sector and federal sales, Jeremy Hogg.

Preparing For a New Wave of Automation

“Based on trends in the federal government, I expect both state and local governments to continue adopting the cloud over the next five to 10 years. As organizations consider new deployments in the cloud, it would be great to start with automation from the beginning. Instead of making it an after-the-fact approach, bake it into the solution from the start. Also, don’t be afraid to try new tools, and don’t be afraid to accept that you might need to get some training for your team. These are new skills, and enablement is valuable from the beginning.”

Read more insights from Cloudera’s principal solutions engineer, Ian Brooks.

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

Personalized Digital Experiences in Government

Posted on by Josh Green

Personalized customer experiences have been a primary focus of US policy over the last few Administrations. President Trump made it a part of his President Management Agenda, and President Biden released an Executive Order mandating a transformation of the “Federal Customer Experience.” Further policies, including the 21st Century IDEA and the IT Modernization Act, provide additional sources of funding and policy to help governments address these rising customer needs, and while they have been around for a few years, they are still required to be fully implemented. Agencies need to take advantage of this momentum to continue improving citizen experiences and “recommit to being ‘of the people, by the people, [and] for the people” in order to solve the complex 21st century challenges our Nation faces.”

Building on the Foundations

During the COVID-19 pandemic, agencies across the US quickly stepped up and adapted to a rapidly changing world with rapidly changing requests coming from their constituents. Unemployment and labor issues, health and safety concerns, social services, childcare and schooling, and even more all immediately increased in scale for both requests for services as well as requests for reliable information. What was previously done largely in person now had to be done – by necessity – at a distance. Agencies began to lay the digital foundations which were necessary to adapt to this new normal. New landing pages for up-to-date Health information, portals for testing and vaccine distribution, digitized enrollment processes for social services and unemployment insurances, as well as relevant and personalized communications with residents, were all adapted to this new personalization at a distance.

Now that it has been a few years since the beginning of the pandemic, there is an opportunity for agencies to build upon these foundations that have been laid. By making interactions with the government easier, there is a corresponding increase in interactions that can help set the scope of where to move forward. Once a process has been fully digitized the next step would be personalization. Focusing in on the personalization of the customer experience not only promotes the kind of participation in our civic lives that the US was founded on but also promotes equity and accessibility through accounting for the unique needs of people with disabilities.

Personalization and Accessibility

Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web, once said, “The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.” So it should come as no surprise that one of the requirements of the 21st Century IDEA is that as agencies modernize their websites, services, and forms, they must comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standard that was established in Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The following principles are the guiding standards of the WCAG: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. This means that all these government services should have the ability to be easily viewed and used by anyone with a disability – such as no or limited vision; colorblind; physical, cognitive, or learning disability; and no or limited hearing – as well as any able-bodied residents with limited access to the service in question – such as rural communities, the elderly, or even those with limited bandwidth and/or mobile-only access.

Being truly accessible means more than simply purchasing or developing technology that is accessible itself; it means taking the entire process and thinking about it through the lens of accessibility and personalization. It requires having employees who are responsible for managing the different touchpoints and interactions between the customer and the agency and understanding how these customer journeys can be further personalized. It means delivering content that is individual for each constituent – based on personal needs, preferences, and abilities and each touchpoint and interaction within that journey.

The Future of Personalized Experiences for Government

It should no longer come as a shock that the need for government to provide modern and accessible digital experiences is here to stay. This opportunity for agencies allows for them to incorporate all of these digital foundations, the policies being put out, and the web standards being designed into a truly personalized and accessible digital experience. Look for ways that employees who are responsible for Section 508 and ADA compliance can work hand in hand (and receive funding from) the teams that are responsible for implementing the 21st Century IDEA, Biden’s Executive Order, and all the other associated policies with customer experiences. The future of government experiences is one in which, no matter who you are, where you are, or what you need, you have the freedom to engage in a truly personalized manner with your government.

View Adobe’s webinar to learn more about creating personalized customer-centric digital services.

Future-Proofing Digital Service Delivery

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, the government rushed to offer more digital services, and as the public health crisis stretched into a third year, agencies are relying on those services more than ever. Like their private-sector counterparts, they have come to recognize that digital service delivery is the key to solving a range of challenges. Digital services are not static. Instead, agencies must continuously introduce innovations and improvements based on customer needs.

Learn how your agency or municipality can continue to improve customer experience, including increasing employee retention and training, adding sustainability initiatives, and utilizing scalable technology, in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government® report.

