Bright Side of Government
May 18,2012
3:43By Rick Zak, Justice & Public Safety Solutions, Microsoft US State & Local Government
A smaller government agency needs the same world-class solution capabilities as a larger agency but often doesn't have the staff, budget, and other resources required to purchase and support one. The cloud can provide a way to break through this barrier by separating a solution from the technology infrastructure required to deliver it. A software partner can develop the specific capabilities that an agency needs while Microsoft provides the massively scalable and cost-effective cloud infrastructure to deliver them. Working together they can provide solutions to smaller government agencies that would have previously been out of reach.
An interesting example of this cloud value is demonstrated by Global Vision Technologies (GVT), which is delivering a world-class juvenile justice solution to smaller agencies. Serving at-risk children in a juvenile justice or social services agency can be challenging because it requires one view of a child that brings together information from social services, schools, and courts. This can be especially difficult in smaller county and municipal agencies without the budget or IT infrastructure to support a typical juvenile justice solution. In these smaller agencies case management is often run on old legacy systems or even paper files. These old systems and piles of paper can lead to inefficiency, lost case files, and missed chances to "connect the dots" to identify opportunities and risks for a specific at-risk child.
GVT's FAMCare case management solution, which is delivered through Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud framework, enables smaller juvenile justice agencies to get the same capabilities that much larger agencies leverage to serve their communities. Microsoft provides a powerful IT infrastructure through the cloud and FAMCare provides all of the capabilities that a smaller agency needs to include:
- Consolidated view of each child with information from multiple sources
- Scheduling and performance tracking for treatment and programs
- Easy-to-use reporting and analysis tools
Agency case workers can use FAMCare from any computer with web access enabling them to update case notes and perform other tasks even while they're away from the office. They can even use computers at local libraries in their community or at home to keep ahead of their caseload pace.
Global Vision Technologies is leveraging the cloud to deliver powerful juvenile justice case management capabilities to agencies that haven't had them before. Through the cloud, case managers can spend more time in the community driving better outcomes for at-risk children, and less time on outdated IT solutions. You can find more information on how Global Vision Technologies and Microsoft are working together to build stronger communities here.
May 13,2012
19:03By Bright Side Staff
Today Microsoft is launching a nationwide mobile application development campaign to bring citizens and developers together to build apps that can solve national or local problems. The initiative, MOBILE AMERICA (the people hackathon), is inspired by America itself-designed as an event for the people, by the people.
Are you a concerned citizen with ideas on how technology could address social problems? A developer with the technical know-how, vision, and a desire to contribute to the future? MOBILE AMERICA is an excellent opportunity for citizens, partners, and Microsoft developers to showcase their development skills by creating an application that meets real needs of citizens or governments.
One of the best ways to help state and local governments take advantage of cloud-based and mobile computing is by building apps that can help cut costs while improving citizen access to government services or helping others more easily interact with useful information. So this is your chance to develop an app or app prototype that contributes to America, using Windows Phone, Windows Azure or Windows 8, and win prizes.
The contest ends July 31, 2012, so don't delay! Click here today to learn more about MOBILE AMERICA, including complete contest rules.
May 11,2012
1:02By Keith Olinger, Sr. Director, Microsoft, State and Local Government
Recently, we had the chance to discuss with editors at American City & County some of the great examples of how cloud computing is impacting IT in governments across the country. One of those examples was the city of Holden Beach, NC, which showcases the benefits of implementing a private cloud for their community. Like many other coastal cities, the city of Holden Beach was required to physically pack up and move much of their IT department every time a hurricane approached. What a huge cost this can be on top of other emergency preparedness that they must endure. But with their investment in private cloud architecture, Holden Beach is now able to continue their communications during disasters without lugging large servers and equipment inland, while also saving an estimated $55,000 a year across other departments benefiting from private cloud infrastructure that consolidates servers and data centers.
