INNOVATIONS
2021 THAT MATTERED IN
(AND THE LESSONS THEY TAUGHT US)
pg.2
TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 Executive Summary 4 How to Use This Guide 5 At a Glance: Setting the Conditions for Innovation 10 Hybrid Workforce: Making Sense of the New Reality G Be Proactive and Intentional G Make Virtual Training Quick and Accessible G Create Online Teleworking How-Tos
16 Customer Experience: Taking a Human-Centered Approach G Recruit Your Constituents G Do Your Research G Think Big, Start Small G Elevate Usability
22 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility: Driving Progress Beyond Policies G Measure Equity Across Projects G Embed Equity in Digital Services G Plan, Practice, Iterate
28 Cybersecurity: Reimagine Employee Training G Acknowledge and Address Cyber Fatigue G Bring Fun to Cyber Awareness Training G Create Cybersecurity Learning Experiences
34 Digital Services: The Decision-Making Behind Innovation G Don’t Fixate on Upfront Costs G Matchmaking Procurement Pros and End Users G Make Hay With Success Stories
40 Conclusion
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Few roles in government have the word “innovation” in the title — and perhaps that’s by design. After all, innovation isn’t a one-person job, and chances are you play a vital role in advancing new ways of thinking and working at your agency. That’s why we publish an annual innovations guide, to highlight and recognize the breadth of meaningful work that happened in government in the past year. This time, we took a slightly different approach. We reviewed a handful of the most pressing issues government agencies faced in the past 12 months that led to significant gains for the workforce, the public and government operations.
Hybrid workforce
We didn’t want to simply rattle off innovative initiatives or concepts but rather to distill the wisdom that came from those experiences. Here are the areas we highlight in this guide.
→
Customer experience (CX)
Diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA)
Cybersecurity
You’ll hear innovative insights from more than a dozen public servants across the GovLoop community, including the Deputy Mayor for Budget and Innovation in Los Angeles, the Director of Experience Design at 18F, and the outgoing Chief Data Officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Before we dive in, let’s briefly review how you can get the most out of this guide and apply these insights at your agency.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
Digital services
pg.4
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE In the past year, you’ve had to innovate on a budget, think outside the restrictions of red tape and find solutions that move initiatives forward. The purpose of the guide is to sift through the very dense and trying experiences of the past year to highlight actionable lessons that you can carry into the new one. Use this time to reflect on what you’ve experienced and learned. This collection of innovative best practices, tips and lessons are forward-looking and applicable for frontline employees up to the C-suite. We used the following categories to classify the types of innovation you’ll learn about:
K IN G great impact s promise of having ow sh IN N OVA T IV E TprHodIN or e om tc ou e uced a positiv at either
A way of thinking th
IN N OVA H G U O R H T K A E BR
T IO N S
king hold
tion that is ta A new concept or ac
A T IO N V O N IN S U O U IN CONT w results Ongoing innovation
that is producing ne
As you review the case studies and best practices in this guide, consider these questions: → In the past year, how have you embraced new or different ways of working and thinking? → Does your agency encourage or incentivize this type of behavior? How so? → How can I use this guide to spark conversations about innovation or to take the necessary next steps to move forward?
Throughout the guide, you'll find industry spotlight interviews that explore how technology solutions are spurring innovation across government.
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AT A GLANCE:
SETTING THE CONDITIONS
FOR INNOVATION An interview with the GSA Administrator The more entrenched we become in a risk-averse environment, the more likely we are to embody mindsets that sabotage progress. But there are exceptions — even in government. GovLoop spoke with Administrator Robin Carnahan about an ongoing program within the General Services Administration that elevates innovation.
Evaluate Idea
Clarity Alignment Impact
Phase 1:
Investigate
Phase 2:
Discover
Phase 3:
Develop
Phase 4:
Scale
De-risk innovation
For Carnahan, taking smart bets means incremental, intentional steps toward change, which is foundational for the 10x program. De-risking in this sense isn’t about delaying progress but rather using defined timelines and small, initial funding to test ideas, prove impact and potentially scale.
Make it easy to share ideas and say yes to viable ones One of the hallmarks of GSA’s 10x program is how accessible it is for employees to share good ideas, understand the selection process and be included in decision-making. “We need to make it easy for people to give their new ideas, and innovative ideas, into a place where they can actually be tested and scaled if they’re appropriate,” Carnahan said. In fiscal 2021, the 10x team received 250 ideas from 89 unique agencies. After a year of targeted outreach, the team received 70% of their ideas outside of GSA.
Timeline Market Fit Regulatory Requirements Current State Funding Model
Called 10x, this investment program crowdsources, evaluates, develops and scales ideas from federal employees across agencies that improve how the government serves the public. Carnahan shared insights on how organizations can set conditions that cultivate innovation.
The riskiest thing the government can do is to stay the same, Carnahan said. Change includes a mindset shift around risk, what it means, how to reduce it and how to take smart risks or bets.
Demand Major Red Flags
MVP Recruit Agency Customer Product Roadmap Business Plan Additional Customers Largest Possible Audience
The 10x program’s four-phased approach for selecting, evaluating and scaling new ideas. Source: 10x.gsa.gov
Seek impactful projects The focus with any new idea or innovation is impact, Carnahan said. She pointed to the launch and expansion of 10x projects such as Login.gov, a single sign-on solution for government websites. This is a big deal because governments at all levels grapple with verifying that people are who they say they are to receive a government benefit. But not all projects have a clear trajectory. The U.S. web design standards is one example. It’s an online library of materials to help agencies provide easily accessible, mobile-friendly websites around standard design principles. It also started as a 10x project. “Five years later, there have been almost a billion, with a B, data use of things using U.S. website standards,” she said. “Cities and states use it … and other countries use them.” Have questions or are interested in exploring aspects of 10x that might work at your agency? Learn more here.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
T E C H A C U M E N + I N N O VA T I O N
WHEN DOC - CENTRIC PROCESSES DRAG DOWN INNOVATION An interview with Shelley Holmes, Vice President, Public Sector, Ephesoft, and Sean Reid, Senior Solution Engineer, Ephesoft
If innovation is the engine for change in government, relying on paper documents is like driving around with the hand brake on. Even trying to process most electronic documents can be like driving in first gear when the speed limit is 45 mph. What’s needed is a way to capture the data locked up in documents and create digital workflows. "We’re seeing this as a major area for agencies to future-proof their processes with a way to access data," said Shelley Holmes, Vice President, Public Sector at Ephesoft, which provides an intelligent document processing (IDP) platform called Ephesoft Transact.
IDP Defined In brief, IDP is a process that uses modern, artificial intelligence-powered technology to automatically extract data from documents and convert it into structured, searchable and actionable information. Usability is key. When IDP is put to use, the outcome is improved efficiency, productivity and accuracy due to automating previously manual processes. The information also can be seamlessly shared with other business systems, such as enterprise resource planning, content services or other workflow tools. Benefits include: → Savings in personnel hours because of streamlined business processes → Decreased IT support costs, from using a modern, central AI-powered IDP platform that captures data vs. dated legacy systems or manual processes → Increased efficiency by eliminating manual data entry, reducing errors and achieving up to 10 times faster processing For example, a state workforce agency adopted Ephesoft Transact to help process employment benefits
and legal documents. They reported a 90% decrease in the time needed to make decisions and a 50% decrease in manual indexing for the benefits team. "Intelligent document processing can have a positive impact on agencies by giving them the ability to provide citizens with faster responses and better customer service while government employees focus on higher-value work," said Sean Reid, Senior Solution Engineer at Ephesoft.
