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3 ways to improve the healthcare patient experience and save
As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, improving the customer experience is critical. Nowhere is this more important than in the healthcare industry, where increased engagement can lead to better patient outcomes.“Pairing digital technologies with human coaching and clinical care can offer a dramatically better patient experience through personalized attention, on-demand access to support, and automated reminders,” explains a Workflow article.That approach to improving patient care focuses on prevention, which can save significant costs. Here are three other ways healthcare organizations can improve the patient experience and reap savings:1. Simplify EMR managementElectronic medical records (EMRs) were designed to reduce errors, enhance communications between providers, and improve efficiency and patient outcomes. The administration of EMR platforms is not so streamlined, however, requiring resources to optimize, maintain, and upgrade the systems.Learn how to simplify EMR management in our Taking a strategic approach to managing EMRs webinar. You’ll hear how UW Health developed and integrated a Help button into its EMR, and the effects of this innovation on the organization’s IT, patients, and clinicians.2. Increase uptimeBecause healthcare today relies on EMRs and connected devices, IT system downtime could be the difference between life and death. Watch The impact of downtime on the clinician and patient experience to glean tips to help you minimize issues and expedite remediation. Dr. Noreen Butte, physician executive at Cerner Corp., joins LIKE.TG Chief Healthcare Architect Don Tierney to discuss ways to increase uptime.3. Empower employee efficiencyA good patient experience hinges on a good employee experience. Today, that equates to equipping workers with technology that helps them easily do their jobs. “Healthcare organizations are at their best when they have happy, satisfied, engaged workers delivering the quality of service patients expect and deserve,” explains Rhonda Blatti, senior director of Employee Workflows at ServiceNow.Yet, a LIKE.TG-sponsored survey by ESI ThoughtLab found that only 21% of healthcare organizations are considered leaders in providing a digital employee experience. Clearly, there’s room for improvement.Watch our Accelerating the hybrid workforce in healthcare webinar to discover more results of the survey and steps your organization can take to empower your employees to work more efficiently and safely.
Three pillars to digital government
The 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA) recently celebrated its one year anniversary. The goal of the legislation is to improve the way citizens interact with the federal government. The ability to provide a modern digital experience to citizens and employees is now a basic expectation for all federal chief information officers (CIOs).Today, trust in institutions is near historic lows, setting the stakes for successful digital transformations at an all-time high. Whether the website visitor is a farmer, veteran, educator or senior citizen, the digital experience significantly impacts how they think about the federal government.Behind every great experience is a great workflow.The great workflows that will define our 21st-century digital government rely on three pillars:
Modern Websites
Digitized Government Forms and Services
Electronic Signatures
Modern WebsitesEvery 90 days, there are 3.5 billion visits to government websites, almost half of which are from mobile devices. So, new and redesigned federal websites must meet modern standards, like those recently published by the Technology Transformation Service. A user-centric approach to technology is the key to successful digital transformations.Digitized Government Forms and ServicesPresently, the federal government spends nearly $90 billion on information technology (IT) annually, most of which just maintains existing systems. These legacy systems can be costly and inflexible. By digitizing forms and processes, agencies can not only provide more personalized services, but they can work towards decreasing costs.Electronic SignaturesThe ability to easily share, review and sign off on documentation is essential to a great workflow. So, digital signatures are critical. They drive increased efficiency, faster time to service and improved processes. Once implemented, the related savings can open the door for new digital transformation initiatives.The government’s transition from legacy and manual processes to modern digital ones is well underway.21st Century IDEA is a key component, but it is still gaining traction. Our research found that 55% of federal employees are unaware of the 21st Century IDEA and only 38% of feds told us that customer experience (CX) is their agency’s top priority.One way to turn this around is by focusing on platform as a strategy. Platforms, such as LIKE.TG®, offer tools and digital capabilities that agencies can use to speed up their modernization efforts. At the core are portals, virtual customer service agents, automation tools and pre-established cloud-based security controls.
