INNOVATIONS THAT MATTERED
Innovations That Mattered 2016
1
contents
3 Executive Summary 4 Government by the Numbers 8 Cybersecurity Superstars 11 Moving from Legacy IT to Modernized, Secure IT 12 Personnel Reformers 15 Adding More Value to Data with In-Document Analytics 16 IT Modernization Mavericks 19 Why Records Management Matters More Now Than Ever 20 aaS Models Implementers 23 Adopting a Secure Digital Business Model at Your Agency 24 Diversity & Inclusion Promoters 27 Aligning Legacy Systems and Innovation 28 Leadership & Development All-Stars 31 Making ECM a Priority 32 Citizen Engagement Enhancers 35 Enhancing Cybersecurity Through Automation 36 Procurement Powerhouses 39 Optimizing Printing Capabilities at Your Agency 40 Internet of Things Innovators 43 Building Your Agency’s IoT Capacity 44 About & Acknowledgments
2
GovLoop Guide
executive summary: 2016 retrospective
no doubt, 2016 was a year for the record books.
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION PROMOTERS
There were incredible innovations, such as NASA’s creation of the “warp drive” and the opening of the brand-new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
LEADERSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT ALL-STARS
However, there were also a few challenges. Major legislative slowdowns, cyber breaches and fiscal constraints all led to a particularly challenging year. And you might have heard about the presidential election. In short, 2016 was a challenge. But as we know, when there are challenges, there are real opportunities for innovations. In this, GovLoop’s final guide of the year, we’ll explore nine areas of innovation in government in 2016. Our innovation areas include:
CYBERSECURITY SUPERSTARS For the sixth year in a row, cybersecurity topped government Chief Information Officers’ priority list. In this section, we’ll explore how governments are combating new cyber threats.
PERSONNEL REFORMERS As hundreds of thousands of employees retire, the government is poised for unprecedented hiring needs. In this section, we will focus on hiring and retention reforms that governments are exploring.
IT MODERNIZATION MAVERICKS Legacy systems account for more than threefourths of most government information technology infrastructures. In this section, we will focus on how governments are making substantial updates to those systems.
AAS MODELS IMPLEMENTERS As part of the government’s move to modernize, many agencies are using as-a-service (aaS) models in which vendors are responsible for maintaining the technology platforms. In this section, we will explore how aaS models are offloading maintenance tasks and building efficiencies.
In 2011, President Obama issued an executive order calling for agency hiring processes to focus on more diversity and inclusion. In this section, we look at how agencies are answering the call.
The January 2017 inauguration will bring more than just a new President; a whole new executive team will take over at agencies. In this section, we will explore how new leaders can get training and development opportunities to deal with the changes.
CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT ENHANCERS Government’s mission is to serve citizens. In this section, we will explore how governments are reaching out to their constituents in new and different ways.
PROCUREMENT POWERHOUSES In 2015, Congress passed the Federal Information Technology Reform Act (FITARA) to focus on how the government could improve and track how it buys technology. In this section, we will look at agencies that are seeing big changes to the way they buy technology services.
INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT) INNOVATORS From parking spaces to saving the urban forest, connected devices are changing the way governments interact with citizens. In this section, we explore how agencies are embracing IoT as a way of improving citizen services. To fully study the implications of each of these innovation sections, GovLoop’s team culled through our past interviews, guides, blog posts and much more to find the biggest department improvements, program advancements and personnel changes. We marked how each is changing the way government operates from logistical and cultural aspects. In this guide, we will show you how small bets and small risks are transforming governments from California to Maine. So let’s get started!
Innovations That Mattered 2016
3
government by the numbers
government workforce Total civilian employment: 1,551,441 28,000 JUDICIAL BRANCH 84,000 WORK OUTSIDE THE U.S. 204,551 APPOINTMENTS 1,201,890 IN SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE
Federal workforce at a glance
FEDERAL WORKFORCE
SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE
FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2013 FY2014
MEN
56.6
56.8
66.3
66.1
WOMEN
43.4
43.2
33.7
33.9
HISPANIC OR LATINO
8.3
8.4
4.1
4.4
WHITE
65.1
64.7
80.1
79.3
BLACK OR AFRICAN AMERICAN
18
18.1
10.8
11.1
ASIAN
5.5
5.6
3.0
3.2
NATIVE HAWAIIAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER
0.4
0.4
0.1
0.2
AMERICAN INDIAN/ALASKA NATIVE
1.7
1.7
1.2
1.2
NON-HISPANIC MULTI-RACIAL
1.1
1.2
0.7
0.6
Source: Federal Equal Opportunity Recruitment Program
State & local workforce changes 2014-2015
4
Since 2012, civilian employment has decreased by 15,000 people.
33,000 EXECUTIVE BRANCH
36%
11%
pay increased
hiring freeze
1%
73%
pay cut
hired employees
GovLoop Guide
Top 5 states for gender equality FLORIDA 84.9% MARYLAND 85.2% CALIFORNIA 86% ARIZONA 86.8%
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 94.8%
DoD workforce Men & women on active duty: 1.3 million 224,000 MARINES
ACTIVE DUTY WOMEN: 15.1%
ACTIVE DUTY MINORITIES: 31.2%
287,000 SAILORS
492,000 AIRMEN
1,015,000 SOLDIERS
As part of the Budget Control Act of 2011, the army shrunk by 40,000 soldiers to reach an activeduty end-strength of 45,000 in 2016
The Defense Department spent
$44,000,000,000
on IT and cybersecurity in 2016.
center for digital government’s annual list of best in digital Source: govtech.com
STATE PORTAL CATEGORY
COUNTY PORTAL CATEGORY
CITY PORTAL CATEGORY GOV-TO-CITIZEN STATE & FEDERAL CATEGORY INTERNAL GOVERNMENT CATEGORY
STATE OF MARYLAND
STATE OF UTAH
STATE OF MISSISSIPPI
BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD
STANISLAUS COUNTY, CA
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MD
CITY & COUNTY OF DENVER, CO
CITY OF SAN DIEGO, CA
CITY OF HAYWARD, CA
CALIFORNIA FRANCHISE TAX BOARD : MYFTB APPLICATION
FLORIDHEALTHFINDER.GOV
ILLINOIS STUDENT ASSISTANCE COMMISSION
PERSONAL DURESS ALARM SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION, CA
SERVICE MANAGEMENT & REPORTING TOOL, SACRAMENTO
US. DEPT. OF THE NAVY TRACKER
Innovations That Mattered 2016
5
best places to work Innovation category The Innovation category measures employee perceptions of efforts to improve the way work is done, including their personal motivation to promote change and the support and rewards they receive for promoting new ideas. RANK AGENCY
2014
2015
CHANGE
1 NASA
76.7
78.2
1.5
↑
2 DEPARTMENT OF STATE
65.9
66.1
0.2
↑
3 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
63.5
65.0
1.5
↑
4 DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE
61.8
64.2
2.4
↑
5 DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
63.9
62.4
-1.5
↑
Effective Senior Leadership category The Effective Leadership: Senior Leaders subcategory measures the level of respect employees have for senior leaders, satisfaction with the amount of information managers provide and perceptions about senior leaders’ honesty, integrity and ability to motivate employees. 2014
2015
CHANGE
1 FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
66.0
70.2
4.2
↑
2 PEACE CORPS
72.9
67.2
-5.7
↑
3 FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION
62.7
65.1
2.4
↑
4 FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORP
65.2
63.6
-1.6
5 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
61.6
61.6
0.0 -
2014
2015
CHANGE
1 NASA
66.2
67.5
1.3
↑
2 INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY
66.5
66.9
0.4
↑
3 SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
60.5
61.7
1.2
↑
4 ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
60.5
61.0
0.5
↑
5 DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
63.0
60.9
-2.1
↑
↑
RANK AGENCY
Pay category The Pay category measures how satisfied employees are with their compensation. RANK AGENCY
Source: bestplacestowork.org
6
GovLoop Guide
government technology Reported federal cyber incidents
Does your department, agency or organization use data analytics? 61% YES
Source: GAO.gov
26% NOT SURE
8% NO
5% NO BUT PLANS TO SOON
D
Ed
IT PORTFOLIO REVIEW SAVINGS INCREMENTAL DEVELOPMENT
Do
RISK ASSESSMENT TRANSPARENCY
E
DHS
GRADE KEY NA
HUD DoI
USAID
DoJ
SSA SB
Do
A
T Do
GSA
A
NR C
NA S
ry
D
12
A 0
su
VA
EPA
C
10
B 1
69,851
FY 2015 TOTAL
77,183
OF CLOUD 80 NUMBER SERVICES USED IN GOV OF CLOUD 1,400 NUMBER IMPLEMENTATIONS OR INSTANCES OF THOSE CLOUD SERVICES IN GOVERNMENT OF FEDRAMP38 NUMBER COMPLIANT CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS
Top 5 overall performers with strongest security postures
a Tre
NS
F
O
L
St at e
PM
FY 2014 TOTAL
Source: FedRAMP.gov
S HH
A B C D F
60,753
Government cloud + FedRAMP
Do
DATA CENTER CONSOLIDATION
DoC
USDA
2016 FITARA scorecards
FY 2013 TOTAL
F 1
CLARK COUNTY, NV U.S. BUREAU OF RECLAMATION ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITAL
DoC
USDA DoE DHS DoI DoJ DoL
VA EPA GSA NRC OPM SSA
DoD Treasury NSF Ed SBA HHS HUD USAID State
Ed DoE NASA
DoT
Innovations That Mattered 2016
HANNEPIN COUNTY, MN, LIBRARY CITY OF PHOENIX 7
cybersecurity superstars
meet the innovator Agnes Kirk Chief Information Security Officer State of Washington INNOVATION MARK: The biggest impact Kirk has had on the cybersecurity scene was creating and implementing cybersecurity workforce best practices for the state of Washington. These practices include innovative recruiting tactics, private/public partnerships and education to create a more robust cyber workforce. For example, this year the Homeland Security Department asked Kirk and her team to co-host its national launch of Cybersecurity Awareness Month in Seattle. “We’re using the kickoff as an opportunity to do further outreach to our educators, citizens, businesses and public sector,” Kirk explained. Additionally, Kirk and her team are tackling shortages in the cybersecurity workforce headon. A Washington community college is one of five national cybersecurity centers of excellence and it is actively recruiting and encouraging other IT employers to hire out of the program. The college also focuses on training returning veterans to go into cybersecurity in the public and private sectors with curricula developed through public/private partnerships.
Another example of these partnerships was the state’s sponsorship of a “Shark Tank”-like entrepreneur event. “We’re going to have entrepreneurs that apply to do a fast pitch about their startup product or idea to three venture capitalist groups who have every intention of funding or not funding the ideas based on what they hear,” Kirk said. This partnership opportunity gives Kirk and her team an opening to help educate and increase opportunities for small businesses to get their ideas out there and receive possible funding.
TIPS FROM THE INNOVATOR: Kirk explained that her overall role is to set the strategic cybersecurity direction for the state of Washington. This includes developing and establishing statewide IT security policy and standards, establishing an office akin to DHS on the state level, and building relationships across the public and private sectors. Kirk underscored that when you juggle multiple priorities, it is critical to have a supportive team. “I can only be as successful as we are as a team that works together and collaborates,” she said.
why it matters The Office of Cyber Security was formally established, allowing more funding for security staffing and tools to implement a layered security approach to better protect the state’s networks.
