Blog

By Dena Mashburn

We just wrapped up participating in the recent NASTD Annual Conference & Technology Showcase. This year’s theme, Embracing Change Together, is highly relevant as we all face an evolving technology landscape. No one is exempt – even within the public sector, where State CIOs are challenged to reduce costs while providing citizens with better services.

Without a doubt, the role of IT in the public sector is becoming more complex as states look to operate more efficiently and effectively. They need to be able to quickly adapt, evolve and respond to new demands and opportunities, while managing mounting fiscal pressures, emerging technologies, new business models and increased public expectations.  In speaking with many customers and attendees at the show, I noticed a lot of similarities faced by the states and enterprise IT executives alike:

1. IT has a seat at the table. No longer are IT technology organizations viewed as administrators of data centers, networks or incident response.  Instead, they are strategic business partners. They are responsible for driving innovation. Collaboration, communication skills and strong business acumen are the CIO attributes sought by both governors and enterprises.
2. Customer centricity. As technology has advanced, so have expectations. Today’s citizens are accustomed to instant access to information and immediate gratification. They expect their online experiences to be the same as those provided by companies such as Amazon.  When budgets are squeezed, technology is often one of the first items cut; therefore state government online service delivery capabilities can end up lagging behind private sector offerings.
3. Outdated systems and inefficient processes. Many states are still using older, antiquated systems (or homegrown solutions) to manage chargebacks and assets.  Due to mounting budget issues, employees are being incentivized to retire on time or even earlier, putting states at risk of losing intimate knowledge of these systems.  They must consider whether it makes sense to invest in a solution to help automate chargebacks and manage assets.
4. Cloud services add a new level of complexity: Technology leaders in the public sector must not only think about their approach to cloud strategy, services and deployment models, but how to address the resulting issues around governance and service management – in addition managing security and privacy concerns which are typically much more strenuous than other entities.
5. Data management and analytics: Proficiency in these areas is becoming essential for making business decisions and delivering higher performance levels in the customer-centric public environment.

As state technology leaders and government entities embrace the digital revolution, they must think about how to best manage their full communications technology lifecycle. This includes everything from expense management, usage, assets, service support, shared services management and all related workflows. Working with an expert solution provider like Calero can help you obtain a more holistic view into your overall communications spend, identify areas to optimize costs and drive overall business value.

To learn more about how two public sector organizations are benefiting from a Calero solution, check out this blog:  How Two Government Entities Innovate With CLM/TEM For Big Results.