Great experiences drive powerful employee engagement, unleashing productivity and fueling innovation.All government agencies want to deliver great experiences for their employees and customers. Poorexperiences can erode trust whereas great experiences often inspire it. CIOs know this, but they are hindered in their digital journeys by complexity, legacy systems and siloed data.We all share the same goal — simplicity. It begins with understanding how work and data flow through your agency, combined with an outside-in view of your customer interactions. Citizens should be able to interact with the government the way they want, not constrained by outdated legacy systems.The 21st Century IDEA Act is a great step in this direction, and we are just getting started.
How to modernize citizen engagement to create an excellent experience for all
Lessons learned from the City of Buffalo, GSA Centers of Excellence, and LIKE.TGThe concept of citizen engagement has been around for centuries, but the ways in which citizens want to engage are new for our modern times. Today’s citizens have high expectations. When interacting with government agencies, they want service that is similar to what they get from the companies they do business with.This means they want real-time access to information and immediate responses to their questions and concerns, as well as proactive, personalized interactions across a number of different communication channels. While a tall order, this kind of engagement is certainly achievable when you can bring together the right combination of people, technologies, and processes.A recent GovLoop webinar explored what this combination looks like in the real world. Oswaldo Mestre, director of citizen services, City of Buffalo; Brian Whittaker, acting deputy executive director, Centers of Excellence, GSA; and Chris Dilley, CTO for State and Local Government and Education, LIKE.TG, all shared insights into the struggles and successes they have experienced as they worked to transform citizen engagement. Following are a few of the lessons they learned:Know your citizenIt is important to know who you are serving. Who are they? What are their needs? How would they like to be served? You can find out by identifying the channels you have to engage customers – for example, surveys, in-person interviews, and phone calls – and then start asking questions to uncover the biggest pain points and needs. You may already have some assumptions around what needs to be addressed, but it is important to be humble and validate that those assumptions are actually true.For example, when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) talked to customers about the housing process, they were able to pinpoint an opportunity to help seniors get affordable housing. They were able to prioritize this process over other things thanks to firsthand feedback.Remember one size doesn’t fit allIt is important to understand there can be experience, language, and cultural differences within your citizen-base that can influence when, where, and how they want to engage. This means there isn’t going to be one, monolithic way to do something. You have to be prepared to offer a number of options. The key is to ensure everything is tied together on the backend, so the experience can be consistently satisfying.This means work needs to be orchestrated across applications and departments (such as IT, HR, finance, revenue, natural resources, and human services) and consolidated into a single case that can be checked, managed and updated by anyone. That way, it doesn’t matter how the interactions are done – in person, online, via a call, … – it’s easy to pull in (via APIs) and aggregate data from all these different systems and applications.For example, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) surveyed their farmers, ranchers, and producers, they uncovered a chance to streamline the farm loan process, which farmers use to make improvements to their farm operations. The farmers and ranchers actually wanted a blended experience. Many had longstanding relationships with USDA loan officers that went back generations, so it was important to maintain that personal connection. Yet they wanted to digitize some of the steps to reduce trips to the loan office and improve the overall speed and efficiency of the experience.Pay attention to employeesTrying to meet the needs of citizens is important, but so is listening and delivering on what employees want. When it is difficult for employees to do their job or deliver great service, no one is happy - poor experiences lead to low satisfaction all around. It’s not about working harder or faster, it’s about being more productive.Don’t be afraid to replace legacy tools and fragmented processes that are perpetuating complexity, limiting visibility, and stifling collaboration. If you pay attention to your employees and make changes that promote their job satisfaction and productivity, they will be able to focus on the citizens they serve. That will lead to better experiences for mission-driven employees as well as citizens.Get a championA lot of the changes we are discussing are cultural and operational, as much as they are technological, so it is important to have buy in from the top. For the City of Buffalo that meant getting the mayor on board, as well as key champions in each department. They kept everyone part of the process, with regular meetings, updates, and reports, so everyone knew about and was supportive of the changes they were implementing.Recognize every touchpoint is an engagement opportunityEvery interaction, every transaction, is a chance to deepen the relationships you have with your customers, strengthen their opinion, and increase their satisfaction. It doesn’t matter if someone is looking for answers or trying to get a hunting, fishing, business, or driver’s license, it all counts.For example, the City of Buffalo wanted to be more thoughtful around all the interactions they have with their citizens. There are many ways citizens can engage, in person or digitally, via self-service web, mobile applications, and social media channels. The City of Buffalo also has a call center that is staffed by nine contact center reps and one supervisor, almost on a 24x7 basis.They started operationalizing all the opportunities they had to listen and respond to citizens, whether they were contacting the city about a business license, garbage pick-up, or major snowstorm. They started linking information, involving other departments, and holding everyone accountable for citizen engagement, with service level agreements, to drive greater collaboration and faster resolution times.Today, the average call time for the 300,000 calls they get a year is under two minutes, with an average hold time of 35 seconds. They have started proactively using social media to provide updates around progress on events and issues that are resonating with citizens. They also look at all the data they collect from the call center each month to categorize the issues and identify hotspots (locations that have a lot of issues) that need some attention, as well as simple things they can address quickly. One day a month, they schedule a clean sweep to address the little things that have come up. They knock on doors of concerned constituents, fix potholes, and cut down trees out in the community. Since initiating this cohesive effort, which uses all the different mechanisms they have to interact with citizens, the City has seen a dramatic decrease in crime and uptick in engagement.For more insights on transforming citizen experiences, you can listen to the webinar now: “Creating excellent CX - the need for updated customer service management.”