We often talk about cloud as a way to increase efficiencies while decreasing costs. One of the things I'm continuing to see as I visit State & Local government bodies is using private and public cloud together in a hybrid cloud architecture for maximum effectiveness-for example, using the private cloud for more sensitive data that requires strong policy and protection and data sovereignty, and the public cloud for less sensitive data and systems like citizen-facing portals, and 311.
This is a good example of the outcome a strong private cloud/public cloud deployment can offer. However, one thing to be aware of is the immediate virtualization building blocks that also go into building a private cloud. The City of Milwaukee and Snohomish County, Wash are both great examples of organizations virtualizing their data centers now, while preparing to move to the cloud later. Remember that all virtualization technologies, server, desktop and application, are nothing more than tactical building blocks. The strategy is how you tie them all together into cloud architecture. So all of the virtualization that you may have done up to this point is not lost, but a good starting foundation for your strategic cloud architecture. It is only when you have implemented in this manner, not just consolidation through virtualization, that you will be able to center your IT service on applications instead of infrastructure. When we do IT right, we are operating in a mode where it is all about the applications. Self-service, elasticity of environment, image based, very rapid deployment, consumption based knowledge, dynamic and fault tolerant. These are all desired characteristics of IT, and found only when you take the next step past virtualization and consolidation, and deploy a Cloud Architecture.
When you try consolidating servers and data centers alone without a private cloud architecture or plan, you are very likely still purchasing or utilizing too much hardware as you are not able to take advantage of economies of scale with hardware and software. These governments have the planning and foresight now to do IT right and it has already started to pay off, and will continue to pay off much like it did for Holden Beach and the countless other state and local governments investing in private cloud today.
You can learn more about these local governments that are building their way to the private cloud - just check out the full article here. To learn more about private cloud solutions, visit our web site.
May 6,2012
19:04By Bright Side Staff
Last week, Office 365 blog shared an important milestone with its readers, announcing that Office 365 had been granted the Authority to Operate under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) by the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The announcement demonstrates the importance of FISMA in creating a process for federal agencies to certify and accredit the security of their information management systems. As mentioned in the Office 365 blog, IT solutions with FISMA certification and accreditation have federal agency approval for their use in line with the level of security established by that agency.
The BBG, which informs, engages, and connects people around the world in support of freedom and democracy, and which was recently showcased on Microsoft's FutureFed blog, turned to the cloud to help streamline cross agency collaboration. Cloud computing is a central component of our IT strategy because it provides our globally dispersed workforce with access to the latest computing resources," said Andre Mendes, Director, Office of Technology, Services and Innovation at the BBG. We're getting leading communications and collaboration tools within a FISMA-compliant environment, enabling our personnel to securely share information from any location.
To learn more about how Office 365 is protecting data, head to the Office 365 Trust Center.
May 3,2012
0:44By Andy Pitman, Microsoft eGovernment Solutions Business Development Director.
In 2010, the State of Georgia Department of Administrative Services launched a solution to improve the State's understanding of spending across all departments and elements of the government; I wrote about this during an August 2010 blog entry. Since that time, accessibility to this type of spending information has improved for US governments, not just states but also cities and counties.
Specifically, Microsoft partner company Spikes Cavell has begun offering their solution as a service spending analysis offerings in the US. Compared to a city, county, or state going through the complexity of standing up the technology and complex processes to create an in-house spending analysis solution, the Spikes Cavell approach is much simpler and provides quicker results. That's because Spikes Cavell imports (into Spikes Cavell's Observatory) a government's spending data files, cleanses them, normalizes them (using cross-government accepted categories, etc.), and publishes the resulting data back to the government in easy-to-use analytical tools. Moreover, this is done in an ongoing manner under a subscription type model that keeps the spending data up to date. Most importantly, the cost of this out-sourced analysis is potentially much lower than can be achieved via an in-house solution.