Digital Transformation and the Power of a Platform

“In using traditional and legacy IT systems, governments dedicate significant amounts of time, money and expertise to select, build, integrate, test, scale and secure new technologies, often accumulating decades of technical debt. One clear lesson from the pandemic is that we need to find a new way to operate, and time and speed are of the essence. New technology helps introduce the speed, agility and digital services needed to operate in today’s world. The technology that was delivered during the pandemic saved lives and could not have been built on legacy technology. That’s why digital transformation and a powerful platform are paramount.”

Read more insights from Salesforce’s President for the Global Public Sector, Dave Rey.

Reimagine Service Delivery with a Proactive Digital Strategy

“Customers expect timely services in flexible and convenient mediums. As a result, government IT systems need to be modified to meet customer expectations, where new features and capabilities are rolled out in days, not years. Creating an “agile first” policy can help the government update its policies and foundation to focus on modern IT. Governments should invest in cloud-based and low-code and no-code platforms that are secure and agile. The primary benefit for government agencies to leverage cloud solutions is the access to an ecosystem that is regularly updated and constantly evolving to meet changing demands.”

Read more insights from Salesforce’s Senior Vice President of Energy and Utilities, Nasi Jazayeri, and Digital Transformation Executive, Mia Jordan.

The Benefits of Treating Employees Like Customers

“Agencies can foster an eagerness for learning by encouraging employees to gain new skills and expertise that enable them to expand their career horizons, further the agency mission and benefit the end user. Employees can be provided with resources that enable them to understand different technologies and how they can be used to address business needs. Agencies can also provide time during the work week for employees to learn new software or get certified on new technologies and with the flexibility to attend conferences.”

From Salesforce’s Director of Digital Strategy for Global Public Sector, Tahera Zamanzada.

Investing in a Secure and Modern Platform

“By leveraging modern technologies, agencies can quickly deploy secure, customer-centric applications in weeks, instead of months or years. But to achieve this, they’ll need to prioritize IT modernization efforts that focus on their platform, integration and security. When government leaders select an IT platform, they are typically making a five- to 10-year commitment to that technology and the vendor behind it. Before making such a long commitment, government leaders should evaluate and understand the platform’s ecosystem.”

Read more insights from Salesforce’s Executive Vice President of Global Public Sector, Paul Tatum.

How Government Agencies Can Take on Sustainability

“Government agencies can work toward creating a sustainable future and accelerating their net-zero journeys by developing their own climate action plans. To start, leaders should bring together and listen to their stakeholders in an effort to gain a holistic understanding of the situation, its impacts and how to make changes that can have positive results. The next step should be to focus on reducing and their emissions. Agencies and their energy suppliers can achieve this by using renewable and cleaner energy sources.”

Read more insights from Salesforce’s Vice President for Federal Government Affairs, Hugh Gamble.

Responding Quickly to a Public Health Emergency

“To deliver services quickly in a pandemic, agencies should keep these key considerations top of mind. They can begin by assessing and understanding the governance and delivery structure around the type of implementation they’re trying to make and understand that rapid deployment cannot happen without having the right technical infrastructure in place. Agencies could leverage cloud-based, low- or no-code platforms rather than building something new. Cloud-based technology is scalable and can be configured for multiple use cases, making it easier to deliver services quickly while meeting the needs of a rapidly changing environment. It’s also important that agencies understand that customers want to be engaged in different ways and leverage technologies that provide omni-channel engagement.”

Read more insights from Salesforce’s Health and Human Services Industry Executive, Courtney Hawkins.

Download the full Innovation in Government® report for more insights from these digital service delivery thought leaders and additional industry research from FCW.

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.

Conversations With CXOs: Crash Course on the Future of Government

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

For government employees looking to build successful and satisfying careers in public service, the curriculum is changing. It’s not enough to develop mastery of agency processes and policies or to stockpile continuing education credits on traditional core competencies. Instead, public servants need to develop a working knowledge of current trends in IT and management that are reshaping how government operates. IT and management: That’s the operative phrase. Technology is continually improving the efficiency of work processes and the productivity of employees. But efficiency and productivity only go so far. It’s at the intersection of technology and management that real change is happening. Agencies are gaining new insights into their operations and services, and using those insights to fuel innovations across their organizations. Government employees at all levels have the opportunity to be part of this transformation, but they need to get up to speed on the key trends. Where are they to begin? Download the guide to read more about four competencies that could be critical to the careers of public servants.

Edge Computing Raises Ransomware Risk

“The problem is that edge computing – in which data is being aggregated, accessed or processed outside the network perimeter – is leaving data exposed to cyber criminals who see an opportunity to make money through ransomware schemes. According to Gartner, a research and consulting firm, edge computing will grow 75% by 2025. In government, the surge is being fueled both by a growth in end-user devices in mobile and remote computing and in non-traditional devices associated with the Internet of Things (IoT) and operational technology (OT), such as sensors and cameras. In many cases, agencies support edge computing by moving data into the cloud, rather than requiring end-users or devices to go through the data center. This hybrid cloud environment mitigates performance and latency problems but also makes the network perimeter even more porous.”