How COVID-19 has accelerated Singapore’s digital citizen services
Singapore’s government and businesses have outpaced global peers in delivering innovative, secure digital services, including healthcare, government support services and education, to citizens.Telehealth, smart-chatbots, mobile apps and distance learning are just a few of the latest digital service offerings that Singaporeans now see as the rule rather than the exception. People are seeking personalised, predictive digital services that just ‘work better’ or fulfil their desires to self-serve.COVID-19 has only heightened demand for services that respond, act, and communicate in ways that complement the human experience. According to Accenture, three out of four Singaporeans support more digital government services, and more than 70% percent expect the Southeast Asian nation state to collaborate with global enterprises to foster more home-grown innovation.Organisations are still battling with many offline processes, but Singapore’s Government has continued to innovate and deliver new technologies to benefit citizens. Singapore’s Smart Nation and Digital Government Group (SNDGG), comprising SNDGO and GovTech, is developing Smart Nation infrastructure and applications, investing millions and partnering with industries to co-create and fast-track the adoption of digital payments, e-invoicing, as well as advanced digital tools such as OneService, ActiveSG, SingPass Mobile, LifeSG and more.A big part of Singapore's digital leadership in 2020 stems from the government’s sustained investment in digital preparedness. Long-standing partnerships between government and industry have built trusted capabilities in new technologies, which drive the Smart Nation agenda. GovTech and several other government agencies are using the Now Platform® to deliver smart experiences for citizens and improve productivity for their employees.Singapore’s government also enables other organisations, industry-wide to build digital foundations, boost ICT and engineering capabilities and innovate within the fast-changing technology landscape. Fostering open conversations with industry leaders on how to help local organizations leverage digital transformation has been a catalyst for the nation’s rapid progress.
A once-in-a-generation opportunityThe pandemic, among many other changes, has also created the opportunity to rethink how we live and work.As Singapores’ economy recovers, the speed to deliver such solutions will be a key focus, with citizens’ security and privacy top of mind. Digital trust is more important than ever, particularly for services that involve personal data. Globally, citizens will increasingly expect governments to set new, national standards across industries with the mandate for connected, secure digital capabilities.With secure, cloud platforms, the possibilities to accelerate personal, secure digital services are endless and rely on enduring collaboration. Fuelling ‘tech for good’ requires common national risk and compliance standards to protect citizens and their data – and that requires continued collective thinking.Thanks to increasing availability of open government datasets, initiatives like the Developers.Data.gov.sg resource have allowed citizen developers to create more than 100 apps. In the fight against COVID-19, Singapore’s facial recognition technology, TraceTogether tokens, and contactless temperature scanners are a few of the local innovations that will likely become mainstream worldwide.Intelligent citizen experiences are simpleThe pandemic has shown just how quickly people and organizations can adjust to new ways – witness the digital transition to online learning; the global shift in many sectors to remote working; and the advances in telemedicine – changes that occurred in weeks that would otherwise have taken years.Digital experiences are table stakes. If an app can track movements of a takeout order down to the minute, then why not the processing of test results, a new passport or property taxes – and a unified payment system for all services?Underpinning these new ways of living and working are powerful cloud-based platforms – including the Now Platform – which deliver secure, compliant digital workflows with intelligent automation.