1
8
Under Kirk’s leadership, SecureAccess Washington was created to provide a single sign-on portal for citizens and businesses. The portal has all the layers of security infrastructure that allow agencies to focus on their missions. The platform has 2.8 million active users and more than 700 accessible applications.
2
GovLoop Guide
Kirk has no plans to stop innovating — she is keen on changing the theme of the conversation surrounding cybersecurity from security to business. Her main goal is to understand what is important to stakeholders and help them meet their missions and goals in order to enhance the state’s reputation while reducing costs and risk.
3
meet the innovation Cybersecurity National Action Plan INNOVATION MARK: Cyberattacks don’t happen in a silo. An attack can permeate a department, an agency or even the entire government. To help bring a governmentwide approach to cybersecurity, the Obama administration launched the Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP) in February 2016. The plan is ambitious, with directives to establish a cross-sector commission, set up a $3.1 billion Information Technology Modernization Fund and implement multifactor authentication in citizen-facing government services. To implement CNAP, the administration is relying on several federal agencies to enact its objectives. The CNAP team includes both the Office of Management and Budget and the National Security Council in lead roles. In addition, the General Services Administration, because of its governmentwide oversight responsibilities, and DHS, because of its cybersecurity expertise, are tasked with helping OMB and NSC enact CNAP. A critical part of that message is educating acquisitions and IT professionals on the value of using shared services for technology procurement. By leveraging those, agencies can acquire technologies faster and at lower costs.
WHY IT MATTERS: The IT Modernization Fund will help agencies develop modernization plans and, if appropriate, identify contracting vehicles to meet them.
meet the innovator Elayne Starkey Chief Security Officer, State of Delaware INNOVATION MARK: As a winner of the Thomas M. Jarrett Cybersecurity Scholarship at the 2016 National Association of State CIO Conference, Starkey knows a thing or two about excellence in cybersecurity. Her most recent work focuses on increasing cybersecurity awareness in her state. She was so excited for October’s Cybersecurity Month festivities that she kicked off programs in September, starting with Secure Delaware 2016, a daylong workshop that educated attendees on cybersecurity. Additionally, Starkey and her team are fostering cybersecurity awareness by putting on cyber safety “lunch and learn” events. By combining treats with fun cybersecurity events, Starkey has been able to reach an unprecedented number of people and educate them on cybersecurity. The events have gone a long way to remove the myths about cyber and shift the conversation to awareness and better cyber hygiene for all Delaware employees.
WHY IT MATTERS: Starkey created a robust cybersecurity culture in Delaware, where employees know proper cyber hygiene and, even more importantly, feel a responsibility to protect their data, systems and networks from attacks.
Innovations That Mattered 2016
9
Be Proactive, Not Reactive. Better Data. Better Cybersecurity.
Federal agencies need to get ahead of their cybersecurity risks. BDNA does this by delivering the most comprehensive cyber risk visibility available into your enterprise’s IT assets. Our unique capability is deployed across government via more than 50 federal sole-source awards. BDNA solutions discover, normalize, enrich and analyze IT inventories so assets that are EOL/EOS, unpatched or non-compliant can be quickly identified and remediated. Get a complete view of your IT ecosystem to proactively detect vulnerabilities, prioritize fixes and track remediation efforts. • Manage Risk with Better Visibility • Accelerate Security Incident Detection and Response Times • Reduce Threat Dashboard Clutter Try BDNA today.
Call for a demo at +1 (650) 625-9530 or visit BDNA.com to learn more. 10
Copyright © 2016. All rights reserved. BDNA, trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks are property of their respective owners. GovLoop Guide
industry spotlight
Moving from Legacy IT to Modernized, Secure IT An interview with Clark Campbell, Vice President of Public Sector at BDNA The federal government spent more than 75 percent of the total budgeted amount for IT for fiscal year 2015 on operations and maintenance investments. The problem? These legacy IT investments are becoming increasingly obsolete. Many departments and agencies rely on outdated software and hardware that is now unsupported by the vendor, which leaves government systems vulnerable to cyberattacks. To understand how agencies can protect their networks while modernizing, GovLoop sat down with Clark Campbell, Vice President of Public Sector at BDNA, an enterprise technology software company. “Typically with our customers, more than 50 percent of the hardware and software on their networks has reached end-oflife status, which is a hacker’s paradise,” Campbell said. “For example, one of our customers recently found a version of McAfee antivirus that came to end-of-life in 1999. Another one of our customers found Yahoo Instant Messenger Version 1.0 on their network. If hackers can get access through any outdated system, they have access to the entire network.” He praised U.S. CIO Tony Scott’s proposed $3.1 billion IT Modernization Fund that is dedicated to updating some of these critical network flaws, but said more needs to be done. Campbell said the first step in correcting the vulnerabilities that legacy systems create is to bring more visibility to the problem. “No one government organization has enough budget on an annual basis to fix this massive problem of outdated systems,” he said. “However,
if you establish visibility, you can prioritize the mission-critical systems that might have personally identifiable information (PII). Those are the systems that need to be updated first.” To create an environment of visibility, agencies need to audit their current infrastructure. Campbell stressed that you cannot have basic cybersecurity if you don’t know what is on your networks. “It might sound surprising, but that basic visibility is something that many federal Chief Information Security Officers are still struggling with,” he said. BNDA helps agencies achieve unrivaled visibility into their IT networks by aggregating IT asset data from existing infrastructure, continuous diagnostics and mitigation (CDM) and security tools, deduping and normalizing it into a single database, and then enriching it with market intelligence from its comprehensive Technopedia® catalog. It then analyzes that database to alert IT managers about what hardware and software assets they have that are endof-life, nearing end-oflife, approved and unapproved, and out of configuration. “Every agency has a list of approved and not approved systems, but what they’re often not aware of is the third bucket,” Campbell said. “That third bucket is full of the assets that you have deployed in your enterprise that’s not on either list yet.”
normalize and standardize that data in order to turn it into actionable information,” Campbell said. “Unless you have actionable information, you’re still guessing as to where you need to prioritize your constrained budget dollars.” Governments are starting to get onboard with the visibility mindset, particularly the Department of Energy. In 2014, the DOE reported publicly that it was hacked via an obsolete version of software. That software held PII for 53,000 current and former DOE employees. To mitigate the impact of that breach, the department now pays $4 million a year in credit monitoring services. To avoid a similar scenario in the future, DOE turned to BDNA’s enterprise architecture roadmap solution. The solution helps identify IT assets nearing end-of-life, so that aging servers and unsupported software don’t become vulnerabilities. However, visibility is only the first step. Campbell said he would like see agencies, in 2017, leverage their existing investments in CDM tools and dashboards by making that data actionable. It’s time to make an investment in visibility so that agencies can move forward effectively.
That increased awareness allows agencies to be proactive about their security needs, but it also allows them to leverage their data more effectively. “There is no lack of data in the federal government, but agencies need to
Innovations That Mattered 2016
11
personnel reformers
meet the innovator Jen Tress Director of Talent 18F INNOVATION MARK: Tress is big on relationship building, particularly among those who have a hand in the hiring process, including human resources professionals, program offices, recruiters and applicants. As Director of Talent for GSA’s digital consultancy group, Tress and her team woo technologists, designers and researchers from industry into government for short stints to work on digital projects across agencies. HR workers are embedded with 18F and sit with Tress and her team at least twice a week. She sees their role as educators who are engaged in the hiring process and can share with the HR team exactly what skills and traits they need to look for in a candidate. GSA’s 18F uses a particular type of hiring authority known as Schedule A to temporarily hire digital service experts. In fact, there are more than 100 hiring authority codes in government, but agencies use only a small portion of them, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Digital experts are brought in to 18F for twoyear appointments that can be extended another two years if needed and if their performance is strong, Tress said. The organization launched in 2014 with 15 full-time employees, and hiring was on a referral-only basis. In October 2016, that number had grown to more than 200 using full and open competition to recruit top talent. Other agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Housing and Urban Development Department, are teaming with 18F to implement similar hiring tactics.
TIPS FROM THE INNOVATOR: Many program offices often complain that HR shops always say no to their hiring requests without explaining why. One way to combat this issue is for managers to familiarize themselves with the basics of hiring authorities, Tress said. From there, a meaningful conversation with HR might go like this: “I need a really great person in these areas with these skills. Can you help me figure out the best path to get them on board?”
why it matters Under Tress’ leadership, 18F teamed with EPA, HUD and GSA’s data analytics program to help them revamp employee recruiting. For example, 18F uses technical recruiters who have expertise in key areas. These recruiters reach out directly to candidates and encourage them to apply, and they can talk specifics about the work.
1
12
The 18F hiring team tests applicants for technical and emotional quotients. For example, in addition to completing coding exercises with an applicant, they also test for empathy and problem-solving skills. One way is to ask questions that reveal potential candidates’ tolerance for bureaucracy, how well they work in teams or how they respond to ideas they don’t agree with.
2
GovLoop Guide
Tress nurtured a partnership with HR that empowers subject-matter experts from 18F to participate in the initial rating and ranking process for evaluating candidates. HR then reviews the list of candidates.
3
meet the innovation meet the innovation 18F’s Checklistomania INNOVATION MARK: In March 2016, 18F began using an automated, online checklist it created for new employees to view and track tasks they need to complete for onboarding. Called Checklistomania, the open source project is available in the public domain and can be adapted by any organization. The checklist includes about 60 tasks that employees need to complete at various stages of onboarding. Some tasks can be completed in minutes, such as taking the oath of office, acknowledging receipt of your computer and changing your password. These granular details enable 18F to better govern its onboarding process, and employees develop a vested interest in checking off tasks. To help employees stay on track, Checklistomania automatically sends reminders before certain tasks are due. But no process is perfect, and there is always room for improvement. Employees at 18F are encouraged to share any issues they have with the Checklistomania platform via GitHub, an online repository that enables people to collaborate on and improve software. The system and processes are improved biweekly.
WHY IT MATTERS: The first weeks and months of a new employee’s time at an agency play a huge role in their future performance and attitude about working there. That’s why smooth and consistent onboarding for all employees is key.
The Secretary of Defense Corporate Fellows Program INNOVATION MARK: The program launched in 1995 under then-Defense Secretary William Perry and is still up and running. Here’s how it works: Every year, two or more officers with successful operational command and staff backgrounds are selected from the military services to train with corporate America. Through the program, they glean insights from their private-sector counterparts about change management, adaptive and collaborative structures, knowledge management, the virtual workplace, and how to make the most of new technologies, all of which are applicable to DoD. In 2016, the program was updated to include yearlong assignments, meetings with senior leaders at the sponsoring companies and updates to senior leaders at the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) about pertinent observations and recommendations. At the end of the assignment, each member of the program submits a final report, and the group provides individual briefings to the Secretary of Defense and more than three dozen other senior OSD and service leaders.
WHY IT MATTERS: There’s a lot that government can learn from the private sector. One way to transfer that knowledge is through immersive programs such as this one that give government employees a firsthand look at how industry tackles similar challenges.
Innovations That Mattered 2016
13
Business Intelligence
Better Data. Better Analytics. Learn why Information Builders gets the highest percentage of recommendations and the widest adoption rates of any analytics platform at informationbuilders.com/products/intelligence.