Read more insights from HPE’s Distinguished Technologist for Cyber Security, James M.T. Morrison.

Agencies Need to Maintain a Sense of Cyber Urgency

“Security isn’t just the responsibility of individuals. Agencies also must ensure they treat security as a top priority. SolarWinds recommends two areas of focus: Prioritize the development of cyber experts. Given the high demand for cyber experts, agencies should focus more energy on developing talent in house. Shopp said one approach is to convert IT professionals, who are already tech savvy, into cyber professionals. Prioritize collaboration between tech pros and leaders. Policies and strategies aimed at reducing risk should reflect both technical and organizational expertise and requirements. Shopp said agencies also should collaborate more with trusted industry partners. SolarWinds, for example, isn’t just a technology vendor; it also has a large development shop, as many government agencies do, and can exchange ideas about cyber strategies, tools, and best practices.”

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

How to Move DevOps from Disarray to Unity

“An agency’s initial forays into integrating their development and operations teams can bear fruit quickly, leading to better quality software produced at a faster clip. The risk is that an organization will treat its initial forays as the endgame, not realizing that a more mature approach, with greater payoffs, is possible. In short, the DevOps initiatives never grow up. GitLab, which has years of experience helping organizations with DevOps adoption, has identified four stages in a DevOps journey, culminating in an approach that delivers even greater benefits than envisioned at the outset.”

Read more insights from GitLab’s Federal Solutions Architect, Sameer Kamani, and Senior Public Sector Solutions Architect, Daniel Marquard.

Why Stronger Security Hinges on Identity Data

“To understand the need for an Intelligent Identity Data Platform, consider two scenarios. In the first case, a user logs into an application from her office at 2 p.m. each day. In this case, she will be considered a low risk, based on three factors: Her credentials, her usage patterns and location data. In the second scenario, this same user logs into the application from her office but at 2 a.m. The aberration in her routine (i.e., usage pattern) raises a red flag, as would a change in her location. Even this simple use case requires an agency to have a holistic picture of an end-user, which is not possible without a central platform.”

Read more insights from Radiant Logic’s Vice President of Solutions Architects and Senior Technical Evangelist, Wade Ellery.

The Case for Data Literacy

“Someone who works in national defense requires different data skills from those in environmental or financial management auditing. ‘We firmly believe it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach,’ Ariga said. Training must be catered to tradecraft. It’s the reason GAO is creating its own data literacy curriculum specific to the oversight community, instead of relying on third-party training that focuses on generic, often commercial aims. Additionally, the best time for people to learn data skills is when they actually need them. On-demand tools such as microlearning videos and a walk-in Genius Bar ensure staff can access data solutions and build literacy when they need, instead of waiting months to register for a class.”

Read more insights from the Government Accountability Office’s Chief Data Scientist and Director of the Innovation Lab, Taka Ariga.

The Future of AI Hangs on Ethics, Trust

“Over the next five years or so, we could see a revolution in the use of AI, Sivagnanam said. Think about the self-driving car industry. At this point, human drivers are still a necessary part of the equation. But AI pioneers are hard at work trying to change that, and quickly. Similar advances are likely in other applications of AI. Over the next three to five years, Sivagnanam hopes to see the AI industry mature. As part of that, he expects to see the development of regulations and guidelines around AI and ethics, both from the federal government and from industry organizations. That work is already getting underway, and NSF is playing a role. Through a grants program called Fairness in Artificial Intelligence (FAI), NSF supports researchers working on ethical challenges in AI.”

Read more insights from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Chief Architect, Chezian Sivagnanam.

Q&A: Getting Schooled on Zero Trust Security

“Zero trust means zero trust. We’re monitoring your internal systems. To an extent, we are monitoring what individuals are doing. That’s not to say we’re Big Brother. We’re not monitoring the keystrokes of every user in the state or anything like that. For the agencies, multi-factor [authentication] is a huge one. We’ve seen time and time again accounts get compromised because they had a bad username and password. If that’s the only thing protecting a system, that’s not enough. The bottom line is we know people create bad passwords. That’s a given. You can increase awareness about how to create good passwords, and you certainly want to try that. In many cases, people will just figure out ways around complexity requirements to get an easy-to-remember password versus a secure and strong password. You want to encourage people to have unique passwords for every single site. At some point, you need to give them a secure method of being able to remember all these passwords.”

Read more insights from Connecticut’s CISO, Jeff Brown.