Re-imagining online citizen engagement
We’ve all been there. You need something from your local or state government agency, so you navigate to their website. But instead of finding what you need quickly, as you would with many consumer sites, the site is a mess.It’s organized by agency department, which you don’t really understand, or it’s not organized at all, with a hodgepodge of information all over the place. The search doesn’t really work, presenting search results that are nowhere near what you’re looking for. You try another tactic and go to Google to search. This presents you with pages of mostly outdated links. These links typically send you deeper into the site, with no context or navigation ability.When you do find what you’re looking for, it’s a PDF. No instructions, just a PDF that you need to fill out with your personal information and then snail-mail back. Oh wait. You also need to fill out another form and submit it to a different agency, so you need to enter all that personal data again.Ugh.Welcome to the unfortunate status quo. Many government websites were created over a decade ago and haven’t been modernized much since. They tend to follow a departmental structure, requiring users to understand departments and agencies to find what they’re looking for. Site content is frequently out of date and delivered in a variety of formats, with no context or clear instructions.On top of that, most website creation software used in the government space isn’t flexible enough to enable content creators to automatically post updates to multiple areas, which means there is typically only one way to get at certain pieces of information. For example, tax credit information for seniors, which should be available on the office of aging page, finance department page, and tax credits page, may only end up being published on the page of the agency that produced that information.It doesn’t have to be this way. There are solutions available that can enable government agencies to reliably deliver an excellent web experience for citizens. A service portal is one such solution. It enables agencies to easily offer services in a logical, structured way that doesn’t rely on citizens having to know the vagaries of a government’s departmental hierarchies. Instead, citizens can find what they are looking for and complete what they are trying to do, quickly and efficiently.Citizens simply register to use the portal, which gives them an account they can log into at any time, from anywhere, to get what they need. They can navigate to the information they are searching for—and if they get stuck, they can easily find their way out and get back on track. They can also track the status of all their requests, such as a license application or pothole report, regardless of the departments, agencies, or people involved. As a result, government agencies can provide an experience akin to ecommerce sites, delivering a consistent, engaging experience that will satisfy constituents.The service portal augments the traditional web site, providing a way for government agencies to organize and present services to vastly improve a citizen’s ability to find and access what they need. It can also take other valuable information, such as frequently asked questions (FAQs), building locations, contact information, facility hours of operation, and trash collection schedules and turn them into knowledge base articles that make them easy for a citizen to search.Machine learning tools can then be applied to continuously improve the relevancy of the results of a visitor’s search to ensure citizens are able to locate the information they’re looking for, fast. It can also be applied to more routine requests to the agency’s public information office, constituent services office, or any public call center. Using a virtual agent, or chatbot, the site can now help visitors discover answers.In this way, government agencies can create self-service capabilities like those at the core of most consumer experiences. For citizens, this will go a long way toward boosting customer satisfaction, while obviating the need to get on the phone with a civil servant. This “case-deflection” can free up the agency’s time, allowing staff to innovate instead of just keeping the lights on.By combining virtual agent or chatbot technology with well-curated knowledge bases, staff can get back valuable time to focus on their mission. This is important to enable them to have the time for those high-touch moments, where a caring employee can make all the difference in someone’s life.Next stepsLook at your department’s or agency’s website and put yourself in a citizen’s shoes. Try to apply for a service. Note the search path and obstacles you encounter. Document any paper-based or telephone-based steps in the process - this is low-hanging fruit for transforming your citizens’ digital experience. Now, consider how a top ecommerce site might present the same information and services you offer. There is your target!Want to learn more about digital transformation in citizen engagement, read how Tennessee DHS redefines the customer experience for government services.