Data Integrity
Data Integration
informationbuilders.com WebFOCUS
14
iWay Software
Connect With Us
Omni
GovLoop Guide
industry spotlight
Adding More Value to Data with In-Document Analytics An Interview with Dr. Rado Kotorov, VP of Marketing Strategy and Chief Innovation Officer, Information Builders Government agencies have begun collecting and analyzing more and more data, with a goal of improving decision-making and ultimately bettering the lives of citizens. While many agencies are making great strides in data analytics, others are finding themselves with mountains of data, unsure how to make meaning of it all. To gain a better understanding of how government organizations can improve how they are analyzing data, GovLoop sat down with Dr. Rado Kotorov, Vice President of Marketing Strategy and Chief Innovation Officer at Information Builders, a leader in enterprise business intelligence, integration and data integrity software. Kotorov said that one of the bigger data problems government faces is that leaders are unsure how to make the massive and ever-increasing amount of data useful. Kotorov explained that the life cycle of data starts from the raw data, which turns into insight, which drives action. That’s not what many agencies are doing, though. “What you mainly see in government is that a lot of the data sources are being put out just as a raw material,” he explained.
have on hand or on premise. The server disconnect often leads to incomplete analysis because of the partial availability of the data.
report and without having to be connected to the server or cloud platform. As a result, anyone can analyze data on any device, in any location.
Mobile solutions are one way to overcome these challenges. “Mobile is facilitating the switch from gut-based decision making to fact-based decision making, so making analysis easy and consumable will drive the adoption of data and analytics for decision making,” Kotorov said.
While having the ability to access and analyze data anywhere, any time provides unparalleled value to government agencies, it also illuminates some inherent security concerns. The government is a large workforce with very different levels of security depending on what information is being dealt with.
Moving to a mobile solution where frontline employees can get accurate information quickly is critical for making good decisions in the field. Operational employees need an analytics solution that allows them to engage iteratively with the data systems in order to get the answers that they need. They also need a solution that allows them to properly analyze the information they are receiving.
Compared to the private sector, very few government agencies are working on turning raw data into insights. This is problematic as employees then must spend a good amount of time mining the data and making it usable.
Performing in-document analytics is one way end users can quickly interact with data systems. According to Kotorov, PDF documents are the largest vehicle for distributing information and reports among agencies. Unfortunately, these documents are not interactive in a way that fosters quick analysis. To overcome this challenge, Information Builders has created technology called analytic document format (ADF). ADF essentially imbeds analytics directly in a PDF document so the end user can sort, filter, and make calculations directly into the document.
Additionally, end users are often analyzing data that is not connected to a server or cloud platform. This creates a problem with analytics because the end user will only be able to analyze the data that they
In-document analytics also solves the issues associated with data disconnected from the server. The analytic component of the software is bound to the document so analytics can be done within the
Innovations That Mattered 2016
Vulnerability is increased when technology is scaled across departments as it becomes open to more users and access points. “As a result, it is very important to take a platform approach so you can make sure that all access points and their combinations are equally protected,” Kotorov said. Additionally, the security of the application is respected within the document, with the ability to encrypt the documents. Going into 2017, government agencies should focus on adopting more interactive analysis applications. Kotorov explained that technology has evolved to a point where information is widely accessible and now it becomes a question of approach and methodology to apply to these technologies to make information distribution more pervasive. By implementing a more interactive approach to data analytics, government employees will be able to quickly make data-driven decisions to better the lives of citizens.
15
IT modernization mavericks
meet the innovator Joanie Newhart Associate Administrator of Acquisition Workforce Programs Office of Management and Budget INNOVATION MARK:
TIPS FROM THE INNOVATOR:
FITARA mandated that CIOs authorize and approve IT contracts to make sure that new agency IT investments were more cost effective and efficient. For the past two years, the woman at the helm of FITARA’s governmentwide implementation, Joanie Newhart, has been changing what it means to be a tech leader in government. And in 2016, under Newhart’s leadership, 13 large agencies saw substantial improvements in their FITARA efforts.
Newhart has made clear that optimization of federal IT procurement is a top issue for her, and one that FITARA intends to address as well. However, she also acknowledges that thoroughly making the changes FITARA requires isn’t an easy task, so she suggests bringing employees together into a “coalition of the willing” and then drafting a cohesive plan to best implement FITARA at your agency.
By truly making FITARA a cooperative effort, Newhart is effectively working to minimize the federal spending on outdated, legacy IT systems. The federal government spends more than $80 billion a year to maintain legacy IT systems, and before FITARA, CIOs had relatively little oversight of agency IT happenings. One of the most crucial aspects of FITARA is collaboration and shared knowledge. But because government tends to be wary of change, Newhart realizes that FITARA can’t just be forced on employees. OMB and agency CIOs must work together on fostering change-friendly coalitions within their agencies to get everyone behind FITARA. And that’s what Newhart is committed to working on.
“I think the important part is having a sense for what your coalition of the willing is, and what their concerns are, and not neglecting those resisters to change,” Newhart said. All plans should have an inventory aspect to them. “A big part of FITARA is the inventory part. CIOs should have an overarching knowledge of what action is going on in their agency,” Newhart said. By fostering communication and relationships between CIOs and IT employees, and leading by example, Newhart is truly changing the federal IT game.
why it matters Although FITARA focuses heavily on agencies’ CIOs, other employees aren’t exempt from being involved. Newhart encourages agencywide communication and building a “team of people that should include some career employees who plan to stick around and see the changes through.”
1
16
With Newhart leading the FITARA revolution, agencies are now categorizing IT spending appropriately. With the guidance from her and OMB, agencies are becoming more successful in adhering to budgets and making better use of IT spending and procurement.
2
GovLoop Guide
One way agencies are responding to FITARA is through a program management office structure. Specifically, the Agriculture Department has created a team of 50 volunteers to tackle all the requirements FITARA brought on.
3
meet the innovation
meet the innovation
Fairfax County, VA., Police The Defense Department’s Events Application Innovation Advisory Board INNOVATION MARK:
INNOVATION MARK:
Citizens want to make sure their schools, streets and cities are safe. To that end, they want access to the criminal activity data the government is constantly collecting and storing. But making that information more publicly available and accessible can be tough. For instance, one of the largest counties in the nation, Fairfax County, Va., with more than 1 million residents, has a larger-than-average search surface for which to provide these services.
It should be obvious, but the private sector can learn a lot from the government and vice versa. But sharing best practices across the public/private divide is rare. DoD wants to change that. That’s why it started an advisory committee made up of private-sector leaders to help steer future innovation efforts.
Still, the Fairfax County Department of IT (DIT) has begun implementing a new Police Events Application that is a vast improvement on the past. Before switching to a database platform, DIT used an outdated relational database system that relied on multiple tools to search through the geographic information system (GIS) data, taking an average of 10 seconds to fulfill the simplest requests. The new application provides residents and county employees a more efficient way to perform location-based searches, such as seeing how many sex- or drug-related offenses have taken place in a specific neighborhood. This new system helps residents make full use of what their government can provide them.
WHY IT MATTERS: Using a more comprehensive search tool to comb through GIS data has echoing effects on agency employees and government constituents. Consistent onboarding for all employees is key.
As IoT and data-driven digital engagement become bigger aspects of the way government interacts with citizens, DoD has tapped a technology guru to head the advisory board. Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Google holding company Alphabet, has a unique perspective on technological innovations and the necessary mindset for encouraging innovation within agencies. The new Defense Innovation Advisory Board is modeled after the Defense Business Board, which was created in 2001. However, the Innovation Advisory Board will focus on mobile and cloud applications, in addition to data analytics.
WHY IT MATTERS: Even though government agencies can create innovation themselves, privatesector leaders’ opinions can’t be overlooked. Innovation advisory boards are a great way to press agencies to deliver in new and powerful ways, and to help keep organizations even more mission-centric.
Innovations That Mattered 2016
17
Veritas Veritas auto-classification auto-classification infuses infuses your your data data with with lifecycle lifecycle intelligence, intelligence, ensuring ensuring that that you you areare always always focused focused onon thethe information information that that matters matters most. most. veritas.com/infogov veritas.com/infogov
18
GovLoop Guide
Š2016 Veritas Technologies LLC. All rights reserved.
Š2016 Veritas Technologies LLC. All rights reserved.
Data Data Dilutes. Dilutes. INFORMATION INFORMATION ENRICHES. ENRICHES.
industry spotlight
Why Records Management Matters More Now Than Ever An interview with Bill Duffy, Information Intelligence Subject Matter Expert and Carleton Bowen, Cloud Practice Manager for Public Sector Strategic Programs, Veritas In an effort to improve records management transparency and efficiency, the White House unveiled the Presidential Memorandum – Managing Government Records back in 2011. The idea was that by 2019, all government agencies would manage all permanent electronic records in an electronic format. While agencies are making progress to a true digital state of records, many are still printing and filing through a manual process that is both tedious and insecure. The move to digital records effectively addresses both of these issues and also takes defining records out of the end user’s hands. The good news for agencies is that there are new technologies available today to help streamline, automate and secure records digitally. To gain a better understanding of how government organizations can improve their records management strategy, GovLoop sat down with Bill Duffy, Information Intelligence Subject Matter Expert, and Carleton Bowen, Cloud Practice Manager of Public Sector Strategic Programs at Veritas, a leader in data and information management solutions. To help agencies roll out their records management solutions more effectively, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) created a simplified email program that allows agencies to classify certain employees as Capstone employees or “top tier.” According to NARA, “The Capstone Approach offers agencies the option of using a more simplified and automated approach to managing email that allows for the categorization and scheduling of email based on the work and/or position of the email account owner.”
To aide Records and Information Managers responsible for implementing Capstone, Veritas created software called Veritas ™ Enterprise Vault that automates the classification process. “We created a taxonomy that helps define if an email is junk, if an email is a record, or if an email is personal,” explained Duffy. “With the ability to create this classification, you’re then able to follow NARA’s rules of record retention.” Several agencies already leverage Veritas’ technology and are seeing success. According to Duffy, one agency is “not only using Enterprise Vault for email, but now they’re using it for actual documents coming out of their SharePoint, file shares, and their various application systems,” said Duffy. Those documents are classified and stored in an archive for transparency purposes. “One agency has simplified what they’re doing. Rather than saying they’re not going to be too particular about retention policies, the agency established a universal retention policy of 10 years for all the documents that were classified the same way,” said Duffy. The tool also includes an intelligent application with the ability to automatically crawl the enterprise and identify documents that are potentially records and need to be archived. “Data Insights then cues those documents up for the archive for preservation purposes automatically,” explained Duffy. Data Insight also helps agencies improve security and access. The software follows all public key infrastructure (PKI) guidelines, encrypting data both at rest and in motion. In addition, Data Insight provides
Innovations That Mattered 2016
reporting to administrators to let them know two things: who has access to records and when which individuals actually access those records. The software allows record owners to shut down the access within those records at any time. However, what truly sets Enterprise Vault apart, is that it’s available as a FedRAMP authorized, software-as-a-service capability. “We are closely partnered with Microsoft, and we have partners that are leveraging the Microsoft cloud platform as the base infrastructure as a service capability,” said Bowen. “It’s a fully managed, turnkey service that is available today.” The software-as-a-service structure allows the federal government to quickly and affordably access and benefit from Veritas’ Enterprise Vault and eDiscovery solutions. “If agencies are looking to meet the Presidential Managing Government Records Memorandum goal by the end of 2019, they can use their own IT departments, system integrators, or leverage the FedRAMP authorized SaaS cloud offering using existing contracts to accomplish this kind of work,” said Bowen. This SaaS solution is set up as a model where the records management contract is scoped and scaled based on the customer’s requirements—number of users, compliance factors, accessibility and amount of data on the platform. All of these services help the government achieve its mission of providing additional transparency to citizens. “In order to realize a true open government, as well as meeting the transparency mandate, the government must have the appropriate systems for record keeping and discovery, and Veritas’ technology solutions can help them achieve that,” said Duffy.