Accelerating Innovation Recent advances in IDP capabilities provide agencies with new opportunities to rethink old processes and create a more modern work environment. Ephesoft’s IDP platform uses AI and machine learning to bring more intelligence to data capture and extraction. The solution is designed to work in collaboration with employees, automating mundane tasks while also allowing validation steps that keep humans in the loop. Ephesoft Transact also addresses key cybersecurity requirements. Transact is available on Project Hosts’ Federal Private Cloud FedRAMP-authorized platform, and supports CAC and PIV for authentication purposes. Transact is also listed on the Veterans Administration Technical Resource Model, and ITCCB-approved at the Department of State. The Transact Web Scanner is on the IRS Enterprise System Profile and is certified by the Air Force Network Integration Center, which provides for reciprocity at other Department of Defense agencies.
“A balance between being visionary and providing technical capabilities is essential to improving the speed of work and constituents’ experiences with government services,” said Holmes.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
T E C H A C U M E N + I N N O VA T I O N
HOW YOUR AGENCY CAN OWN INNOVATION An interview with Brian Chidester, Head of Worldwide Industry Strategy for Public Sector, OpenText
Not long ago, when people thought of government work, they thought of cubicles – business-attired individuals working in their small corners of existence. Many didn’t associate innovation with government organizations. But cubicles don’t encompass government. Its responsibilities and capabilities span such a wide range, it can be considered “an industry of industries,” said Brian Chidester, Head of Worldwide Industry Strategy for Public Sector at OpenText, a software solutions provider. The range of responsibilities means there are ripe opportunities for and occurrences of innovation.
“Innovation doesn’t only have to come from partners in the private sector,” Chidester said. To empower the entrepreneurial spirit at your agency, technology management must be in place. Chidester outlined three best practices for laying a good tech foundation that can enable you to own innovation.
Data Silos Begone Agencies increasingly understand that data silos must be eliminated if they want to remain efficient. “Over the past few years, we’ve seen governments being more proactive and results-oriented,” Chidester said. “Data has a large part in that.” What drives efficiency through data is understanding how to extract information from it. When too many data silos exist, agencies don’t have a full picture to predict what may come next. For instance, state and local agencies hold a lot of data from constituent services. If they can reduce silos and leverage that information, they can start to extract insights to address the future of service delivery and constituent needs.
Miami-Dade County is one example of a government that proactively set up an online experience to address crisis. With OpenText’s help, the county modularized its digital experience so that when a hurricane hits, for example, Miami-Dade can shift its website to ensure that residents can react, respond and access key relief resources during an emergency.
Consolidate Duplicate Technologies Many agencies tend to think of themselves as unique, individual organizations. But in most cases, there are more common needs than not. For example, every government entity has a finance, procurement and human resources group, in addition to other similar organizations, Chidester said. When each group purchases solutions in a linear way, they may get what they need, but they do so in a duplicative fashion. “They don’t all need their own unique IT or software support,” Chidester said. “You can consolidate that into singular platforms and get the complete ecosystem value. You save money and reduce data silos.”
Give Control Back to the Business Owners What often gets lost in the conversation about digital transformation is the people involved. “It’s not just about the technologies you can throw at the problem. It’s the people,” Chidester said. The business owners must be empowered to drive transformation. Because, ultimately, they set the strategy and paint the vision.
“The strategy is what is driving things forward,” Chidester said. “The technology is complementary to that.”
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
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HYBRID WORKFORCE:
MAKING SENSE OF THE NEW REALITY
The pandemic has changed dramatically how government employees work. Working from home — long a forbidden freedom — is now standard procedure for many offices. It takes care to establish a successful hybrid workforce, though, and it means managing the needs and expectations of an array of employees, their supervisors and other professionals. The following approaches can help agencies in 2022 as they transition from COVID-induced telework to a more permanent hybrid workforce.
B E P R OA C T IV E
A N D IN T E N T IO N A L “From an organizational standpoint, we can’t rely on serendipity anymore, we can’t rely on 8 to 5…on work that gets done at the watercooler. So, it’s critical that there’s time [when] people have an opportunity to talk about their lives and share.”
–Dan Pomeroy, GSA
For all the benefits that a hybrid workforce can bring, one item might suffer: interpersonal connections. There are no impromptu conversations in the hallway or wandering out to lunch, and although some employees may be onsite, a rather empty office can seem less welcoming. It’s absolutely true that inclusiveness and accessibility are key to building a successful hybrid workplace. Employees must have technology that allows them to do their jobs effectively and that accommodates any disability or other challenge they might have. But according to Dan Pomeroy, Deputy Associate Administrator in the General Services Administration’s Office of Information Integrity and Access, Office of Government-Wide Policy, being proactive and intentional goes beyond that. It goes to the heart of what office “culture” means. Pomeroy said that virtual open-door policies can help and that time employees typically spend searching for conference rooms could be used differently. “That time needs to be set aside for the social buffers we’ve all gotten used to,” he said. “We have to use every minute that we can to build an effective and positive culture.”
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
M A K E V IR TUA L TR A IN IN G Q U IC K A N D A CC ES SI BL E For remote workers already glued to their computer screens, online training can be difficult to bear. There’s often no eye contact with your instructors, no give-andtake dialogues that can enliven the subject matter. And, too often, as with in-person courses, virtual coursework can be excessively long. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a solution: SelfHelp Online Tutorials (SHOTs). These roughly three-minute videos break down a topic, such as safety leave, into specific items that employees can rewatch if necessary, without searching a longer training video to find what they need. The approach offers ondemand assistance that ultimately makes government workers more efficient and saves an agency money. For remote employees at a physical distance from their leadership, SHOTs can be especially valuable.
California has built an online resource — a one-stopshop, if you will — where state employees, leaders and others can learn the ins and outs of making a hybrid workforce work, including how to oversee both onsite and remote employees.
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According to SHOTs Program Director Kelly Barrett, who launched the idea in 2013 and continues to build out the program as hybrid work becomes more popular, the videos respond to how human beings learn.
Too much information at once is hard to digest. “Take a little bit at a time and learn bit by bit,” Barrett said. “You build knowledge on top of each bit of information. ” Barrett said employees depend on the SHOTs program as a valuable resource. “Many have told me that it’s the first place they look to learn something new,” he said.