LIKE.TG gains DOD Impact Level 4 authorization
The federal government has reached an inflection point in its digital transformation journey – with increasing security risks and costs associated with legacy systems, modernization is no longer an option, it’s an imperative. Both federal civilian and defense agencies are required to meet ongoing benchmarks to further their modernization efforts, and, as a result, they are turning to enterprise cloud providers to help them achieve this long-standing mission.LIKE.TG today announced that the LIKE.TG GovCommunityCloud obtained the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Impact Level 4 (IL4) Provisional Authority to Operate (P-ATO) in the Security Requirements Guide (SRG) for cloud computing by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). We are the seventh Software-as-a-Service solution provider to obtain this authorization, which will enable the DOD to accelerate its adoption of cloud-based solutions, helping securely move data, including unclassified and personal identifiable information, to the cloud.The DOD is making active strides to migrate its processes to highly secure cloud platforms that have the capabilities to protect mission-critical information from bad actors and expedite its digital transformation.Having recently gained a FedRAMP High authorization for our tailored solution, the DOD IL4 authorization now cements the DOD’s ability to access LIKE.TG’s best-in-class digital experiences for IT, customer and employee workflows. Through this partnership, the DOD can focus on what matters most—providing our military forces what is required to protect the security of the United States—and not worry about the backend processes that take away from that mission.LIKE.TG’s achievement of the DOD IL4 authorization furthers its commitment to the DOD by empowering defense and intelligence agencies to modernize their workflow capabilities for data with higher levels of classification. This authorization will optimize efficiency and deliver greater experiences for military and civilian personnel.
Digital government comes of age
Governments around the world have long understood the advantages of digitising their services. It’s fair to say, however, that most public sector agencies are just beginning their digital journeys.Public agencies face unique challenges compared to the private sector. Notably, they serve citizens rather than customers. This simple difference means greater pressure to deliver digital services within strict budgetary limits while protecting data and complying with regulations.In the age of digital government transformation, government departments also face immense pressure to deliver new solutions, improve agility, and provide governance at pace while their budgets shrink. When you throw in the huge complexity of many public sector organisations – to say nothing of challenges like navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and delivering Brexit in the UK – these challenges look quite imposing.So how should government agencies build and enhance the digital public services of the future?Put citizens and users firstStep one is to focus on two main constituencies: the citizens who consume government services, and the public sector teams that deliver them. Citizens want better experiences and outcomes. Increasingly, they also want to access government services in the same way they interact with consumer brands.The world is going mobile, and so government services like renewing a driver’s license or paying taxes should be mobile-first. Public sector employees also want better experiences and outcomes, whether that’s faster onboarding, streamlined communications or better access to shared data.From the user perspective, public sector IT clearly needs to be simpler, more streamlined and better integrated. Simplifying IT delivery – rather than relying on complicated systems that exist in isolation from each other – is key to delivering better, more efficient, more automated experiences at scale.Respond at speedTake the example of how Buckinghamshire Council – a local government authority in the UK – has used technology to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.When the UK government announced a national lockdown in early 2020, Buckinghamshire Council become the frontline in delivering new, critical services to support the most vulnerable citizens. They included delivering food parcels and medicines, helping isolated citizens living on their own in lockdown, and much more.The Council had to deal with a huge array of new data – both from central government, and from the hundreds of citizens who were asking for support. The key was ensuring that Council staff, community hubs and volunteers all had the right information to act on.A redesign of the Council’s operational approach, bringing together IT, HR and financial services onto the LIKE.TG platform, created a new automated database – with more than 90 fields of essential information that are managed and updated in real time.The end result was a simplified user experience that enabled the Council to respond at pace, ensuring thousands of vulnerable residents received the services they needed.Practical stepsThis example shows that improving digital service delivery doesn’t necessarily require high-profile, complex or flashy projects. In fact, huge benefits can come from practical, straightforward steps designed to simplify infrastructures and processes. Applying digital thinking to IT workflows can quickly highlight repetitive processes that can be streamlined and automated.It bears repeating that digital transformation poses unique challenges for the public sector. Moreover, the drive to implement digital technologies continues to evolve rapidly – moving beyond core IT services to include the adoption of AI, IoT and immersive technologies, for example.The key is taking a step back and viewing the IT challenge as a whole – rather than thinking about individual solutions to individual challenges. Have a clear roadmap and align your tech strategy with your organisational goals, not the other way around.Simplification and consolidation will deliver the service improvements that citizens and government employees deserve.