19
aaS models implementers
meet the innovator Chris Cruz Deputy Director of Operations California Department of Technology INNOVATION MARK: Chris Cruz knows better than most what it’s like to be a provider and consumer of state IT services. For more than a decade he has served in various IT leadership capacities across California state agencies, including the Food and Agriculture and Health Care Services departments. In June 2015, Cruz took the reins as Chief Deputy Director of Operations at the California Department of Technology, where he is helping to forge a new technology roadmap, enhance existing cloud services and implement new cloud capabilities. CalCloud, which provides the state’s government agencies with on-demand access to a shared pool of compute resources, is key to California’s cloud migration. CalCloud serves about a dozen state agencies, but that number is growing. “The state has a cloud first policy that was published about a year and a half ago on looking at cloud in terms of Infrastructure-as-a-Service first, before you go out and pursue other third-party services,” Cruz said. “What the language of that policy basically says is that [agencies] need to look at CalCloud as an infrastruc-
ture service. Part of that process was that when you look at new implementations, when you look at new system integrations, you have to consider our cloud process. We have the organization go through a gap analysis first, and if it’s a good fit for CalCloud, then by all means [the Office of Technology Services] starts engaging the particular state customer, or county or city customer. If it’s found, based on requirements, that it isn’t a good fit for CalCloud, then they’re free to look at other third-party services.”
TIPS FROM THE INNOVATOR: “We brought in early users to adopt CalCloud, to talk about best practices and lessons learned,” Cruz said. “I brought in a change champion, or somebody from the business side. His name is Rob Schmidt; he’s the Director of the Executive Office at the Department of Food and Agriculture. I brought him in to get public sponsorship and for the direction of CalCloud. So we have a public advocate on the business side, [and] that’s helping us sell and talk about the services that we’re putting together. I found that created a lot of synergy when we did that earlier this year, when I came in this role. We have an end-user group now that’s been adopted — early providers to help us make recommendations on how we can continuously improve our services.”
why it matters Cruz and California are teaming up with other states to help bring the aaS model elsewhere. “We’ve been working with the state of Hawaii on adopting a new cloud implementation, a cloud policy and a cloud project,” he said.”
1
20
As part of the CalCloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering, Cruz’s team is also looking to provide increased storage, disaster recovery and backups, in terms of tape backups – a big issue with security.
2
GovLoop Guide
The technology isn’t the hardest part. “Sometimes the technology’s the easiest part of this equation,” Cruz said. “It’s the people and process part that you need to define and ensure that you have roles and responsibilities and set expectations for.”
3
meet the innovation USPTO Collaboration Tools INNOVATION MARK:
meet the innovation A Growing IT-as-a-Service Landscape INNOVATION MARK: Since 2003, DoD has competitively awarded more than $2 billion in on-demand contracts to modernize and consolidate a wide variety of server, storage and communication technologies for its data center operations worldwide. Numerous companies have on-demand services on GSA IT Schedule 70. Another government agency recently awarded $20 billion in contracts to 14 companies for on-demand IT services. In this evolving marketplace, more and more organizations are abandoning the traditional practice of owning and running hardware and software inside their operations. Moving to a consumption economics model allows an organization to retain full operational and financial control within the constraints of traditional contracting requirements and capital expenditure budgets. For many agencies today, though, the idea of ITaaS and cloud is still relatively new.
WHY IT MATTERS:
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has one of the most dispersed workforces in the federal government. In fact, the agency has nearly 11,000 teleworkers in 47 states. The agency also has regional offices in Dallas, Denver, San Jose and Detroit, in addition to its main office in Alexandria, Va. About 84 percent of all USPTO’s employees telework one to five days per week, compared to the governmentwide figure of less than 6 percent who telework at least once a week. How do they deal with it? Through a set of collaboration tools, technology and tactics. One of the biggest challenges for teleworkers is staying connected, both in professional and more personal senses. To maintain a culture of connected, engaged employees, USPTO uses a variety of collaboration tools such as instant messaging, document/desktop sharing and virtual meetings tools. In 2016, USPTO launched a monthly live streaming event series so employees from different areas, time zones and even continents could participate in learning and training opportunities. The programs range in topic from time goals to subject-matter expertise to humanity.
WHY IT MATTERS: “Employees and managers can leverage collaboration tools to create an inclusive, dynamic team environment,” said Danette Campbell, Director of USPTO’s Telework Program Office. “These tools allow employees to be successful when they are working from an on-campus office or at an alternate location.”
A new way of doing business, ITaaS for cloud adoption is growing rapidly in government, but it still faces challenges. Some agencies do a great job of really having pure ITaaS and cloud services, but most are struggling with integrating them with legacy systems.
Innovations That Mattered 2016
21
THERE’S NEVER BEEN
A BETTER
TIME to worry less and innovate more
cisco.com/neverbetter
©2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
22
GovLoop Guide
industry spotlight
Adopting a Secure Digital Business Model at Your Agency An interview with Raj Rana, Director of Federal Systems Engineering, Cisco In the past few years your agency has probably undergone some efforts to modernize and secure your infrastructure. Whether you’ve upgraded networks, updated servers, or started moving systems and data to the cloud, it’s likely that your agency’s IT department is working hard to improve your cybersecurity posture. However, funding limitations may only allow piecemeal updates, allowing improvements for certain aspects of IT infrastructure, and making it easy for critical upgrades to fall through the cracks. Adopting a secure digital business model is one way that agencies can ensure they’re taking a holistic approach to driving agility and mitigating risk. To learn how agencies can more acutely move from a traditional model of business to a secure business architecture, GovLoop sat down with Raj Rana, Director of Federal Systems Engineering at Cisco, a leader in networking and cybersecurity. The traditional business model that many agencies follow reflects the alignment of their internal organizations, Rana said. Despite a strategic plan at the executive level, many organizations drive their modernization efforts through siloed execution. The digital business model is a framework that agencies can adopt to drive greater agility, while preparing their infrastructure for a digital future. “The concept of secure digital business recognizes that IT continues to expand into the mission space, and allows IT to grow, regardless of the technological mission requirements,” Rana explained. By reassessing how IT is being used, your organization can begin developing a holistic approach that effectively helps drive your agency’s mission. When taking
something that is core to your mission and modernizing it, security and infrastructure implications are critical. As the use of sensors continue to expand, whether in vehicles for agencies like the U.S. Postal Services, or out to the flight lines of an Air Force base, the amount of data being created, transmitted and stored across government IT infrastructures is growing at a historic rate. Many of these data sources are being used to influence or drive decision matrices. Therefore, the need to secure communications is critical, to ensure that the data they provide is valid. Additionally, the number of sensors on the grid expands potential threat vectors, rendering traditional methods of network monitoring invalid. It is necessary that digitization, security, and a supported infrastructure work together to foster modernization. With increased modernization, agencies are also confronted with an increase in the sensors driving data streams coming into the IT department. Consequently, standards must evolve alongside the technology in order for agencies to make meaning from the data and facilitate digitization. As the industry works to define a data standard, Rana explained that Cisco advocates an open approach for both data and transport. This means that Cisco standards will support multiple transport standards, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LoRaWAN or cellular and work to normalize data either at the edge of the fabric, or at the core. This allows Cisco to support all networks at a level of analysis that gets the same value from disparate data streams, as well as ensure that analytics can be conducted where it provides the most value.
Innovations That Mattered 2016
Automation is a critical component of modernization. “Overall, automation is critical, in order to reduce operational issues, such as typographical errors, or missed configurations. However, at the next level of automation we are looking to drive greater awareness of the devices connecting to the network, thereby allowing the network to drive self-segmentation, rather than the network admin,” Rana said. Employing automation efforts allows agencies to standardize more quickly, foster agility in an environment of complexity and allow IT to shift from operations to the mission. Ultimately, Cisco is looking to evolve the security conversation from point solutions to a secure and integrated architecture that supports and reinforces itself. ‘Security Everywhere’ is Cisco’s philosophy that recognizes that security is more of a discipline and a mindset than it is a product. This doesn’t mean that products aren’t necessary but rather than relying on them alone, the model integrates security across the infrastructure, creating a protection profile analogous to an immune response. If an incident occurs in any point of the infrastructure, the entire environment is inoculated. As agencies move forward in implementing a secure digital business architecture, it is crucial to remember that doing so is a journey not a one-stop solution. Looking forward, Cisco is dedicated to partnering with government IT employees to securely drive agility. “Driving sustained innovation and security is significantly complicated without an integrated architecture,” Rana concluded, “and industry has a role in helping the government solve that problem.”
23
diversity + inclusion promoters 24
meet the innovator Boston Mayor’s Office of Women’s Advancement INNOVATION MARK: Mayor Marty Walsh’s primary objective is to increase the quality of life for women in Boston. That’s why he established the Office of Women’s Advancement in 2014, explained its Advancement Executive Director, Megan Costello. The Mayor’s Office is taking a multifaceted approach to achieve those goals and bridge the gender gap in Boston. For instance, the team has gotten 170 companies within the city to sign the Boston Women’s Compact, a commitment to disclose wage information and decrease gender pay disparities. The office also worked with the American Association of University Women to host multiple salary negotiation workshops for female professionals. Their goal is to educate 85,000 women over five years, but after the first year, they’ve already seen success. One workshop attendee used her new skills to secure a 40 percent raise.
But the team is also focusing on non-wage issues that affect women. This year, the team has sought to reduce sex trafficking. They’re not only raising awareness around the issue, but also expanding housing options for trafficking survivors and recruiting male allies to discourage and decrease the demand for sex workers. Other issues, such as expanding childcare options and increasing diversity within City Hall itself, are also on the office’s radar.
TIP FROM THE INNOVATOR: When people think of government, they often think of legislation and policy as its primary objectives. But change requires more than directives. “It’s really important that government play a role in changing attitudes,” Costello said. “Mayor Walsh has decided to take a multipronged approach to closing the gender wage gap to both address legislation and policy and also culture and human behavior.”
why it matters Especially at the end of an election year, national priorities and legislation are in flux. But local governments can keep the momentum during transitions. “The reality is that mayors are the ones that can make things happen,” Costello said. “It’s a matter of prioritizing and deciding that this is where our investments are going to be and then making it happen. That’s what I love about local government.”
1
The Office of Women’s Advancement takes a holistic approach to gender issues, including men and male allies wherever possible. “We can’t just frame these things as ‘women’s issues’ or to see them as separate from the greater good. We have to ensure that we are intentional and inclusive when it comes to gender diversity in all areas,” Costello said.
2
GovLoop Guide
Government can’t do it alone. Costello explained that private-sector partners are necessary to help buffer limited resources and to spread their initiatives into the community. That’s why projects like the Boston Women’s Compact are so vital to their work.