Perhaps even more exciting is Spikes Cavell's Spotlightonspend offering. Spotlightonspend provides subscribing government customers the option to publish spending data to the public in an extremely user-friendly Webpage which empowers citizens to understand, and possibly positively affect, government spending. The following images show an actual production Spotlightonspend site, in this case reflecting the UK City of Westminster. Note how the images reflect the natural progression from high-level categories through lower-level subcategories, and finally specific government suppliers. This information can be illustrated not only graphically as shown in these images, but also in numerical format.
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Because user demand (spiking during legislative sessions and periods of press interest) and related demand for computing resources is unpredictable for this type solution, it's a natural fit for cloud computing. Spikes Cavell chose Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud computing platform to host Spotlightonspend, making it easier and lower cost for them to deliver this data to the public on behalf of their subscribing government customers.
This scenario is a great example of improving efficiency and lower cost for governments, both in terms of solution delivery and providing information necessary to improve government operations. If you'd like to learn more about these spending analysis solutions, please contact me at andypit@microsoft.com.
May 1,2012
6:06By Bright Side Staff
Over the last year, countless organizations and government agencies have made the switch to Office 365 and realized the benefits of operating in the cloud. But for those who haven't had the opportunity to find out how Office 365 can be the affordable communication and collaboration solution for their organization, Microsoft has a great solution. When organizations opt to test pilot Office 365, they can get 30 days of cloud for free!
So how does it work? With no credit card required, your organization can try Office 365 for free for 30 days. After 30 days, you can convert to paid subscription or simply end the trial. You can also try customized plans based on your organization's size, whether you're a small agency or a mid-size to enterprise size organization. Either way, it's a great way to take Office 365 out for a spin and see how it helps your team work together!
For more information on Office 365 and how you can take it out for a test drive, head to the Office 365 page.
April 25,2012
20:10By Andy Pitman, Microsoft eGovernment Solutions Business Development Director
As my Microsoft colleagues Kim Nelson and Stan Freck have written recently in this blog, Microsoft and its partners are active in the elections space, helping to improve campaigns, while also enabling overseas military voters, and providing other elections-related functions to include those based on Microsoft's cloud computing environment, Windows Azure.
Microsoft continues this elections-related activity with our support of the April 30, 2012 Sunlight Foundation and Pew sponsored Voting Information Project (VIP) Hackathon. Pew Center on the States VIP project manager Matt Morse describes this event in this blog entry.
This event presents developers an opportunity to extend the polling location data available in the Azure-based VIP database in innovative ways. Microsoft technology experts will be on hand to enable participants in the usage of Azure, including mobile platform access kits for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. I encourage readers to consider participation and to create the next great elections app!
April 22,2012
23:39A Guest Post by Mariano Delle Donne, CEO Adventos
We always enjoy posting a variety of perspectives on the blog, especially from those who are leading innovation in the public sector. The following is a guest post by our technology partner, Adventos, on making the most out of SharePoint and Fusion Core.
Public Safety agencies have an increased awareness of the benefits of real time information analysis to enable data driven approaches to crime and traffic safety. The benefits include the ability to conduct predictive policing, better allocate resources and minimize risks to the public.
SharePoint and Fusion Core when implemented properly provide a platform for secure and real time information sharing. From our experience with deployments we recommend the following 4 steps to implementing both solutions successfully.
- Conduct a small pilot program for the solution in your agency with the assistance of a Microsoft Gold Partner. A successful pilot will create excitement among your users and provide an environment users can "try out" without a huge investment.
- After a successful pilot, focus your efforts on documenting the most strategic and critical information intelligence needs as well as business automation processes. Specify in as much detail as possible the path to address them.
- Implement the solution in small increments. Beginning with the most critical areas of need first work your way through the plan. Ensure that at all points of the solution you have a working system. It may not be complete but your system is operational.
- Invest in your staff. SharePoint and Fusion Core training can make a huge difference in the solution adoption success. Adventos has a complete training curriculum for SharePoint uniquely built from its experience working with Law Enforcement.
Following the 4 steps outlined here will ensure you project stays on track and the solution is implemented successfully with high levels of adoption.