LIKE.TG named to U.S. Department of Defense Enterprise Software Initiative blanket purchase agreement
LIKE.TG teams with Carahsoft Technology Corp. to provide ITSM tools to governmentLIKE.TG today announced that it has been named a publisher on the Department of Defense (DoD) Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) blanket purchase agreement (BPA) awarded to Carahsoft Technology Corp., The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®. The BPA is signed for a ten-year period of performance through July 14, 2029.Under the agreement, Carahsoft will provide asset management and cybersecurity software, software maintenance support and information technology professional services from LIKE.TG to the DoD, U.S. intelligence community and Coast Guard.
“As the DoD accelerates its digital transformation, delivering quality user experiences and yielding greater cost savings has never been more vital,” said Jonathan Alboum, principal digital strategist for the federal government, ServiceNow. “We are pleased to expand LIKE.TG’s relationship with the Defense Department and are committed to equipping all areas of the organization with the tools needed to meet their mission.”LIKE.TG’s scalable solutions are configured to meet central data reporting mandates and adhere to FedRAMP High security controls. Its automated workflow capabilities enable the DoD to seamlessly move data, including controlled unclassified and personal identifiable information, to the cloud.This BPA supports the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement and is intended to reduce the contracting and open market costs associated with the traditional procurement process, including searching for sources, developing technical documents and solicitations, negotiating contractual terms, and evaluating offers.About the DoD Enterprise Software Initiative (DoD ESI)DoD ESI is an official DoD initiative sponsored by the DoD Chief Information Officer (CIO) to lead in the establishment and management of enterprise COTS IT agreements, assets, and policies. DoD ESI lowers the total cost of ownership across the DoD, Coast Guard and Intelligence Communities for commercial software, IT hardware, and services. Additional information about the DoD ESI can be found at www.esi.mil.
Delivering on the promise of digital citizen services
65 per cent of civil servants think their existing IT infrastructure is partly to blame for holding back departments’ modernisation programmes.*The head of the Government Digital Service (GDS) has warned that departments are guilty of prioritising policy requirements over infrastructure upgrades.The man on the street just wants seamless access to services at a fair cost to the taxpayer.Can cloud-based technology platforms provide the elusive win-win?Mandated to help government work better for everyone by leading digital transformation, the GDS was set up as a centre of excellence to instil a government “digital-by-default” approach. Over the years it has navigated departmental power struggles, austerity, and periods on and off the endangered species list to transform dozens of fundamental services – making them simpler, clearer and faster.It has championed Government as a Platform (GaaP) as a new way of building digital services. It has also provided a set of common tools and guidance, and hired hundreds of people in digital roles across government. This has reversed the public sector’s traditional outsource model, leading it to become one of the biggest technology ‘in-sourcers’. As a result, many departments now boast significant in-house development skills, yet costly legacy systems persist.GaaP promotes sharing and reuse, making it cheaper and easier for service teams across government to design, assemble and build services who are currently frustrated by out-dated inflexible infrastructure and piecemeal procurement processes.This has never been more important with increased pressures including Brexit, accountability and productivity demands. Therefore it’s time to shine a spotlight on the success and failures of initiatives to date in order to move forward, which leaves GaaP at a critical crossroads.For an effective future government, policymaking and service delivery must combine to deliver better outcomes for citizens. Here, leveraging integrated platform economics through flexible, cost-effective and outcome-focused technology infrastructure will be key.How can GDS work to truly transform Whitehall into a platform fit for the digital age?Cloud-based technologies are integral to provide fast, easy, user-friendly experiences that citizens demand. The flexibility this provides enables the government to offer services consumers have come to expect in other areas of their lives. Just look to Amazon 1-click ordering, Uber, or PayPal money transfers as common examples. While research from comScore shows us that 70% of what people consume is through their mobile devices , so they want services such as applying for a drivers licence or claiming taxes to be accessed through this medium – and why shouldn’t they be?Our cloud-based platform utilises intelligent digital workflows that enable government agencies to provide faster, more effective public services with more transparency, and at lower costs. This means repetitive tasks and processes can be taken on, which frees up public sector workers to do more complex work at the same time as offer end users more personalised and self-service experiences.For example, by working with companies like LIKE.TG , departments like the DVLA are starting to implement a digital-first strategy. They now provide a myriad of services via the website, from taxing your vehicle to changing your address, all without having to call and speak to a representative.While Britain’s largest government division, the Department for Work and Pensions previously had no visibility on how they were performing, with LIKE.TG it now has end-to-end oversight of its infrastructure and services. This includes capacity management, availability management and event management. As a result, the department is being empowered to focus more on the user experience, rather than purely on system performance. This outcome should serve as a great example to other public-sector departments of what can be achieved with the right type of technology.There is still a long way to go, however. To progress in the right direction, GDS must ensure that its products and advice remain relevant. Public and private sector innovation must also be leveraged to meet the challenges that the required increasing consumerisation of government services demands – a topic I will explore further in my next post.