3
meet the innovation NASA’s Women + Girls Initiative INNOVATION MARK: At NASA, female scientists account for only 28 percent of their workforce and female engineers only 23 percent. The agency’s leaders recognize that’s a problem. “Diversity equals excellence, and excellence demands that we have diversity,” said Deputy Administrator Dava Newman. To attract more women to NASA, and to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields at large, the agency created the Women and Girls Initiative. The outreach program is multifaceted, attempting to use multiple channels and resources to bridge the gender gap. The initiative’s website offers numerous educational resources for women interested in NASA roles. The portal also curates opportunities for women to become involved in NASA projects in volunteer, partner or employed capacities. The program also targets young girls, primarily of middle school age, to foster early interest in STEM fields. They created a virtual mentoring project through which girls can apply to be directly connected with women in STEM fields. And recognizing that a critical component of encouraging girls is offering positive role models, the program also highlights successful women who have worked or are currently working in the aerospace industry.
WHY IT MATTERS: Up until fifth grade, girls are just as interested in STEM fields as their male counterparts, but something changes between fifth and sixth grades. With the dedicated Women and Girls Initiative, NASA is doing its part to reverse the trend.
meet the innovation New York’s Paid Parental Leave INNOVATION MARK: In March 2016, the New York State Legislature finalized a budget deal mandating paid family leave time for nearly all of its state employees. Some questioned if this move was truly revolutionary. Short answer? Yes, it was. It’s important to understand that although the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) offers some provisions for new parents, they aren’t anywhere close to what New York is now offering. FMLA provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave and only at large companies. This state policy offers paid leave – up to 67 percent of the state average weekly wage – to almost all workers, including those at small businesses and government organizations. But more than just being the newest parental leave policy, the bill’s passage calls attention to the crucial importance of paid leave for new parents. Although the benefits may seem obvious to some, there are misconceptions that have prevented paid family leave policies from passing on a more widespread scale. Those include ideas that they hurt organizations’ profitability or the economy at large.
WHY IT MATTERS: Although national legislation on paid parental leave is still lacking, state and local governments can set a critical example to both the public and private sectors by offering these benefits.
Innovations That Mattered 2016
25
Fast Track Digital Business
Public Sector IT solutions designed to optimize the digital public sector — Bring IT to Life at bmc.com/publicsector
© Copyright 2016 BMC Software, Inc.
26
GovLoop Guide
industry spotlight
Aligning Legacy Systems & Innovation An interview with Herb VanHook, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Strategy, BMC Software The federal government is trying to modernize its technology infrastructure to meet the demands for greater cybersecurity, boost digital services, improve efficiencies and reduce costs. President Barack Obama proposed an increase in the 2017 federal government’s IT budget, including $3 billion more that would be used to replace legacy systems that are costly to maintain and increasingly becoming a cybersecurity risk. The Government Accountability Office reported that more than 75 percent of an agency’s IT infrastructure is considered a legacy system. So how do agencies modernize? To gain a better understanding of how government organizations are adapting to a changing technological landscape, GovLoop met with Herb VanHook, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Strategy at BMC, a company that provides innovative software solutions to accelerate digital transformation. “Agencies want to do things faster and at a higher velocity, but with greater efficiency and with reduced risk,” said VanHook. “As a result of these drivers, pursuing investments in next generation technologies is a primary approach.” However, agencies are not looking to evolve on their own. Both the civilian and defense agencies are seeking more industry partners. “Whether they are technology vendors or systems integrators, agencies are looking to the private sector to help them leverage these new digital capabilities and really modernize the delivery of government services,” said VanHook. This change is evident in many of the new request for proposals (RFPs) that have come out in the last year. One example is the RFP that the Defense Department sent out for its cloud-services portfolio called MilCloud 2. The original MilCloud request was an entity that was owned and operated by the Defense
Information Systems Agency (DISA). The second version, however, requested to have more services owned and operated by a vendor. “The government is very cognizant of what’s going on with emerging technologies in the commercial sector, and wants to step up its capabilities to match,” said VanHook. “In order to do that agencies are seeking solutions, logistics and operations from vendors and integrators.” With cybersecurity awareness increasing, agencies want to move beyond managing traditional security access methods like standard identification cards or Common Access Cards. They also want to incorporate more biometric-based technologies such as thumbprints or retina scans to increase access and data protection. Trusted vendors can also help them to meet these objectives. However, adding resources for cybersecurity can be difficult in these constrained budget times. VanHook says agencies need to consider the full scope of information security options and emerging technology options. In addition to next generation access solutions, agencies should also be considering technologies that automate security processes, as well as new data analytics capabilities that tackle threat detection, vulnerability awareness and incident response.
TRANSFORM FROM OLD TO NEW WHILE STRENGTHENING SECURITY To facilitate this transformation from legacy systems to new technologies there needs to be a bridge between the old and new systems. Creating this bridge is where BMC has found the most success for its federal partners. “Even though we talk about the rapid rate of cloud adoption, moving away from legacy systems takes a long time. Our government customers look to BMC to help them manage Innovations That Mattered 2016
the existing IT world, as well as the next generation IT world,” said VanHook. BMC SecOps solutions sit at the intersection between security teams and IT operations teams. “We’ve been delivering tremendous new capabilities around optimizing the workflow that goes on between those two teams while enabling the addition of critical context to vulnerability awareness and remediation. The exposures that security teams find must be mitigated by what the operation teams can do in terms of their remediation practices and technologies,” said VanHook. BMC SecOps Solutions help customers master that intersection point between identification of the issues and deploying corrections through a higher degree of visibility and powerful automation. These capabilities enable agencies to improve their overall security posture by closing down vulnerabilities and handling exposures in a crisis situation faster, and by enabling prioritization of mitigation options. In addition, the BMC solution helps agencies define and refine their processes and achieve the appropriate levels of compliance, whether it’s FISMA, NIST or continuous data monitoring. Compliance will continue to be paramount for agencies, especially as they expand into new arenas. “One of the big changes that will happen over the next few years is leveraging enhanced capabilities for analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and cognitive data,” said VanHook. “At BMC we want to be on the leading edge, so we are investing in these emerging technologies and in solutions to help agencies evolve. Whether it is optimization for cost, understanding performance, or managing compliance and security requirements of those environments, we continue to adapt our solutions to meet these needs.”
27
leadership + development all-stars 28
meet the innovator Sean Corbett Program Manager Federal Aviation Administration INNOVATION MARK: The Leaders Teaching Leaders (LTL) program that Corbett launched at FAA works to provide learning and development programs to managers, and it has seen a fair amount of success despite common agency challenges to leadership innovation programs. LTL is a three-day course that offers face-to-face trainings on topics such as adaptive leadership, facilitation, anti-bullying and performance management. Aimed at senior managers, LTL promotes a culture that values ongoing career development through a model that provides a range and depth of leadership skills needed for managerial success. Corbett has been able to overcome challenges such as training managers across a large enterprise, keeping program costs low and ensuring senior manager buy-in to put on successful LTL trainings since piloting the program in 2015. In fiscal 2016, 2,744 FAA
managers participated in LTL. Corbett’s efforts to spearhead leadership innovation across FAA have allowed participating managers to develop leadership and professional competencies, holistically transforming FAA’s leadership style and capabilities.
TIPS FROM THE INNOVATOR: Corbett and his team used a process of planning, prepping, learning and evaluating in implementing LTL. The process included developing a curriculum that prepared facilitators to administer the program and providing frequent program updates from FAA leaders to other agency leaders and employees. Additionally, Corbett recommended leveraging executive sponsorship, identifying a format that works for your organization, institutionalizing the experience and creating a leadership framework that permeates through training topics.
why it matters FAA’s LTL program provides leadership and management development up and down the organization. The program facilitates discussion sessions twice a year with participating management teams, allowing senior leaders to implement the trainings flexibly and foster continuous engagement between senior leaders and their teams.
1
The program ultimately aims to embed a culture of learning within local facilities. The sessions take place at managers’ local offices and work to build trust between leaders and their employees by opening up communication and collaboration. Additionally, the agency’s budget covers the sessions’ costs, fostering flexibility and senior managers’ buy-in.
2
GovLoop Guide
Corbett emphasized that the messaging and content of LTL sessions should be timely, relevant and consistent enterprisewide. Including the leadership’s vision in messaging to other managers is key to creating accountability and increased investment across the agency.
3
meet the innovation
meet the innovator
Reverse Mentoring at the Bureau of Education + Counsel Affairs
Nicole Bradstreet
INNOVATION MARK: Many senior-level employees are often quick to dismiss the professional development value that entry-level employees can bring to the workforce. However, professional development is a two-way street, and all employees can add value to their workplace. The State Department’s Bureau of Education and Counsel Affairs acknowledges this in its newly enhanced reverse mentoring program. The bureau’s Kevin Barta, Director of Digital Communications, and Megan Elizabeth Soule, a Public Affairs intern, are two State employees reaping the benefits of the nontraditional work relationship. Soule was able to teach Barta about cloud technology while he was able to review her resume. Additionally, Soule had Adobe expertise that she used to teach a class of 30 State employees about the product. Had Soule not had the opportunity to impart her skills to more senior employees, there would still be a relatively large digital knowledge gap at the agency. Reverse mentoring programs are particularly timely as many agencies continue their digital transformations. In particular, junior employees are generally more knowledgeable about technological innovations and through these relationships are able to teach more senior employees what they need to know as modernization processes move forward.
WHY IT MATTERS: You are never too senior to learn and you are never too junior to teach. Embrace all workplace relationships with an open mind in order to most effectively grow your skill set as a public servant.
Senior Project Manager Henry M. Jackson Foundation assigned to the Center for Global Health Engagement at the Uniformed Services University, a DoD Entity INNOVATION MARK: As a millennial, Bradstreet brings a distinctive perspective to innovation in government. Although her team is largely made up of millennials with progressive ideas, Bradstreet emphasized that some aspects of the organization are more resistant to change. For some background, the Center for Global Health Engagement is a new institution at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. The center aims to leverage academics, scholarship and subject-matter expertise from across the university to provide reach-back support, resource advocacy, capability development and operational support for DoD’s Global Health Engagement enterprise. The center recently hired a new Director who is excited to bring an innovative mindset to the workplace. “He is a good example of someone who wants to push things forward and is really a breath of fresh air and a sign of good things to come,” Bradstreet said. With the help of supportive leaders, Bradstreet has worked to chip away at the center’s rigid culture. For example, she is working to modify how it evaluates engagement projects. Bradstreet and her team revamped the evaluation process in order to effectively improve and assess the efficacy of global health initiatives. Additionally, Bradstreet is working to dispel the rumor that public servants, especially millennials, aren’t able to work on projects they are passionate about. She recently traveled to Ghana to work on disaster preparedness training that affected 12 West African countries.
WHY IT MATTERS: Millennials can act as a catalyst for innovation within their organization, but it is crucial that they are working alongside agency leaders to do so.
Innovations That Mattered 2016
29
Once Once upon upon a a time, time, this this was was the the fastest fastest way way to to do do government government business. business.
Those days are over. Those days are over. We’ve come a long way since the days of carrier We’ve come a long way since the days of carrier pigeons, and the way governments are run should pigeons, and the way governments are run should reflect that. Alfresco modernizes government business reflect that. Alfresco modernizes government business with automated content, process and information with automated content, process and information management solutions that create intelligence and management solutions that create intelligence and deliver value for employees and citizens. deliver value for employees and citizens.