April 18,2012
19:05By Stan Freck, Director, Office of Civic Innovation, Microsoft U.S. Public Sector
If you thought technology in the 2008 presidential race was a big deal, wait until you see what's gearing up for 2012.
The social media-fueled grassroots campaigns that helped propel Barack Obama to the White House four years ago galvanized political activists across the spectrum. Since then, technology that helps government and campaigns reach constituents has evolved a great deal, as have tools that help voters share information about candidates. It's not just social media either - new products and services are leveraging mobile devices and apps, cloud computing, data analytics and other technologies, too.
For instance, voters on Facebook and Twitter can sign up for the VotingSocial app, which provides timely and accurate information about candidates' records. Built by EastBanc Technologies, the app also provides information about voting dates and locations and the opportunity for users to support their candidates.
At the same time, campaigns are leveraging technology and social media to streamline operations and extend their reach to voters. ElectionMall Technologies' Campaign Cloud provides organizations with unified tools for soup-to-nuts campaign management and issue advocacy. My colleague Kim Nelson and I recently had a chance to chat with Richard Walker of AOL Government about the solution, which allows candidates and their campaigns to:
- Manage all their applications and information in one place with one login: email, data and content from multiple sources, including social networks
- Coordinate and collaborate through built-in productivity and collaboration tools
- Integrate specific Election Mall tools for fundraising, managing multiple websites, and campaign management
- Integrate all their campaign content and augment it with data analytics, Bing Maps for Enterprise and other tools
Governments aren't getting left behind, either. They're using technology to meet statutory requirements and voter needs, while reducing the costs of administering elections. One of the most prominent examples is LiveBallot, a cloud-based service created by Democracy Live, a company that provides e-balloting products and services. LiveBallot enables absentee voters to securely access their ballots from anywhere in the world.
Microsoft has partnered on all three of these services, which are hosted and delivered via our Windows Azure cloud platform and leverage other Microsoft products and services as well. We're committed to helping voters and organizations across the political spectrum engage people where they increasingly spend their time: online. By helping people gather, analyze and share election-related content in new ways, we aim to improve the election process to better support democracy and the needs of constituents.
April 15,2012
23:30By Rick Zak, Justice & Public Safety Solutions, Microsoft US State & Local Government
Each day, organizations at all levels of government are working hard to streamline their operations and improve their interactions with their citizens. But despite their efforts, they are faced with a number of barriers, like paper processing and outdated solutions. These and other barriers, coupled with a traditional application development process that takes years to deliver new alternatives, can make it difficult for state and local governments to improve their day to day functions. But recently, at Microsoft's Public Sector CIO Summit, government technology leaders from across the United States selected the Commonwealth of Virginia as the recipient of the first-ever Real Impact Solution Award for its innovative strategy in breaking through this barrier.
At the Summit, Virginia Deputy Secretary of Technology Aaron Mathes presented the shared services model developed by the Commonwealth, which delivers consistent and scalable resources to state agencies while leveraging Microsoft Dynamics CRM to rapidly develop new solutions. By delivering solutions to help manage people, assets, and processes while leveraging other Microsoft core capabilities for managing data, workflows, and reporting, the Dynamics CRM solution lets developers focus on user needs rather than the "plumbing" for an application.
This new approach for developing solutions has reduced the time to deliver new capabilities to agencies and citizens in Virginia. Starting with providing new ways for citizens to interact with Governor Bob McDonnell's office, the Commonwealth has delivered more than twenty-five new solutions in five agencies with more in the development queue.
Thorough the use of Dynamics CRM, the Commonwealth gets:
- New solutions faster
- Common user experience across solutions and agencies
- Lower total cost
And citizens get:
- Increased access to information
- Improved transparency
- Better citizen service
The Commonwealth of Virginia is a great example of leveraging new capabilities and a new approach to tackle a long-standing challenge - rapidly delivering new capabilities for both agencies and citizens.
Information on the recognition of the Commonwealth of Virginia through the Real Impact Solution Award can be found here.
Information on Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be found here.
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