*Source: tech.newstatesman.com
LIKE.TG welcomes Nichole Francis Reynolds to head new Global Government Relations team
With our purpose to make the world of work, work better for people, LIKE.TG is a strategic partner helping many of the world's biggest companies drive their digital transformation and create great experiences for employees and customers. As LIKE.TG has rapidly grown to more than 12,000 employees serving more than 6,200 customers worldwide, it’s important that we have a voice on the domestic and global policies that shape our business. We’re excited to share that Nichole Francis Reynolds has joined LIKE.TG as vice president of Global Government Relations.In this newly created position, Francis Reynolds, a lawyer, will lead LIKE.TG’s global government affairs, public policy, and advocacy agenda. She will be responsible for educating the public sector about LIKE.TG’s business, our technology, and contributions to our customers and our communities around the world. Francis Reynolds will report to LIKE.TG General Counsel Russell Elmer.“As we grow to a $10 billion company and beyond, helping address technology-related public policy issues important to our company, our customers and people in general is increasingly important. We are thrilled that Nichole Francis Reynolds will help build our government relations program, focusing on issues such as data privacy and governance, digital literacy and technology for good,” said Elmer. “Nichole has a stellar reputation for reaching across the aisle to help create understanding and consensus about issues that matter to everyone.”A seasoned expert in financial services, technology, tax, manufacturing, and workforce development legislation, Nichole brings a proven track record of building bi-partisan alliances and coalitions to accomplish great outcomes for government agencies, Fortune 500 companies, and communities.“LIKE.TG’s award-winning culture and reputation for growth and innovation are second to none,” said Francis Reynolds. “I couldn’t be more proud to advance LIKE.TG’s belief in the power of technology to reduce the complexity in our jobs and make work, work better for people.”
Francis Reynolds brings more than 15 years of legal, corporate, legislative, and third-party coalition-building experience to ServiceNow. Throughout her career, she has earned a reputation for her expertise in legislative processes, financial services, technology, workforce development, tax, manufacturing, and energy.Prior to joining LIKE.TG, Francis Reynolds served as VP and Head of Government and Public Affairs at the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) in Washington, D.C. Before that, she was VP of U.S. Public Policy Community Relations at Mastercard. She also spent ten years on Capitol Hill in a variety of senior leadership and advisory roles.
Highlights from the LIKE.TG Federal Forum
Last week, LIKE.TG hosted its annual Federal Forum, where federal leaders and industry partners convened for one day in Washington, D.C. to discuss how they are digitizing services for federal employees and citizens. Having joined the LIKE.TG team less than a year ago and having previously worked in the federal government, I was fortunate to hear our federal customers share their dynamic stories and learn more about the steps they are taking to accelerate their modernization journey. Here are some of the key highlights from the day:Embracing Digital Evolution: The federal government has reached an inflection point when it comes to addressing the needs of the evolving workforce and meeting the modern day demands of citizens, who expect services to be delivered at the same rate and quality as those in their everyday lives. In his opening remarks, LIKE.TG’s Brian Marvin, Vice President of Federal Sales focused on the federal government’s need to move away from a finite “digital transformation” to a “digital evolution.” In my keynote, I noted that this shift in the landscape has made it more critical than ever for federal agencies to demonstrate value for citizens – their most valuable customers. Federal agencies can demonstrate value through a four-step approach: envisioning value; creating value; validating value; and championing success.Retaining Top Talent How-To’s: To ensure the federal government is successful in its digital evolution, Sherry Van Sloun, Assistant Director of National Intelligence for Human Capital, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, highlighted the critical investment agencies should make in diverse and highly skilled talent. Van Sloun explained that for years, federal agencies prioritized mission systems over their most valuable assets: employees. However, in order to avoid unwanted skills gaps and retention challenges, federal agencies must foster strategic partnerships with private industry to create public-private talent exchanges, which enable their mobile workforce to move between jobs in both industry sectors.