Welcome Welcome to to Now. Now.
Alfresco delivers integrated content & process Alfresco delivers integrated content & process management solutions including: management solutions including:
Records Management Records Management
Task Management Task Management
FOIA Management FOIA Management
Case Management Case Management
To learn more about our government business To learn more about our government business solutions visit us at alfresco.com. solutions visit us at alfresco.com. 30
GovLoop Guide
industry spotlight
Making ECM a Priority An Interview with Austin Adams, Vice President, Public Sector, Alfresco As technology continues to evolve, government agencies are having to confront the inadequacies of their legacy systems. However, the majority of the federal IT budget is dedicated to maintaining legacy IT investments. This leaves few funds to develop or modernize critical new technology. But without updated systems, organizations are at risk for cyberattacks and inefficient processes. In order to better understand how government can effectively update their legacy systems in the face of budget constraints, GovLoop sat down with Austin Adams, Vice President of the Public Sector at Alfresco, an open platform for business software. Adams explained that there are a few main roadblocks to updating legacy applications and systems. Many of them are written in outdated languages, exist behind closed-source code, and are on platforms that are decades old and lack the flexibility to embrace open standards and cloud functionality. Additionally, complete modernization requires the ability to upgrade applications and functionality in real time as your agencies requirements change. Despite these challenges, agencies must start developing plans to update applications and modernize legacy systems. “Federal CIO, Tony Scott recently called for agencies to update enterprise technology roadmaps, identify and prioritize key systems, and come up with plans to move those systems to the cloud or other secure, modern platforms,” Adams explained. Identifying where to start with modernization efforts can be a challenging task. But, content management system modernization is a low-hanging fruit project that can yield immediate results and help agencies comply with this new policy. Doing so allows organizations to improve their cyber posture, save money, and become more agile.
Antiquated content management systems make agencies extremely vulnerable to cyberattacks. “Every agency we’ve met over the past few years has systems holding invaluable content in brittle and inflexible content management systems,” Adams said. “This year, $19 billion dollars of the federal budget will be spent fighting cybercrime. Yet legacy government content management systems are typically outdated IT solutions with known vulnerabilities.” This is problematic because the majority of government data breaches are due to accidental data spillage. Adams underscored that modern content management solutions aim to eliminate this issue by securing data at the source through intelligent user access control and monitoring, rule-based auto-classification, and encryption both in transit and at rest. Additionally, legacy content management systems severely hamper agencies’ productivity and their ability to meet their mission. Government employees cannot perform their duties to the best of their abilities if they are struggling to find information that is kept in multiple, siloed repositories. Adams explained that this can lead to a drop in morale, agency recruitment, and an inability to deliver services to citizens and execute the overall agency mission. Modernizing content management systems can help agencies automate previously cumbersome processes. Moving out of the age of fax machines and paper documents and into the digital era allows employees to more efficiently complete tasks and more effectively meet their constituents’ needs. Additionally, the new Gartner Magic Quadrant for enterprise content management (ECM) underscores the shift in organizational thinking away from traditional information storage solutions to content services and plat
Innovations That Mattered 2016
form applications that facilitate the use and sharing of information. Regardless of the security and agility benefits, many agencies are still hesitant to modernize legacy content management systems because of the perceived cost. However, these solutions can be modernized and deployed to the cloud for less than the yearly cost of keeping the old systems running. The U.S. Navy will save tens of millions of dollars a year by modernizing their task management systems – which include content and records management - with Alfresco. The new system, known as DON TRACKER, will consolidate 22 legacy systems onto a single platform and will allow the Navy to automate processes and efficiently manage, search and use petabytes of information. “Every agency we have talked to has at least three or as many as three dozen legacy content management systems,” Adams underscored. By prioritizing those systems for modernization, consolidation, and migration to the cloud, every one of those agencies could yield massive year-on-year cost savings. While they can be extensive, content management modernization projects represent the holy grail of IT modernization as it essentially pays for itself within one year. In order to enhance security and operational efficiency, it is critical that government agencies begin to explore and identify ways to implement modernization efforts. “There is an obligation to ensure that systems used to hold constituent information are secure, support efforts to deliver on the mission, and make the best use of taxpayer dollars,” Adams explained. Modern technologies like Alfresco represent a rare opportunity to positively change the way government operates, protect critical data at the source and save millions of dollars. For those reasons, legacy content management should be a top modernization priority.
31
citizen engagement enhancers 32
meet the innovator Alan Vanderberg Administrator Ottawa County, MI INNOVATION MARK: To take Ottawa County’s citizen engagement to the next level, Vanderberg and his team drew on the help of an unexpected source: Disney. It all started when Vanderberg’s team decided to create a common understanding and expectation of what citizen engagement and customer service should mean. As part of employee training, they applied the “4Cs” initiative: communication, customer service, creativity and cultural intelligence. The 4Cs initiative was inspired by the book “The Disney Way,” which discusses management and customer service secrets plus best practices at Disney. To Vanderberg’s luck, the authors, Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson, happened to live in Ottawa County. Capodagli then worked with leaders representing the county’s 33 areas to develop consensus on a customer service vision, story and codes of conduct. This led to the creation of a customer service team to help keep training concepts alive and to
be the catalyst for continuing service improvements. The team implemented the Quarterly Outstanding Customer Service Awards Program in which citizens, businesses or other employees can nominate outstanding customer service. The response has been overwhelming, with dozens of nominations coming from citizens and businesses for employees from a wide range of county service provision areas.
TIPS FROM THE INNOVATOR: “It is amazing that while we get immersed in complex management and governmental systems, the most powerful engagement approach is the simplest: Treat others the way you would like you or your family to be treated,” Vanderberg said. For example, everyone thinks receiving a speeding ticket has to be a miserable experience. But more than 15 deputies who had given tickets in Ottawa County received nominations from private citizens for the Quarterly Outstanding Customer Service Award. With the right approach, even such a negative situation can be turned into a positive government/ citizen interaction.
why it matters Vanderberg realized that government is accountable to its citizens on several levels. They include legal standards that the government must adhere to and how agencies spend money to provide services. Being accountable to citizens by providing high quality services is critical to better citizen engagement, especially since government is the monopoly of its services.
1
In training more than 900 people, Vanderberg and his team used the foundations of Disney customer service such as Disney storyboarding, which allows people to anonymously get their ideas out quickly and rank what needs to be improved.
2
GovLoop Guide
Vanderberg is also sharing his successes with neighboring counties in an effort to distribute best practices and improve information sharing.
3
meet the innovation ATF Open Data INNOVATION MARK:
meet the innovation San Rafael, CA’s Interactive Website INNOVATION MARK: San Rafael, Calif., officials are hoping to redesign the city’s web presence with some help from the public – and improve citizen engagement in the process. By launching a beta version of the overhauled web portal before rolling out a full version, the city aims to develop new citizen relationship management software on the back end. “I really saw the website as being critical to the rest of our digital services,” said Rebecca Woodbury, Senior Management Analyst for the city and leader of its digital overhaul. “If we don’t have a place for people to find them, why bother having them at all?” Woodbury felt the old website resulted in “a lot more phone calls and a lot of time getting information to individual people,” frustrating city workers and residents. This was coupled with the fact that employees were generally corresponding with constituents via email or using outdated tools such as an online comment form “that looks like it was designed in 1997.” So Woodbury saw plenty of room for change on the front and back ends. As the San Rafael team builds the new website, they hope to solicit feedback from the community along the way in order to make any necessary changes or improvements as they go.
WHY IT MATTERS: The ultimate goal is that the redesign and the iterative process prove as rewarding as similar efforts did for major cities like Boston and New York. With the new website, San Rafael hopes to offer a seamless, easy-touse interface for better citizen engagement.
For decades, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released data on paper or in a static electronic format, such as a PDF file. But bureau officials realized that information in a static file format did not allow the firearms industry or the public to easily analyze data or make it more comprehensible. The need to build greater faith in the agency led ATF to move toward greater data transparency, accessibility and awareness. It doesn’t take more than a cursory look at the evening news to understand why ATF data on firearms licenses, trace recoveries and types of firearm crime is some of the most in demand among government information. ATF is also one of the most heavily regulated agencies in terms of what information it can release. This oversight and the sensitive nature of portions of ATF’s mission create a seemingly endless stream of Freedom of Information Act requests for the agency. To achieve their goals of greater data transparency, ATF built an application programming interface (API) in 2013 that transformed paper and static electronic documents into an open data website. This made their data more accessible and consumable for the general public. This release meant ATF was the first agency inside the Justice Department to join the open data movement, leading the way for broader cultural change with DoJ and citizen participation.
WHY IT MATTERS: ATF information can help policy analysts on all sides of the issues, law enforcement officials and industry experts. To make the next iteration of the open data website available to an even larger portion of the public, the bureau’s newest open data portal will offer better search capabilities, readyto-consume reports and graphs, and a more user-friendly experience.
Innovations That Mattered 2016
33
BIG DATA ANALYTICS
CLOUD COMPUTING
CYBER SECURITY
DATA CENTER MODERNIZATION
MOBILITY & END USER COMPUTING
NETWORK MODERNIZATION
STREAMLINED IT, SO AGENCIES CAN SUCCEED Government Acquisitions, Inc. (GAI), a solutions provider with 25+ years of experience, is proud to be a NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V contract holder in Groups B (Service-Disabled VeteranOwned Small Business) and C (Small Business). SEWP V gives agencies rapid access to the latest technologies. It empowers customer IT leadership to efficiently sustain their current investment in desktop, portable, and server infrastructure while enabling an agile path to cloud-based services. Modernize. Optimize. Deliver.
Dedicated DNA. Mission Mindset. Learn More about GAI’s SEWP V Contracts: http://gov-acq.com/contracts/nasa-sewp-vcontract #NNG15SD23B (Group B) #NNG15SC78B (Group C) For information and quote requests: Email SEWP@gov-acq.com or call (513) 721-8700
34
GovLoop Guide
industry spotlight
Enhancing Cybersecurity Through Automation An Interview with Prem Jadhwani, Chief Technology Officer, Government Acquisitions, Inc. (GAI) The cybersecurity landscape is rapidly changing. As nefarious actors get more sophisticated with their methods, government organizations must develop more effective ways to counter infiltrations. However, having the capacity to counter cyberthreats is difficult when an organization is burdened by legacy systems. While hackers are moving more rapidly towards innovative ways to infiltrate systems and extract data, government agencies are still slow to respond because they lack the necessary tools with their legacy systems. This means that more than ever, public sector organizations need to work towards system upgrades to prevent and better counter cyberattacks. In order to understand how government can upgrade its legacy systems, GovLoop sat down with Prem Jadhwani, Chief Technology Officer at Government Acquisitions, Inc. (GAI), a leading technology solutions provider for federal government. A key takeaway? The biggest hurdle government must overcome is manual systems. “Automation is key,” Jadhwani explained. “You cannot sit and counter attacks manually, you have to leverage things like machine learning, natural language processing, and big data analytics.” Embracing these new solutions has allowed agencies to operate more holistically and efficiently, taking processes that used to be protracted and turning them into very rapid responses. Additionally, moving from legacy systems to automated and updated processes gives organizations end-to-end visualization on
a single dashboard, allowing decisions to be made accurately and efficiently. Another solution is using a hybrid cloud. Jadhwani explained that agencies have typically been putting their data in private clouds because of perceived security issues with public cloud platforms. “But for the first time in the past year or so, we’ve seen government customers moving some data to the public cloud while still wanting to utilize the private cloud,” he said. This shift stems from the flexibility, scalability, cost effectiveness, and agility to respond to threats that the hybrid cloud models provide. From a security perspective, a hybrid cloud allows agencies more control over how and where their data is secured. “For a private cloud, it is up to the solution provider and the government customer to ensure that all the security controls are in place, but with a public cloud, the cloud service provider will ensure that they are fully compliant with security controls.” This risk management framework, builds security into cloud solutions, guaranteeing that agency data is secure no matter where it is stored. Like hybrid cloud solutions, hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) also works to reduce hardware while maintaining security. HCI is a scalable and adaptable datacenter architecture that enables security through consolidation. In legacy systems, hardware is comprised of three tiers: server, storage and hypervisor. However, each of these components come from three different vendors. This means the three layers cannot talk to each other and the infrastructure isn’t scalable.