CR EA TE ON LIN E
TEL EWOR KIN G HOW - TOS
The website (telework.govops.ca.gov) — which notes that “the shift to remote work requires improved collaboration with new approaches” — is clean, clear and comprehensive. It advises agency workers on setting up their workspaces, getting technology in place and communicating with managers, among other tips. Managers can view specific guidance, videos, checklists and resources to create and lead successful hybrid teams. For IT administrators, it’s about comparing options for virtual communication, securing networks and identifying hardware needs. The section for organizational leaders reflects California’s enthusiastic support for hybrid work, and it features an online dashboard that shows what
percentage of eligible employees are teleworking and how much they’re saving in commute time and travel costs, among other data. A template “Telework Agreement” — an official document between a manager and a remote employee that outlines their specific telework arrangement — provides a solid foundation for hybrid work success. What makes California’s online resource particularly helpful is that it offers specific guidance — not abstract truisms — in a way that’s easy to navigate and understand.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
Secure by Design Leading the way to safer IT
solarwinds.com/secure-by-design-resources
Scalable, end-to-end IT monitoring software from solarwinds.com/government
NETWORK MANAGEMENT
SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
SECURITY AND COMPLIANCE
IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT
DATABASE MANAGEMENT
APPLICATION MANAGEMENT
T E C H A C U M E N + I N N O VA T I O N
WHAT AGENCIES HAVE LEARNED ABOUT CYBERSECURITY VISIBILITY An interview with Tim Brown, Chief Information Security Officer, SolarWinds
Agencies can’t defend what they can’t see, including IT networks. So, what happens if the way agencies look at their IT networks changes?
“If you understand your environment, you can put good controls in it,” Brown said. “Controls without knowledge won’t do much good.”
The answer is cybersecurity visibility must also evolve. Today, more agencies have hybrid workforces than ever. With some employees at home and others at the office, agencies need to monitor their networks differently than before. For many agencies, hybrid work is an innovative business model; subsequently, an equally groundbreaking approach to security is the best way forward.
Automatic software patching is one control agencies can establish to keep their cloud environments from having security holes.
Enter zero-trust security. Zero-trust security centers on distrusting all computing entities until their identity can be verified. As a strategy, zero-trust security aims to provide agencies with continuous visibility into their potential risks.
2. Say goodbye to perimeters For decades, building perimeters like firewalls around their networks has served agencies well. But today, networks often extend so far, these physical borders disappear. “It is about embracing a perimeter-less environment,” Brown said. “Your visibility can go beyond the four walls that don’t really exist anymore.”
“Security comes from knowledge,” said Tim Brown, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at SolarWinds, an IT operations management software provider. “You need that visibility to get that security.”
To navigate this sprawling landscape, agencies need the ability to continuously monitor their applications, workloads and other valuables wherever they are.
Brown shared three ways agencies can use cybersecurity visibility to protect their hybrid workforces going forward.
If zero-trust security sounds like perimeter-less security, it is. Zero-trust security assumes breaches are inevitable because threats can come from inside or outside any perimeter.
1. Begin with the basics Nowadays, agencies may have on-premises IT, the cloud-based variety or a mix of both. No matter the configuration, agencies must understand what resources they’re defending before taking bigger steps. Consider cloud computing. At agencies new to the cloud, workers may need to learn about configuring cloud environments correctly. Without this lesson, data and other assets may be vulnerable to security threats.
3. Live a zero-trust security lifestyle Whether entities are users, devices or something else, zero-trust security endlessly watches them for risks. “It’s not just buying a solution and you’ve got zero trust,” Brown said.
IT management software tools such as SolarWinds can support zero-trust security no matter how agencies’ workforces are dispersed. Agencies can use these tools to continuously monitor their IT networks and enforce zero-trust security principles agencywide. “You are truly able to view the entire environment in one place,” Brown said of SolarWinds solutions. “It helps you plan, discover and answer questions that you may not know you’re trying to answer.”
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
Work Re-Imagined The digital transformation ushered in by pandemic realities of remote work and social distancing is here to stay. Today, agencies are challenged to look at their investments and processes to ensure both are as efficient as possible. ServiceNow is proud to provide a platform that helps agencies • Get the most out of digital investments by eliminating silos of service • Grow user-friendly online offerings quickly with low code/no code approach • Provide more transparency into the status of requests and activity For more information on how ServiceNow can support the needs of modern government workforce, visit us your.servicenow.com/federalsafeworkplace.
T E C H A C U M E N + I N N O VA T I O N
A NEW DIGITAL PARADIGM FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES An interview with Christopher Anello, Solution Consulting Leader for Federal Healthcare, ServiceNow
The pandemic forced government agencies to find innovative, digital ways of managing at-home workforces and continue delivering on the mission. Although COVID-19 infections ultimately will subside, the digital transformation is here to stay. The pandemic has ushered in a new world of work” and forced agencies to get more value out of their existing digital capabilities and explore new technology, said Christopher Anello, Solution Consulting Leader for Federal Healthcare at ServiceNow. Take the Veterans Affairs Department (VA), for instance. Using its existing workflow system, provided by ServiceNow, VA configured and deployed laptops to its workforce when COVID shuttered government offices. (ServiceNow specializes in delivering digital workflows with low-code capabilities.) “There’s a new challenge that the world has provided,” Anello said. “Our customers ask themselves, ‘How do we adapt to change and become resilient?’”
Make Workflow Systems Multi-functional In addition to getting more out of capabilities they already have, agencies want to grow their catalog of digital offerings. Chief information officers are looking at their IT platforms, and saying, “How can I leverage three or four different platforms in my enterprise that can deliver services across multiple functions? And how do I break those silos across government to deliver outcomes?” Anello said. However, a multifunctional system — for example, one that addresses the needs of IT, HR, finance and other departments simultaneously — can be unwieldy if the employees who historically managed the system don’t understand what the new functional areas require. That’s where centers of excellence come in.
Focus on Human-Centered Design Anello has seen greater interest in making systems more engaging based on how humans interact with technology. While traditional software primarily was built for function, employees now expect systems to be accessible via any device and user-friendly.
Empower Employees to Drive Innovation Agencies want control over the innovation process, Anello said, and increasingly are using low-or no-code platforms that allow agency employees to develop secure, cloudbased applications tailored to the agency’s needs.
“You’re empowering your employees to be in the driver’s seat and build their future, design the systems they need to do their jobs,” Anello said. Leverage Technology to Innovate Securely With Agility Great example of this trend is a case study from the Health and Human Services Department (HHS), which uses ServiceNow for HR functions. When HHS was charged with confirming the vaccination status of its 80,000 employees, the department didn’t need to custom-build a new application. HHS used a product that ServiceNow had developed for its own use — and it went live at HHS in just three weeks. Having entered a new paradigm, agencies are looking at the past, Anello explained, and asking, in general, “After getting value from digital transformation, perhaps other business process can be reevaluated and modernized to transform how government deliver services?”
Anello described these as specialized teams that each focus on a functional area and ensure that its services are developed and delivered as needed. Innovations that Mattered in 2021
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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE:
TAKING A
HUMAN - CENTERED
APPROACH
There’s no debating the urgency and need for government to treat constituents like valued customers. That shift in thinking has forced agencies large and small to reconsider whom they are serving, why they are serving them, and what frustrations and needs those customers carry as they interact with their government. As the following innovations prove, designing experiences with constituents in mind reduces friction and increases the success and reach of customer-facing efforts.
RECRUIT YOUR CONSTITUENTS Los Angeles needed more than partnerships with institutions to roll out its $1.3 million AI initiative around air quality — it needed community buy-in. Funded by NASA, the Predicting What We Breathe project uses AI, driven by satellite and ground sensor data, to analyze urban air quality. Economic disparities in the community complicated the initiative. People in low socioeconomic positions and Black, Asian and Hispanic residents often face higher exposure to pollution, according to the American Lung Association. In fact, some of Los Angeles’s most impoverished communities also have the least amount of air quality sensors, said Jeanne Holm, the city’s Deputy Mayor for Budget and Innovation.