3 Tenets for Advancing Equity in Your Everyday Work

“If there were one thing you could do to eliminate health disparities or advance health equity, what would it be? This is a question that Dr. Leandris Liburd gets asked often, but it’s not one she’s fond of. The answer isn’t a simple one, and the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified that truth. There isn’t a magic pill to ensure that no one is denied the possibility of being healthy because they belong to a group that has been economically or socially disadvantaged. And measuring success is about more than data points. Choosing one thing to advance health equity ‘is not possible when you’re dealing with these kinds of complexities,’ Liburd said in an interview with GovLoop. ‘So we have to do a lot of things at the same time.’”

Read more insights from the CDC’s Director of the Office of Minority Health and Health Equity, Dr. Leandris Liburd.

Download the full GovLoop Guide for more insights from chief information officers, a chief data scientist and other senior leaders in federal, state and local government.

Digital Transformation in Higher Education

Posted on by Angela Chen, Amir Vastani, Eduardo Molina and Dr. Shiva Jaganathan

The past year has accelerated a digital transformation in higher education with the pandemic forcing a move to remote work and online learning while leveraging modern cloud infrastructure. As the future of education becomes increasingly digital, having a secure, reliable data platform that helps deliver better services and streamline business processes with increased transparency is imperative for all education stakeholders. Two case studies illustrate how different universities make use of data platforms, analytics, and dashboards.

University of Texas at Austin

Nearly every decision at the University of Texas in Austin is based on the data that is available to them. So everyone needs the right information to make the decisions at any given time—and they need it in easy-to-understand dashboards. The university has an arsenal of dashboards that they have developed for use by specific groups, reducing the number of data requests that IT staff receive.

When the pandemic hit, the university wanted to disseminate information as diligently and quickly as possible. One dashboard provided information on positive COVID tests and another on the number of vaccinations administered. They are updated every day, so every university department can make adjustments as necessary.

The University has a survey group that sent quick, easy surveys to students, faculty, and staff that provide key metrics for decisions about class structures and social distancing measures. Since the school has limited campus space, they are using the information to consider whether to offer large classes online after the pandemic.

Faculty Retention

UT Austin also uses analytics to recruit and retain top-performing faculty, which is key to long-term success. The university recognizes faculty by nominating them for prestigious awards. However, most universities have a perception-driven nomination process, which is not necessarily equitable.

The university initiated a data-driven approach to evaluate who should be nominated based on merit—and who has the best chance of getting those awards. They built a custom dashboard, which has filters for department, gender, race, ethnicity, academic rank, etc. It also includes indices for scholarly research and faculty productivity. Plotted on a graph, the analytics revealed faculty members who were actually quite productive but had not been nominated for awards. Recognizing the value of data driven decisions, the school used that data as a starting point for conversations about award nominating committees.

New York University

Since New York City was hit hard early on in the pandemic, NYU was required to take fast action. A big, complex organization like a university can easily slip into siloed operations. To avoid siloes and improve decision-making, the university built dashboards to help senior leadership identify and quickly address the new issues they faced.

Having trustworthy data services has proven to be the foundation for their success. Previous investments in providing usable data services paid off when they entered crisis mode. They leveraged this foundation to allow consistency and transparency across the school. As a result, NYU stayed open throughout the crisis, even during the peak. Their positive rate of infection stayed consistently lower compared to New York City. The school’s administrators remained connected throughout to make critical strategic and operational decisions in a collaborative manner. Technology played a vital role to help achieve those goals.

Providing Vital Analytics

NYU needed two streams of data for different audiences. The NYU hub is accessible for anyone to Google and search for up-to-the-minute information. The embedded analytics portal uses the best practices of web development and their data governance platform to categorize workbooks into macro categories at the university senior leadership level. From the operational perspective, this portal helped plan and monitor the return of students. Throughout the term, it evolves and keeps the school’s strategic vision in mind.

Fighting Covid with Data

For the purposes of contact tracing, NYU used a mixture of all tools available, including swipe access records, class enrollment data, schedules, etc. If there was a positive case, the school could determine where this person has been based on their swipe access, so they could identify who else might have been exposed and contact them.

Since students had to be socially distanced, the school could not utilize all the space available within the campus. With the right apps, NYU was able to maximize the use of space available and curtail under-utilized spaces to conserve costs. The system also helped manage students who were checking in to housing and ensuring that they were all following their compliance directives.

Compliance Reporting

NYU needed to do compliance reporting to New York every day to New York State. They gathered data from a variety of sources—the HIPAA compliant source via API platform, other internal third-party data sources—and aggregated them together into a visualization, which was publicly made available dashboard to everyone. This also let them keep tabs on their positivity levels over time.

View our full webinar and learn more about Tableau supports higher education initiatives during the Covid-19 pandemic.