Innovations That Mattered 2016
Hyperconverged infrastructure integrates the three tiers and makes them scalable, meaning the agency is not limited by the original hardware that they purchased. “You can start with three loads and keep adding more depending on your workload,” he explained. “But it is a pay as you go model so as you add more data to the cloud you just pay for that data.” As agencies scale out more and more, it enables the hybrid cloud by fostering software multitenancy and simplicity in both public and private cloud platforms. This manages the infrastructure securely allowing the government customer to focus more on the mission rather than worrying about how they are going to manage different layers of infrastructure. In order to enable these solutions, GAI works to bring together service providers and partners to provide secure and scalable solutions to government agencies. For example, GAI’s Hyper Converged Analytics Platform, or HyperCap, brings together industry partners to automate systems scanning and provide agency partners with a fully-validated end-to-end data analytics solution for security operations. Looking forward, Jadhwani emphasized that these advancements will continue to be widely adopted. “There is going to be a lot of money spent on tech refresh because agencies are sitting on very outdated infrastructure,” he said. Overcoming these obstacles that stem from outdated infrastructure is key to preventing future cyberattacks.
35
procurement powerhouses
meet the innovator James Collins Chief Information Officer State of Delaware INNOVATION MARK: As head of the Delaware Department of Technology, Collins was responsible for the implementation of the department’s cloud-based, Software-as-a-Service solution that allows employees to track IT assets and applications. The cloud implementation has allowed the state more seamless interaction with systems wherever they are and has promoted increased communication enterprisewide. Although procuring the technology has fostered efficient modernization in Delaware, Collins made the biggest impact by developing best practices for the procurement process. He and his team created a terms and conditions document that acts as a roadmap for agencies considering a move to the cloud. “Potential vendors have to agree to our terms and conditions in order for state information to be hosted in their environment. If a vendor can’t agree to our terms, we can’t contract with them,” Collins explained.
The terms that vendors must agree to include encrypting data, housing the data in the continental United States, keeping ownership of the data with the state and having an exit plan. The latter is particularly important because “one of the biggest risks related to moving to a cloud environment is the ability to leave the contract,” Collins said. Guaranteeing that the language in the contract is proprietary to the state and not the vendor ensures that the data is still yours even when you switch systems.
TIPS FROM THE INNOVATOR: No matter what your agency is using cloud services for, it is necessary to be clear about who owns the data. “We specify in our contracts who owns the data, and it is very explicit in our terms and conditions that the data belongs to the state,” Collins said. This is critical because the system contains sensitive data about the state’s IT systems and personally identifiable information, and must be explicitly secured as a result.
why it matters Taking a risk-based stance during the procurement process can save you a lot of pain in the long run. Collins said that creating terms and conditions documents before you start a relationship with a vendor ensures that vendors are clear about who owns the data, where it is stored and how it is secured.
1
36
Do as much research as you can before you jump into a contract with a cloud provider. Collins stressed it is important to know the logistics about a vendor’s infrastructure policies and practices. For example, you want to know if a provider is FedRAMP-certified before you sign the contract.
2
GovLoop Guide
As you start shopping for providers, understand and map out the ongoing cost commitment. To do this, Collins suggested creating price caps that keep costs relatively flat over time even if adoption costs increase.
3
meet the innovation Defense Acquisition Visibility Environment INNOVATION MARK: Data is meaningless without analytics. However, advanced analytics often don’t mix well with outdated legacy systems. As a result, DoD has worked to replace its legacy acquisition system with an updated one that has increased analytics capacity. The Defense Acquisition Visibility Environment (DAVE) is an acquisition reporting system that emphasizes APIs, accessibility and easily customized analytics. DAVE works to reform acquisition in the areas of data stewardship, data access and data analysis. These reforms allow for more accountability and a single intuitive database for all data and analysis that adds perspective and meaning to data use. DAVE is a necessary next step in IT modernization, but it also is a critical innovation in the face of a decreasing budget; the fiscal 2017 budget cuts acquisition by more than $8.5 billion. Although it allocates more than $10 million to help DoD fully implement DAVE, the agency must continue to be mindful and find more efficient uses of acquisition.
WHY IT MATTERS: DAVE is not a brand-new framework. Rather, it reforms acquisition to leverage things outside DoD’s ecosystem to better understand and manage acquisition efforts.
meet the innovator Dawn Brown, Procurement Analyst Environmental Protection Agency INNOVATION MARK: Once an agency decides to start using data analytics tools, it must then decide whether it will develop those capabilities in-house or through cloud-based, open source or custom-built models. The culture of the agency will help dictate which direction an organization will go, Brown said. First, agencies must focus on the outcomes they want to achieve with data analytics tools. At EPA, one tool won’t be the right one to fix needs across the entire department. Instead of trying to identify a cure-all tool, EPA is working to enable internal staff to be proficient across tools. Second, Brown underscored the importance of being mindful of hidden costs in open source technologies. These mostly revolve around the manpower it takes to maintain an open source toolset’s infrastructure after it is acquired, and each agency should be aware of how comfortable their team is with maintaining the infrastructure. Finally, an agency’s mission must dictate the data analytics tools it chooses. At EPA, teams are taking on projects that require everything from large-scale data crunching to visualization of data. Brown explained that the agency relies on a community of practice that identifies analytics opportunities agencywide.
WHY IT MATTERS: If an agency focuses on the outcomes, keeps hidden costs in mind and lets their mission dictate the tools they choose, the data analytics tools that are best for the organization will be clear.
Innovations That Mattered 2016
37
PageWide Pro Incredible speed. Incredible value. A whole new way to print.
hp.com/go/pagewidebusiness
HP PageWide Pro 477dn
Lowest total cost
Get value you can depend on. HP PageWide Pro delivers the lowest cost of ownership in its class.
Unrivaled print speed
Best-in-class speed of up to 55 pages per minute.
Up to 10,000 pages per cartridge Rely on Original HP PageWide highyield cartridges to deliver more highquality, fade-resistant prints.
© 2016 HP Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. Lowest total cost: Total cost of ownership comparison based on 90,000 pages, manufacturers’ published specifications for page yields and energy use, manufacturers’ recommended street prices for hardware and supplies, cost-per-page based on ISO yield with continuous printing in default mode with highest-available-capacity cartridges, long-life consumables of all color business printers $300–$800 USD and MFPs $400–$1,000 USD as of November 2015, excluding products with 1% or lower market share using market share as reported by IDC as of Q3 2015. Learn more at hp.com/go/pagewideclaims and hp.com/go/learnaboutsupplies. Unrivaled Speed: Comparison based on manufacturers’ published specifications of fastest available color mode of all color business printers $300-$800 USD and MFPs $400–$1,000 USD as of November 2015, excluding other HP PageWide products, and products with 1% or lower market share using market share as reported by IDC as of Q3 2015. HP PageWide speeds based on General Office mode and exclude first page. Learn more at hp.com/go/printerspeeds. High-yield cartridges: HP 970X High Yield Original PageWide Cartridges are not included in printer purchase; purchase separately. Comparison based on ISO 24711 cartridge yields for HP 970 series High Yield Original PageWide Cartridges compared with HP 970 series Original PageWide Cartridges. High-yield cartridges are compatible only with HP PageWide Pro 400 and 500 series MFPs and printers. Learn more at hp.com/go/learnaboutsupplies. Durability: Water, smear, fade, and highlighter resistance based on ISO 11798 testing. For details, see hp.com/go/printpermanence.
38
GovLoop Guide
industry spotlight
Optimizing Printing Capabilities at Your Agency An interview with Nigel Smith, Americas PageWide Product Manager, HP Most government employees don’t think of printers until something goes wrong. Running out of ink, paper jams and error codes are all annoying, but behind these printer problems are other important considerations. As agencies continue to modernize, they must also confront issues like printing security, costs and environmental benefits. To better understand how agencies can efficiently improve and modernize their printing capabilities, GovLoop sat down with Nigel Smith, Americas PageWide Product Manager at HP, an IT company. “The way in which people think about printing has changed,” said Smith. “Overcoming printing barriers is a major step towards complete agency IT modernization.” To help transform printing, HP has identified cost, speed security and environmental issues as agencies’ main pain points, and has created products that provide targeted solutions to these issues. PageWide letter (A4) printers are a second-generation class of single function and multi-functional printers (MFP) that provide professional-quality color documents for up to 40 percent lower color cost per page.* Launched in spring of 2016, the newest generation of PageWide implemented targeted upgrades to alleviate the aforementioned pain points. As agencies realize the power of printers, it is imperative that their printers are as secure as their other hardware. Smith emphasized that agencies typically focus on securing computers. However, printers contain a hard drive, have
confidential data and are connected to the internet so they must be protected as well. IT understands this risk and looks to HP as a leader with a secure printing portfolio. To provide this level of protection, HP embeds security features into their printers and offers a combination of security features and self-healing capabilities to ensure all information is secure. Additionally, in some cases organizations are spending precious budgets, in some case on mono printing. PageWide counters this by providing a lower cost per page of printing than laser alternatives that keeps color pages affordable. HP has also developed a cost tool to show customers the cost savings and break even time to replace an entire fleet. Smith explained, “We introduced PageWide technology to deliver on a lower cost of color printing and it’s definitely saving organizations money on their limited budgets.” Finally, typical competitive laser printers found in government offices use more packaging and energy. PageWide works to be environmentally friendly by using 84 percent less energy than competitive lasers. “From an environmental packing perspective, there is a lot less waste and packaging as well as less storage needed in your facility. Additionally, because of the high-volume capabilities of our cartridges, there is less intervention and replacement of cartridges,” Smith said. Government is already taking advantage of this innovative printing technology. One HP government client has deployed
PageWide printers in their local offices so they can print colored naturalization certificates on demand. With HP’s technology, they can provide that they are securely and efficiently printing these certificates at the lowest cost possible. Additionally, medical centers are using PageWide technology as a one-stop shop for their printing needs. Smith explained, “They are making copies, scanning ID cards, developing workflows, printing out colored patient wristbands to ensure efficient operations.” PageWide technology allows the health care industry to seamlessly shift from small scale jobs like copying medical files to printing specialized medical bands that include written information and barcodes in black and white and color – jobs a typical printer would not be able to perform. Looking forward, HP is working toward continued print innovation. In the spring of 2017, HP is introducing a next-generation portfolio of ledger (A3) MFP printing solutions that deliver the simplicity, reliability, serviceability and security to transform business printing., allowing government to access secure, efficient and cost-effective printing technology to continually support their mission. And it’s this focus on security, cost and efficiency that will go a long way to creating a more modern government – a government where employees can securely handle their printing needs from remote locations, which not only makes government more modern, but can transform the way government employees think about the way they work.