The sensors are needed to gather data to help city officials understand how to improve air quality in the neighborhoods that need it most. In April 2021, Los Angeles set up citizen science programs with local community organizations to distribute free sensors to residents, Holm said. Working through trusted brokers such as Pacoima Beautiful, an environmental justice organization, was key to gaining the communities’ trust for setting up the devices. “If we can convince [the brokers] this is a good thing, they use their trust to carry this forward,” Holm said. Los Angeles also used lessons learned from the federal Census; community trust was vital for getting residents counted. The city continues to use Census ambassadors to reach residents.
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R U O Y O D H RESEARC
The largest obstacle to CX is a unified understanding of the need, whether that’s granting smoother access to permits or modernizing a digital experience with a limited budget. And the best way to get that understanding? Ask your constituents.
“The best way to do that is to do the research with the people you’re trying to serve,” said Anne Petersen, Director of Experience Design at 18F. In other words, organizations need to try to understand the challenge through a user- or customer-focused perspective. What are their experiences? What is their feedback? Having a customer-centric view will help guide the best solution to an agency’s CX challenge, whether it has to do with procurement, hiring or budget.
, G I B K N I TH L S TA R T S M A
L
In 2018, the U.S. Forest Service and 18F launched Open Forest, an online portal for purchasing Christmas tree permits. Through the portal, people were able to buy permits online and print them out at home so they could go to their nearest national forest and bring home their Christmas tree in record time. They no longer had to be locked into obtaining permits during weekday business hours at USFS office locations. On top of that, with the existence of the Christmas tree portal, USFS was able to expand this purchasing system for other permits, such as its Special Use permits. The agency worked iteratively by selecting a pilot project that could be built up and expanded for similar use cases. And, importantly, it selected a project that was representative of the people or customers it was going to serve.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
E L E VA T E
pg.18
U S A B IL IT Y Improving government systems depends on our ability to provide feedback on why those systems fail us, from the internal portal we use to update our time cards to the customer-facing portal of applying for a benefit, says Jenn Noinaj, a social impact strategist, researcher and designer. “Usability heuristics can help provide the understanding and a common language for when something is hard to use or not intuitive,” Noinaj said. “Heuristics are tools to help someone learn for themselves. They can be useful as rules of thumb and great to leverage when giving feedback on a system.” We’ve outlined a few of those heuristics below, but you can read the full list here.
1 3
Visibility of system status Systems should always keep users informed about what is going on through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time. An example of this is the screen changing to “loading” after you press the submit button, giving you immediate feedback on what the system is doing.
2
Help and documentation Agencies should provide documentation to help users understand how to complete their tasks. For example, provide the most commonly asked or searched for help topics upfront so when users encounter a common issue, they can immediately resolve it.
User control and freedom Examples of this are the ability to recover accidentally deleted files, undo the last action, exit a screen at any time, and see pop-ups that ask you to cancel or proceed.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
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AWS AD
Digital Transformation on AWS Cloud Although many public sector organizations recognize the need to transform, how to guidance is often missing. Organizations must transform their people, processes, and technologies to be successful in the cloud. Embracing the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud enables governments and public sector organizations to move away from their reliance on outdated traditional IT hosted in on-site data centers so they can offer innovative opportunities to better serve citizens, improve security, and cut costs.
Download this whitepaper now to guide you through a phased approach that state and local governments can use to break down steps into segments to take full advantage of the cloud, reduce cost, and transform the way they deliver on their mission, from initial vision to establishing cloud centers of excellence and measuring performance. Innovations that Mattered in 2021
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
T E C H A C U M E N + I N N O VA T I O N
MODERN DATA SERVICES REQUIRED TO MEET MODERN CHALLENGES An interview with Nick Psaki, Principal Technology Strategist for North America Public Sector at Pure Storage
So many of the challenges that agencies face around data come back to a basic question: Is the data where it needs to be? Nick Psaki, Principal Technology Strategist for North America Public Sector at Pure Storage, said the question might be broken down further in this way: Where is the data? Where does it need to be? How do I move it there? And how do I protect it in the event of systemic issues?
and storage capacity at the expense of speed. Unfortunately, this approach makes large-scale recovery incredibly time-consuming, and when an agency has lost data that is essential to their operations and services, time is of the essence. A modern recovery solution changes those dynamics by building on recent advances in technology and new approaches to data service infrastructure, Psaki said.
These questions, which speak to the need for a robust data service infrastructure, must be addressed so that agencies can focus less on the mechanics of managing data and more on realizing its strategic value, he said.
For example, having extremely high bandwidth, a modern recovery solution can be designed with a high degree of parallelism, making it possible to restore data to multiple points at the same time.
Psaki highlighted two key areas where modern data services play a critical role.
Also, by setting up an intermediate platform between primary data services and the backup and recovery infrastructure, you gain the ability to recover a couple of months of data at once. Pure Storage FlashArray and FlashBlade deliver the kinds of performance that older technology can't touch.
Facilitating the Hybrid Cloud One of the biggest challenges agencies face now is bridging their on-premises and public cloud environments. By some industry estimates, the federal government has increased its investment in cloud services by 33% between 2020 and 2021, Psaki said. The challenge now is to ensure that data services work seamlessly across those environments. What's needed is a consistent, predictable and accessible methodology for moving the data to where it needs to be. It's about "making data better, faster and more available, and then making it available in multiple milieus," he said.
Meeting the Ransomware Threat A second pressing challenge is the growing threat of ransomware and the need to recover data quickly. When it comes to backing up and archiving data, organizations typically have focused on backup efficiency, minimizing the impact on bandwidth
"Today, with modern data service infrastructure and storage arrays, data recovery becomes a cornerstone of data protection and continuity of operations efforts," Psaki said. Often, agencies already have modern platforms in place but don’t realize all the capabilities that are available. But that is changing. In the past 18 months, Psaki has seen growing interest from agencies looking to take advantage of those capabilities – and looking to Pure Storage to serve as their partner. "We're here to help you get the most out of what you purchase in order to be as effective and efficient as you can be in your organization's mission," he said.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
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DIVERSITY, EQUITY INCLUSION AND ACCESSIBILITY:
DRIVING PROGRESS
BEYOND POLICIES
Diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) are perennially important topics in the government that President Biden’s June executive order has elevated. Many state and local governments were leading the charge to equitably serve diverse communities, and the pandemic has amplified the need to evolve those efforts with urgency and intention. We’re spotlighting approaches and mindsets toward DEIA that can elevate this critical work happening nationwide.
King County, Washington, has a process and tool to “identify, evaluate, and communicate the potential impact — both positive and negative — of a policy or program on equity.” Chief Information Officer Tanya Hannah and her team use the county’s Equity Impact Review (EIR) Tool when evaluating all IT projects, regardless of size. A valuable lesson that Hannah has learned from conducting EIRs is that what’s perceived as modern and intuitive internally might not be viewed that way by the very people that tech solutions are meant to help. For example, the county’s process to modernize its property tax system includes a public-facing component online that allows seniors to see if they qualify for certain tax exemptions. As part of the EIR, Hannah’s team ran usability tests. They found that users generally wanted to know the qualifications upfront, rather than having to enter personal information to verify if they qualified.
MEASURE EQUITY ACROSS PROJECTS
→ How do people connect with your organization? → Who is not connecting with your organization but should be? → What’s available for your user base to access, and are they using those resources? → Are you providing the best delivery methods to reach your users, particularly underserved individuals and communities?
The technology didn’t impress users, so the county had to redesign it, she said. They wanted an experience they found easy to use and understand. Hannah shared questions to ask as you weigh equity across projects:
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
pg.23
EM BE D EQ UIT Y IN DIG ITA L SE RV ICE S Earlier this year, GSA announced the expansion of its Login.gov solution to state and local governments to much fanfare from the government tech community. This is a big deal because governments at all levels grapple with verifying that people are who they say they are to receive a government benefit. Login.gov is “a single sign-on solution for government websites that will enable citizens to access public services across agencies with the same username and password.”
This development overlaps with many of this guide’s innovation categories, including digital services, CX and cybersecurity. But we’re highlighting it in this category because Login.gov secured a $187 million boost through the federal Technology Modernization Fund to primarily address issues of equity. More than 30 million people and businesses use Login.gov to access more than 200 services spanning 27 federal agencies. “One of the primary goals of these funds is to provide accessible and equitable capabilities that can be used by underserved and vulnerable populations that traditionally have experienced barriers to online or digital services,” according to the TMF website.
PL AN ,PR AC TIC E,
IT E R AT E
The Homeland Security Department (DHS) is building momentum on its newly released Inclusive Diversity Strategic Plan (IDSP) that came out late last year. “Notice I call it inclusive diversity,” said Sharon Wong, DHS’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer and Executive Director for Strategic Recruitment, Diversity and Inclusion.
When people think of D and I, people think of diversity or inclusion. “We decided to flip that because it’s about how do you include the diversity that you have,” Wong said. The plan is about elevating the human experience. “A best practice was putting out the IDSP and our educational curriculum. Nearly 400 of our executives have participated in our inclusive diversity leadership seminars,” Wong said. The department is also building on the success of its Inclusive Diversity Dialogue Programs, cohort-based groups of about 15 to 20 employees who come together every other week to talk about issues in the workplace, particularly around inclusive diversity. “One week it might be around the values of the organization or ethnicity and race,” Wong said. “We have such high demand that we always have a waitlist.” Innovations that Mattered in 2021
Goal #1: Unleashing the power of the shared human spirit. This is about empowerment at the individual level and how each person’s potential to be at their maximum best is unlocked. Goal #2: Expanding opportunities to grow and serve the nation together. This is about ensuring that DHS is reaching all segments of society; that no one is left behind during outreach and recruitment; and that everybody has the opportunity to grow and develop, feel that they belong, and use their individual experiences to inform the workplace. Goal #3: The third goal is leading with intention to make a difference. This speaks to each of us, not just leadership by rank and title. Everybody can be a leader. You can lead from where you are.
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HOW AGENCIES CAN TAP INTO AN ECOSYSTEM OF INNOVATION An interview with Michael Epley, Chief Architect and Security Strategist for the Public Sector at Red Hat
Innovation, by necessity, is a team sport. The challenges that government agencies are trying to solve cannot be addressed by the ingenuity of one solution or one vendor. Instead, agencies need to think in terms of an ecosystem of innovation, allowing market forces to generate, refine and build on the insights and ideas of individual innovators. That is the approach the open-source community takes, said Michael Epley, Chief Architect and Security Strategist for the Public Sector at Red Hat.
"The competition of ideas in the open-source marketplace spurs hundreds of innovations and lots of different projects throughout that ecosystem," Epley said. "It’s only when an idea reaches critical mass, or fills a specific need or niche, that we see it take off." Innovation in Action Consider Kubernetes, an open source system for deploying and managing containerized applications, which are designed to be ported easily from one type of platform (e.g., an on-premises server) to another (e.g., a public cloud). Google originally developed Kubernetes for its own use but later shared its source code with the open source community through the creation of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, enabling other vendors to extend its capabilities to address various requirements. Red Hat, for example, has developed a Kubernetes platform tailored to the needs of organizations doing DevSecOps, an approach to software development in which developers work closely with the security and operations teams to build solutions.
"This is really what Red Hat does," said Epley. "It has special expertise in watching that open source marketplace of ideas and figuring out how all these pieces fit together."
Innovation in Demand Epley noted three areas in which government should look to industry to spur innovation: → The adoption of cloud and cloud-based solutions, with a focus on meeting government requirements for security and compliance. In particular, industry will be key to supporting efforts to modernize FedRAMP, as required by the president’s May 2021 cyber executive order. → The development of edge solutions, which extend the IT infrastructure to users or systems in remote offices or in the field. The use of compute and storage resources must be supplemented with remote or automated management capabilities. → The security of the software supply chain, as required by the executive order. This is where it’s important to distinguish between traditional open source software and enterprise versions, which provide tools to help agencies identify and fix vulnerabilities, enforce security policies, and validate a system’s security profile.
Collaborating on Innovation But government agencies are an essential part of the innovation ecosystem, Epley said. “There’s an ecosystem around not just the people who create the software but also the users,” he said. Government agencies “are the experts when it comes to defining what problems they have and the requirements that the community needs to satisfy.” Government developers also have the opportunity to contribute their own innovations in the open source market, Epley said.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
SAY GOODBYE TO RISK AND HELLO TO VALUE Innovations in document review technology are creating new opportunities for legal leaders and legal teams to create value for their organizations. Usable not only during e-discovery, but also in use cases in privacy regulatory compliance, internal investigations, and more, document review technology are changing the calculations CLOs and GCs must make when evaluating and implementing legal technology. Single-instance storage architecture, especially when embedded in a holistic technology platform, helps organizations secure data against the constantly evolving cyberthreat landscape, deliver real cost savings, and achieve new levels of efficiency in document review.
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HOW AGENCIES CAN INSOURCE THEIR WAY TO INNOVATION An interview with Clay Cocalis, Chief Revenue Officer, Exterro
Combing through electronic files in response to a public records request or investigation is grueling work. It’s the type of complex task that can involve nuanced systems and has long been ripe for outsourcing in government. But the layers of outsourcing also come with multiple workflows as agencies coordinate with outside counsel and different service providers. “Anytime you have multiple workflows, that is a recipe for something that could potentially go wrong,” said Clay Cocalis, Chief Revenue Officer at Exterro, an e-discovery and legal software platform provider. But the evolution of more intuitive and cloud-based options is putting the power back in agencies' hands, enabling those with limited staff and modest budgets to set workflow standards and other parameters on their terms. The state of California, the city of Denver and GSA are among the government entities doing so. And they’re using Exterro’s platform to meet unique and complex e-discovery and information governance requirements.