* Comparison of HP PageWide Pro and Enterprise class devices, not sold under contract, with the majority of in-class color laser MFPs < $3000 USD, and color laser printers < $1249 USD as of November 2016; market share as reported by IDC as of Q2 2016. Cost per page (CPP) reported by gap Intelligence Pricing & Promotions report Oct 2016, comparisons for all supplies are based on published specifications of the manufacturers’ highest-capacity cartridges and page yield. Average yield based on ISO/IEC 24711 and continuous printing. Actual yield varies based on content of printed pages and other factors. For details see www.hp.com/go/learnaboutsupplies.
Innovations That Mattered 2016
39
internet of things innovators 40
meet the innovator Bob Bennett Chief Innovation Officer Kansas City, MO INNOVATION MARK: Bennett’s main goal is to use IoT as a way to increase citizen engagement in Kansas City. IoT programs offer an opportunity for the city to keep up with changing citizen demands for connectivity. One of the projects Bennett has spearheaded includes installing a 2-and-a-halfmile streetcar line through the city’s downtown, with free public Wi-Fi covering 51 blocks of the route. He emphasized the impact of this connectivity initiative by explaining, “I was able to walk out of my office one afternoon, start to download a presentation and by the time I walked about 16 blocks, it had downloaded. I never lost continuity the entire trip.” The city has also installed 25 information kiosks connected to public Wi-Fi. They provide information about myriad things, such as where streetcars are and restaurant reviews and recommendations. As a result, citizens can make better-informed decisions about their travel plans and where they decide to eat in the community.
Additionally, Bennett and the Kansas City team were one of seven finalists in DoT’s Smart City Challenge. The city proposed a three-pronged plan that included transforming a proposed bus and rapid transit line in the eastern part of the city, building autonomous vehicle corridors, and establishing a series of community empowerment projects. Kansas City didn’t win the challenge, but Bennett’s forging ahead. Next steps for the city include smart integration into all departments, he said.
TIP FROM THE INNOVATOR: With the growth of connected devices in Kansas City, Bennett and his team had to address growing security concerns. As a result, the city partnered with Sprint to ensure security. “We have the benefit of having Sprint’s web security involved and we are the beneficiaries of their advances,” Bennett said. Additionally, Kansas City partnered with a local law school to establish a citizens’ bill of rights for data. This partnership fostered transparency and citizen engagement to further support IoT initiatives.
why it matters Even cities that are just starting their IoT journey can foster successful innovation. Bennett advised these new-to-IoT governments to “embrace the fact that cities can’t do this all by themselves.” To implement IoT initiatives, local governments must be willing to build and engage in partnerships.
1
Keeping citizens in the loop will make implementation more seamless in the long run. Cities have an obligation to respect citizen privacy, and promoting transparency and engagement fosters mutual respect between the city and its citizens. “You have to make sure you engage your citizenry to let them know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it,” he said.
2
GovLoop Guide
When developing and implementing IoT initiatives, city governments should ultimately do so with a sense of humor. “Look at today’s failure as the impetus for tomorrow’s success because you’ve learned something along the way,” Bennett said. By not getting hung up on the little things, cities can keep moving forward toward innovation.
3
meet the innovation
meet the innovation
Global City Teams Challenge
Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge
INNOVATION MARK: NIST recently introduced the Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC) to promote public/private partnerships to develop new IoT applications for smart cities. NIST acts as a matchmaker by facilitating, advising, encouraging and nurturing these partnerships, or action clusters, and the projects that are born from them. Since the program’s launch in September 2014, GCTC has recruited more than 160 partnerships with participants from more than 150 cities and 400 private companies worldwide. The projects include everything from transportation initiatives, citywide public Wi-Fi, air quality monitoring, water management, crime prediction and disaster relief. LinkNYC is one project that was brought to fruition from the challenge. LinkNYC is a citywide Wi-Fi deployment across New York City’s five boroughs. It works to connect the city by converting payphones into Wi-Fi hotspots to provide free and secure internet access. There is no guaranteed funding for participants, but NIST and its partners work to support action clusters by showcasing their projects to potential sponsors and funders. As a result, GCTC offers a great ongoing opportunity to cities looking for ways to build their IoT capacity.
WHY IT MATTERS: Public/private partnerships are key to fostering IoT innovations in cities. Through GCTC’s action clusters, the public sector has the opportunity to create and implement technologies that couldn’t have been thought of otherwise.
INNOVATION MARK: There is little chance that organizations will succeed in implementing IoT initiatives unless they are embraced by a culture of innovation in which they feel like they can get their ideas out and funded. This was exemplified in DoT’s recent Smart City Challenge. It offered $40 million in funding to the city that could come up with the most innovative way to transform its transportation network. DoT received 78 vision statements from cities nationwide and whittled them down to seven finalists. Some of the finalists’ ideas included traffic solutions, intelligent vehicles and bike sharing programs. Columbus, Ohio, won the challenge with its five-point approach to promote connectivity and economic prosperity in the city. The five strategies include developing smart corridors, enhancing traffic condition data, pushing real-time traffic information to users, developing and deploying communication technology solutions to those who don’t have smartphones, and expanding the usage of electric and smart vehicles. The real impact of the Smart City Challenge was that it made cities think about next steps in IoT. Bringing together problem solvers and key stakeholders is critical to continually foster IoT innovations in cities.
WHY IT MATTERS: Large-scale promotion of innovation is key to uncovering and implementing IoT solutions in cities. Although Columbus won the challenge, many other cities were able to secure funding from outside sources based on the plans they came up with.
Innovations That Mattered 2016
41
The Internet of Things IoT — A REVOLUTION IN THE MAKING
250 Million connected vehicles by 2020
Source:Source: Gartner, Predicts Gartner, 2015:Predicts The Internet 2015: of Things The Internet of Things
By 2020 there will be
6.8 Billion installed things in Smart Cities
Source: IDC - Worldwide Internet of Things Forecast, 2015–2020
Source: Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for Government in 2016. Report attached.
IoT — IMPACTS AND VALUE
Connected cars could reduce non-alcohol-related traffic accidents by as much as
80%
Using IoT to do predictive maintenance can reduce equipment downtime by up to
50%
Source: McKinsey, The Internet of Things - Mapping the value beyond the hype, June 2015
reduction in chronic treatment costs through IoT Source: US Department of Transportation & NHTSA
42
See how Cloudera can help with IoT. cloudera.com/solutions/iot.html
Source: McKinsey, The Internet of Things - Mapping the value beyond the hype, June 2015
GovLoop Guide
industry spotlight
Building Your Agency’s IoT Capacity An interview with Dave Shuman, Industry Leader in Internet of Things, Cloudera Ten years ago, it was hard to imagine that we would soon be able to have city-wide wifi or bridges built with smart cement that contains sensors to monitor stress. However, connectivity is becoming the norm across the country and policy makers are using the data gathered from it to drive policy and improve constituents’ lives. This interconnectedness is known as the Internet of Things (IoT). While many government agencies are already implementing IoT initiatives, there are still inherent challenges associated with the new technology. In order to better understand IoT hurdles and how government agencies can overcome them, GovLoop sat down with Dave Shuman, Industry Leader in IoT at Cloudera, a provider of the modern data management and analytics platform built on the latest open source technologies. Put simply, IoT is automated machine-to-machine communication with little to no human interference. State, local and federal organizations are starting to develop IoT initiatives where sensors monitor and track all different types of data. Like most emerging technologies, IoT is useful but has also produced new obstacles that government agencies haven’t had to face before. Most significantly, organizations are facing problems with data collection and management due to the increased volume and velocity of data now being generated. For example, the federal government’s open data platform, Data.gov, has created a data hub for citizens to access an assortment of data sets that they
may need. “However, much of the data that is released is in a human-readable format rather than a machine-readable format,” Shuman said. “Without machine-readable data, it’s difficult to build interactive applications that are the backbone of IoT.” Once government agencies have collected data, they must ensure that they are managing to the highest standards. “Government organizations have a responsibility, even more so than private industry, to be transparent in what data is being requested and how the data is being used,” Shuman said. “In order to do this, government agencies must have a clear policy about what data is being collected and why. Not being transparent about data usage creates distrust between those giving the data and the government organization that is collecting it, hindering the process of IoT initiatives.” Despite the need for clear policies surrounding data collection and management, many organizations still do not have them. “Many agencies are averse to collecting data before they define a policy to govern it,” Shuman said. “Creating clear policies will allow more agencies to produce and curate data for public good.” IoT initiatives that do not use personally identifiable information are really helping government organizations innovate. Shuman explained that the Commonwealth of Kentucky has recently focused on new ways to keep its roads safe, paying particular attention to snow and ice removal. They are using data from automated vehicle sensors designed to capture the speed, direction, latitude and longitude of salt treatment trucks. They are also
Innovations That Mattered 2016
crowdsourcing data through apps like Waze, to better understand existing road conditions. As a result of all of this real-time data, Kentucky transportation teams can efficiently treat roads with salt, enhance the safety of citizens during inclement weather, and understand the environmental impacts of over-plowing. Shuman advised that by starting small, government agencies can successfully implement IoT initiatives. He explained that agencies should start out by, “creating a minimally viable use case that demonstrates the capabilities of the application and justifies a continuing investment in the successful initiative.” Once the use case demonstrates success, agencies are able to iterate toward a larger vision. Shuman emphasized that organizations must be open to implementing the best way to achieve the desired results. These methods include considerations like deciding between private-public partnerships or sole public entities and creating applications in house or not. There is a lot of potential for government agencies to use IoT to further their mission and meet their constituents’ needs. However, it is pertinent that organizations come together. As Shuman concluded, “It’s a large ecosystem and government organizations who come together can really help to create a marketplace where innovation can occur.”
43
about + acknowledgments
about GovLoop GovLoop’s mission is to “connect government to improve government.” We aim to inspire public-sector professionals by serving as the knowledge network for government. GovLoop connects more than 250,000 members, fostering cross-government collaboration, solving common problems and advancing government careers. GovLoop is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a team of dedicated professionals who share a commitment to connect and improve government. For more information about this report, please reach out to info@govloop.com. www.govloop.com | @GovLoop
thank you Thank you to Alfresco, BDNA, BMC, Cisco, Cloudera, Government Acquisitions, HP, Information Builders and Veritas for their support of this valuable resource for publicsector professionals.
authors Emily Jarvis, Senior Online & Events Editor Catherine Andrews, Director of Content Hannah Moss, Senior Editor & Project Manager Nicole Blake Johnson, Technology Writer Francesca El-Attrash, Staff Writer Courtney Belme, Editorial Fellow Korey Lane, Editorial Fellow
designer Kaitlyn Baker, Graphic Designer
44
GovLoop Guide
Innovations That Mattered 2016
45
1152 15th St. NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20005 (202) 407-7421 F: (202) 407-7501 www.govloop.com @govloop
46
GovLoop Guide