“The Exterro platform allows the government to do more self-service than they had been able to in the past,” Cocalis said. “Historically, they had to outsource everything. Now, they can pick and choose. It gives them 100% control over how much they want to do.” As agencies embrace new ways of using technology to manage data across litigation, compliance and privacy obligations, Cocalis offered these best practices to keep in mind:
Reduce risks Let’s say an agency has a disagreement with one of its technology vendors over the level of service being provided and decides to do business elsewhere. Depending on how much work was outsourced, there’s likely a lot of data that must be gathered and transferred to another vendor. These types of massive transitions will likely alter workflows and expose the agency to some level of risk — at a time when no one is immune to cyberattacks. But if an agency has its own platform, permissions can be granted and revoked more seamlessly while also ensuring that workflows remain intact, Cocalis said.
Rethink workflows Cocalis advised agencies to work with attorneys and other stakeholders to answer this question: If we started from scratch, what would we want our workflow to look like? Anyone doing business with the government would have to comply. “When it comes to things like litigation, you can’t control the litigation cycles, but you can control the efficiencies and workflows and ensure they are predictable,” he said, noting that Exterro’s secure cloud platform works on a consumption-based model rather than agencies agreeing to a fixed fee and potentially overpaying. “The world is going through a shift when it comes to legal data, and we want government agencies to be a part of that transformation,” Cocalis said. “We want to make sure that they have every advantage that the corporations they are working with have as well.”
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
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CYBERSECURITY:
REIMAGINE
EMPLOYEE TRAINING
Government employees are weary of cybersecurity. After countless attacks in 2021, agencies need innovations that can recharge their workers’ cybersecurity enthusiasm. Fresh ideas are the best way to re-engage teams, which in turn can revitalize agencies’ cybersecurity efforts.
& ADD A C K N OW L E D G E
RESS
E U G I T A F R E CYB A barrage of agency emails, bulletins and news alerts inundate employees with reminders to stay vigilant. But information overload is a real concern. “We as humans can only take a measured amount of that, so we have to be judicious, and we have to make sure that we don’t just make it so common and so easily ignorable,” said Christopher Rein, Chief Technology Officer for New Jersey. “It’s like that email you get every five minutes; pretty soon, you’re not going to even open them. You’re just going to click and delete. You don’t want that to happen with cybersecurity.”
“It’s a battle, and it needs to be fought every day,” Rein said. That battle will look different for every agency and employee, depending on their roles, but the key is helping employees view and treat cybersecurity as a core responsibility. Agencies should show their workers how to remain sharp when it comes to security habits and practices while ensuring that their message resonates and ties to understandable outcomes.
The stakes are high. Public trust is only as strong as a government’s ability to do what it says it will do, which includes protecting people’s private data. “What we’re really selling is confidence to our citizens — confidence that we can protect their data, we can secure it, we can give them secure access to systems,” Rein said. Agencies must be intentional about when and how they communicate security-related issues with their workforces. Innovations that Mattered in 2021
TO BR ING FUS N TRAI NING
pg.29
CYBE R AWAR ENES
We all know that employees are the first line of defense against cyberattacks but also the weakest link. So, what can agencies do? One idea: Make cybersecurity awareness training more interesting. Every employee must be aware of and responsible for preventing security breaches. Managers and supervisors, in particular, should understand that each interaction with a computer system, even something as mundane as email, has a risk level. Cybersecurity training intends to achieve all of this, but when training is tedious or punishing, it becomes a roadblock to people’s jobs and the intended outcome doesn’t occur. It’s a delicate and often thankless balance that cybersecurity teams handle.
Delaware struck a balance by providing Netflix series-type episodes on cyber awareness for employees to watch, learn from and even enjoy. In addition to the yearly mandatory training, these brief monthly videos engage viewers to be vigilant about their cyber hygiene. “From a cybersecurity perspective, you hardly get great feedback on what you do. You just created another obstacle for people to overcome to do their jobs,” said Solomon Adote, the state’s Chief Security Officer. “But when they reach out and say, ‘I really enjoyed that series,’ or ‘[This character] is hilarious, I wouldn’t do what [they] did,’ you know you’re getting the message across.”
RITY U C E S R E B Y C E T CREA ES C N E I R E P X E G N I LEARN Cybersecurity touches virtually the entire public sector. Although this ubiquity creates more risks for agencies, it also presents their employees with more potential educational breakthroughs. For example, North Carolina recently came up with several basic messages to share with employees — such as how to configure a home network to comply with their agency’s requirements — and put them on rotating screensavers on end users’ devices. Training has its purpose, but “you need to find other ways to help users think cyber first,” said Maria Thompson, North Carolina’s Chief Risk Officer. Thompson added that high-profile incidents such as the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline can
provide agencies with opportunities to highlight the dangers of risks like ransomware. In May 2021, a ransomware attack struck the oil pipeline, triggering fuel shortages in several Southeastern states.
“We can leverage this incident to further educate folks on how this happened, why this happened and what we can do to further secure ourselves,” Thompson said. Sometimes, mandatory learning experiences can make an impact. Texas’s legislature recently passed a bill requiring security awareness training for all public employees, said Daniel Hankins, the state’s Cybersecurity Coordinator. There is real risk “if your administrators are a little bit behind on the technologies or they don’t understand that something is critical,” Hankins said.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
Everything you need to support secure hybrid work. All in one workspace solution. citrix.com/government
By leveraging cloud-based technologies, the State of Illinois successfully grew their remote work capacity from 4,500 to 30,000 in weeks. Read how>
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STAY IN CONTROL OF UNEXPECTED WORK SCENARIOS An interview with Ken Liska, Senior Manager, Pre-Sales Engineering, State and Local Government, Citrix
When it comes to describing the surge in remote work, saying it increased isn’t enough. The capacity didn’t grow in single digits but tripled, quadrupled and even quintupled in size. The state of Illinois, for example, drastically increased its remote work capacity, from a maximum of 4,500 workers to 30,000 within weeks. “By leveraging cloud-based technologies and the skill sets they already had, they were able to rapidly and securely deploy those extra users,” said Ken Liska, Senior Manager of Pre-Sales Engineering at Citrix State and Local Government. Citrix is a digital workspace solutions provider. The sudden surge may be over, but the challenge to manage remote work, its related technologies and other unexpected situations remains. To enable your technology to tackle a variety of workforce scenarios – such as an overnight expansion of remote work – Liska advised two best practices.
1. Ask industry partners: How will you solve my problem? When searching for solutions, agencies tend to approach vendors with a feature-oriented perspective. They identify a problem, search for a single product that could solve that problem and compare vendors' feature matrices to pick the best match.
“What I recommend is they flip the script,” Liska said. “Instead of going to the vendors and asking for features, tell them what the outcomes are. Say, ‘We are trying to accomplish this, and these are our requirements.’”
With this approach, you ensure that you adopt the capabilities you need and create a more holistic, nonredundant technology stack. It’s like going car shopping. Let’s say you’re perusing your options and realize this car has a cup holder and that car doesn’t. Suddenly, you can start making decisions based on features you don’t need. “When you focus on your use cases, you make sure you’re lining up with what you’re trying to accomplish,” Liska said. Another benefit of being outcome-focused is the insights you receive along the way. If you approach industry partners with your problem and allow them to identify how they would solve it, you receive their expertise and perhaps more information about related pain points as well. In the end, you’re more likely to arrive at a holistic solution.
2. Look for flexibility in your options. Especially when it comes to cloud resources, keeping your options open helps guide success. “If you’re buying point solutions, you have to make them all work together eventually,” Liska said. Solutions that are flexible don’t pigeonhole you into using one product for various needs. Maybe you want to use one cloud service today but another when a different scenario arises. “At Citrix, one of our biggest values is choice,” Liska said. The goal is to help organizations accomplish the work they need to do with the best user experience without locking them into certain tools. Because the more options you have, the better positioned you are to pivot the way you want for the future.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
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3 TYPES OF EMPLOYEES WHO HELP CLOUD SUCCEED An interview with Joel Lipkin, Chief Operating Officer, Four Points Technology LLC
To achieve success in any initiative, you must be selective about your tools. It’s like cooking a holiday meal. For a top-notch experience, using the bestquality ingredients – artisan cheeses, local meats, organic produce – will lead to a different experience than cooking with whatever is laying around. The key to a delightful meal, however, isn’t necessarily the ingredients. Though the food may be the stars, the cooks drive success. The same goes with cloud computing. Accelerated by the pandemic, the cloud has become a star technology for agencies delivering critical services and doing pioneering work. To continue to empower cloud success, Joel Lipkin, Chief Operating Officer at Four Points Technology, an IT solutions provider, identified the three types of employees who are key to the journey.
The Innovative Leader “To take advantage of the cloud, you must have innovative leaders who love the possibilities of the technology in supporting the agency’s mission,” Lipkin said. Many agencies made tremendous investments into their on-premise data centers only a decade or two ago. Think personnel, tools, training, processes and more. In this context, cloud technologies are relatively new. And if you consider the differences in governance and security, it’s a different beast, Lipkin said. The value of cloud may be apparent, especially after the pandemic, but adoption still requires a trailblazer to catalyze sparks in the beginning.
The Brain Trust Let’s say cloud buy-in gets rolling. Agencies with tens and sometimes hundreds of mission-critical applications face another challenge: No single person can understand all of these applications when it comes to migrating to the cloud.
For instance, the AWS Marketplace, an online software store, provides thousands of tools through its cloud services, some of which have FedRAMP certifications.
“The best practice we’ve seen is a controlled access methodology, where the cloud program management office or center of excellence sets rules on what can be used in production vs. in sandbox environments,” Lipkin said. This core “brain trust” essentially owns the cloud and guides its overall journey from a bird’s-eye view. Though they may be supported by contractors, subjectmatter experts and systems integrators, they are knowledgeable and can make decisions based on the agency’s mission rather than on the latest technology.
The Next Generation Because of cloud’s long-term value, agencies are migrating rapidly. For lasting success, the next generation is key. Agencies should invest time and resources to train in-house staff not just on cloud management, but DevSecOps and other processes that involve new starts in the cloud from day zero. With expertise in contract management, full-scope hybrid and multicloud solutions, and partnerships with industry-leading providers, Four Points Technology helps innovative leaders, cloud owners and the upand-coming workforce use cloud computing to support their agency’s mission. “I’m looking forward to how cloud will make huge differences in support for the mission,” Lipkin said.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
pg.34
DIGITAL SERVICES:
THE DECISION - MAKING
BEHIND INNOVATION Digital services such as cloud and analytics reached new heights in critical priority. To build resilience and improve agility, more than half of agencies will act to modernize critical legacy systems by 2025, Gartner predicts. But technology can be the easiest part, as one government official points out. Adopting, creating and gaining buy-in for digital services requires an innovative state of mind. Bringing fresh perspectives to how agencies pick up these tools can make a trite solution seem brand-new.
N D O N 'T F I X A T E O S PFRONT COST
U
Given a limited budget, how do you make a go/no-go decision on an IT modernization initiative? Try approaching it like a home improvement project, advised Corona Ngatuvai, Enterprise Architect for the Utah Department of Technology Services. As every homeowner knows, it’s never a simple numbers game. Yes, every project has its price. But that price is only part of the story. For example, let’s say you bought a house with a swamp cooler — that is, a system that cools the house by evaporating moisture rather than blowing cold air. You would much rather have traditional A/C, but making the change would not be cheap. Is it worth the switch? Look at three factors, Ngatuvai said:
1. Cost. How much would installing A/C cost upfront? And what’s the return on investment? 2. Maintenance. How much would it cost to maintain the existing system if you chose not to replace it? In other words, at what point will ongoing maintenance costs eat into any costs you avoid in installing the new system? 3. Risk. What are the risks of postponing a decision? For example, could you find yourself dealing with costlier problems in the event of a breakdown? Try applying this to your next modernization project.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
pg.35
MA TCH MA KIN G PRO CUR EM ENT
PR OS AN D EN D US ER S Even in the best of circumstances, agencies often struggle to buy products or services that satisfy end users. In responding to the pandemic, when there was a need for speed, it seemed even less likely. This was the situation Colorado faced in gathering pandemic-related data. The state had to aggregate, analyze and report COVID-19 information for the population, but counties controlled the collection of COVID-19 data. As a result, the state had to find a way to receive information across 64 counties and 53 local health agencies.
“We got involved, our tiny little team, and said, ‘Hey, let’s do some user research. Let’s talk to contact tracers. Let’s talk to the local public health agencies.’” said Kelly Taylor, Director of Colorado’s Digital Service. “And we did that. And teased out more of an accurate view of what everyone needs.” Pairing up with acquisition teams, the state created a vendor matrix to ensure that its solution would meet user needs. The procurement team sat through interviews and listened to users’ concerns before reaching the final stage. Then, a two-week bake-off for the final vendors took place, during which they built tools, created sandboxes and performed usability testing.
M A K E H A Y W IT H
SU CC ES S ST O RI ES Z z z z z Z z z z Z
Z Z Z z z
z z z z z z z z z Z Z Z Z Z
Talking tech can get pretty dull at times, even for those who make a living in the field. That’s why when top technologists and data scientists discuss what they do, the first words out of their mouths won’t be about the technical daily grind. Instead, they’ll hail the end result.
“Technology is the easiest part. That’s the last mile,” said Carlos Rivero, outgoing Chief
Data Officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The hardest parts are getting people to buy in and then teaching them the skills they need to capitalize on data, Rivero said.
Z
The data movement that Virginia rallied wasn’t about 100,000 state employees suddenly choosing a new hobby. It was about the state setting out to beat back the opioid crisis. And data was a major weapon in its arsenal. This one high-profile project garnered interest across the board. Rivero established connections with several agencies, all with a part to play and data to analyze tracking opioid usage in communities. While that project remains an ongoing priority, it was his “in” at many organizations — a starting point for the broader use of data. Since demonstrating the process for turning data into insights, Rivero has solidified the prominence of data projects for the commonwealth.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
Privileged Access Management Solutions You Can Trust Increase Privileged Access Security and Compliance Posture Government agencies hold a vast amount of sensitive information, ranging from personnel records, budgetary data, and inter-community communications to intelligence findings related to terrorists and hostile nations. Such data is a prime target for sophisticated attacks launched by rival nation-states, terrorist groups, hacktivists, and cybercriminals. In addition, insider threats remain a constant concern. Trusted by top government agencies, ThycoticCentrify Privileged Access Management solutions help by addressing the #1 cause of such breaches — privileged access abuse.
www.centrify.com
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PRIVILEGED ACCESS: MORE THAN YOUR AVERAGE PASSWORD An interview with Joseph Carson, Chief Security Scienist and Advisory CISO, ThycoticCentrify
People rarely think of password management solutions as a force for enlightenment, but Joe Carson, Chief Security Scientist and Advisory CISO at ThycoticCentrify, makes a good case for why they are. “Everyone has a finite amount of time, and a thoughtful password security program honors that and helps people use their time wisely,” Carson said. “Good cybersecurity has the power to reduce the hours people waste choosing new passcodes, struggling with logins and contacting IT departments.” Done correctly, Carson said, password management can help governments implement innovative strategies that solve far-reaching problems. And, like the medical agencies that used ThycoticCentrify’s privileged access management solutions last year, good cybersecurity can keep employees healthy — and boost their productivity — while working remotely, in line with COVID-19 protocols.
What’s the Priority? One of the top priorities in almost any agency is protecting identities and access to ensure that cyber intruders can’t use legitimate credentials to make their way into places they shouldn’t be, Carson said. “This has really been looking at how to make sure that as employees, contractors and third parties are accessing systems, that they’re doing it securely, that we have continuous verification, continuous authentication, that we enforce the principle of least privilege, that people are only accessing things they should be entitled to,” he said. Firms such as ThycoticCentrify “move passwords more into the background,” according to Carson. Instead of employees remembering long strings of ever-changing passcodes, security controls do that on the back end and automate them.
Such a behind-the-scenes approach eases password pain. Friction when users try to sign in encourages them to bypass security protocols.
There’s a Security 'Perimeter' As more people work remotely from various locations and devices, the traditional perimeter of network security vanishes. Personal homes have become extensions of government computer systems.
“We have to realize that a lot of interaction and communication is coming through the public internet,” Carson said. “We have to get the basics right. What do we still have control of? And it’s the identity. The identity is the new perimeter and access the new security”. Privileged access controls and continuous verification are the ways to secure that perimeter. “Enable people to easily access the things they need to when they need to, but at the same time, satisfy the strict security controls required to keep threats out,” Carson said.
Zero Trust = Mindset There are many in vogue terms in the cybersecurity world today, and zero trust is one of them. For Carson, it’s a simple concept. “Zero trust is not something you install, it’s not a product or a checkbox,” he said. “Zero trust is a mindset about how you wish to operate, or how you need to operate … in a secure way. It’s about how you practice security and how you plan your security strategy.” What’s a good way to start? Hold true to a basic premise: only some people should have access to some things on a computer network.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
Public sector leaders get better results 20 of the 20 top global governments 15 of the 15 federal cabinet departments 50 of the 50 states 20 of the 20 top counties 20 of the 20 top cities oracle.com/government or call 1.800.633.0584 Copyright © 2021, Oracle and/or its a�liates. All rights reserved. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its a�liates.
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HOW TO FOLD INNOVATION INTO YOUR WORKFLOWS An interview with Mark Comishock, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Director of Product Management, Oracle
Innovation involves trying new things, but not every experiment ends successfully. Across the public sector, the stakes are high – one misstep could keep crucial products and services from constituents. How can agencies ensure that their innovations succeed? The answer is by focusing on the journey rather than the destination. Take artificial intelligence (AI), which features machines mimicking human traits such as learning. To use AI effectively, agencies must carefully consider the path that they will take toward such innovations.
“It goes around people, processes and technology,” said Mark Comishock, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Director of Product Management at Oracle, a software provider. “How can we bring these three things together to help optimize and create better efficiencies?" Using AI as an example, Comishock explained three ways agencies can easily fold innovations into their workflows.
1. Consider CX Agencies exist to serve constituents, so the CX they provide matters. When innovating, agencies should consider how changes might improve it. For instance, AI chatbots can answer basic questions about topics such as completing tax forms. Subsequent interactions between constituents and agencies’ human employees, meanwhile, can focus on complex subjects like this year’s unique tax deductions. “There’s opportunities for how people can use technology to make a better experience for the citizen,” Comishock said.
2. Evaluate the impact on employees Agencies’ innovations do not affect only constituents, but employees, too. When exploring major shifts like AI, agencies should examine the impact on their workforces. Remember AI chatbots? They can manage tasks such as resetting passwords, saving users energy and time. After all, AI never rests and can assist workers around the clock. “What are the things that are impeding you from getting things done?” Comishock said agencies should ask themselves. “It’s being introspective about your operational processes to optimize and streamline.”
3. Determine the data needs Data is a precious commodity that can fuel innovations ranging from AI to analytics that predict future trends about subjects such as housing. Unfortunately, agencies are encountering more data from more sources than ever before. Federal, state or local, agencies at all levels can find it challenging to understand all this information. “Some key best practices are looking at the type of data, where you’re getting your data sources from and ensuring that data is used according to the agreement under which it was collected,” Comishock said. “You should have some expectation of what you’re going to get vs. ‘Let’s just throw it out there and see what happens.’” Oracle can help agencies collect, analyze, store and understand their data. Ultimately, the insights from this information can ensure that agencies innovate in ways that benefit their customers and workers. “How do I take advantage of things like AI that can go to the cloud, where you can store huge amounts of data?” Comishock said of Oracle’s tools. “There’s the innovation side that we help customers with.”
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
pg.40
CONCLUSION Innovation goes beyond titles and artificial barriers. In this guide, we’ve explored the multifaceted ways that government agencies have ideated, tested, iterated and applied new thinking and ways of working. Here’s a short roundup of the takeaways we hope resonated with you as you share these innovations with your colleagues:
Cybersecurity:
CX:
Agencies can’t serve the public in a vacuum. Designing experiences with constituents reduces friction and increases the success and reach of customer-facing efforts.
Digital Services:
Hybrid Workforce:
Remote work is here to stay, and to foster a successful hybrid workforce, agencies need innovative approaches to balance the needs and expectations of employees and their managers.
Cybersecurity will be a constant concern for agencies, so innovative thinking and training will be crucial for keeping this topic engaging for their workforces.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility:
DEIA isn’t a standalone objective. To make progress, agencies must weave each letter into the fabric of policies, management styles, training and the mission.
Adopting and gaining buy-in for digital services requires an innovative state of mind. Bringing fresh perspectives to how agencies use these tools can make a trite solution seem brand-new.
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
pg.41
ABOUT GOVLOOP GovLoop’s mission is to inspire public sector professionals by serving as the knowledge network for government. GovLoop connects more than 300,000 members, fostering crossgovernment 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 the public sector. For more information about this report, please reach out to info@govloop.com. govloop.com | @GovLoop
THANK YOU Thank you to AWS, Carahsoft, ThycoticCentrify, Citrix, Ephesoft, Exterro, Four Points Technology, OpenText, Oracle, Pure Storage, Red Hat, ServiceNow, and SolarWinds for their support of this valuable resource for public sector professionals.
AUTHORS Candace Thorson, Senior Staff Writer John Monroe, Director of Content Mark Hensch, Senior Staff Writer Nicole Blake Johnson, Managing Editor Pearl Kim, Staff Writer
DESIGNER Calista Lam, Jr. Graphic Designer
Innovations that Mattered in 2021
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