Optimizing Change Management Begins at the Infrastructure Level: José Arrieta, Chief Information Officer, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) held an interesting conversation with his colleague, Perryn Ashmore, Principal Deputy Chief Information Officer and Acting Customer Experience Executive, HHS, to break down the ways they scale their relationships with industry partners to optimize change management across HHS. Arrieta said, “any level of change creates tension – a leader in a federal agency needs to accept and embrace this.” In addition, he explained that in a highly federated environment, the best way to drive change is by focusing a couple of layers below the managerial layer and instead placing a greater emphasis on infrastructure, specifically the human layer and design sessions. Arrieta emphasized that this approach – and I wholeheartedly agree – will ensure federal agencies maximize their budgets and ultimately enable them to show their mission results, such as creating programs to help citizens struggling with opioid addiction.Transforming the Employee Experience at Every Step of the Service Delivery Value Chain: One of the best ways to bolster employee experience is through greater collaboration between agency CIOs and employee experience transformation managers, according to Blair Duncan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Chief Human Capital Officer of HHS. However, current employees weren’t the only focus for the panel, which was led by Greg Horvath, Managing Director of the CIO Advisory at KPMG . Duncan told the crowd that HHS is increasingly looking at ways to strengthen the experiences for prospective candidates in addition to their current workforce.
Managing Robotics Process Automation Enterprise Capabilities: Federal civilian, defense and intelligence communities continue to integrate emerging technology to automate everyday tasks in the workplace. With this in mind, the afternoon sessions were used to showcase best practices for integrating robotics process automation (RPA), AI and machine learning to accelerate the pace of work.Chat with experts at LIKE.TG and other champions in government to learn how to address challenges and unlock your potential.
How government can meet the rising demand for digital services
The pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated digital transformation for organizations of all sizes and across all sectors. With that change, Canadians’ expectations for streamlined, simple digital services are shifting, too.Citizens are now looking for consumer-grade experiences from government. With demand for digital experiences increasing across all generations of Canadians, government has an opportunity to streamline their services for the digital age.We recently polled Canadians to better understand the overall citizen experience while accessing government services. And it’s clear there are some challenges with current processes. But many Canadians believe their experience navigating government services would be simplified if more digital choices were available, such as live chat functions and mobile-friendly options.Click the image below to see our infographic that uncovers more about the opportunities Canadians see for accessing government services and where digital workflows have the potential to transform the experience through speed and simplicity. You can also download the complete Citizen experience in Canada reportAccessibility note: The infographic is transcribed below the graphic.
Transcript of infographicCitizen experience: Unpacking access to government servicesWith the global pandemic putting digital transformation on the fast track, expectations are shifting—including for government. See how Canadians feel about access to government services and where there’s opportunity to deliver great experiences.Experiences matterA great citizen experience has a positive impact on opinions.61% of Canadians say positive experiences with public services improve their overall perception of government.And 56% of Canadians say good experiences increase the chance of future interactions with government.But accessing services can be a challenge.46% of Canadians rely on someone else to help them access public services.Why?3 in 10 need help because the process is too complicated.2 in 10 say they don’t know how to do it or where to go.Starting off on the wrong footChallenges accessing government services start early.6 in 10 Canadians have faced challenges making contact with the right government department.Why?52% say it was hard to get through to support, and phone lines were busy.25% couldn’t find the right contact information they needed.24% got bounced around to different departments.And 40% say they faced a technical challenge, including using the website or portal.Digital can make a differenceDemand for digital is here, with most Canadians preferring to access government services online and on mobile.8 in 10 Canadians think navigating government services would be simpler with more digital tools.What services would help?8 in 10 say greater use of automation or live chat functions.And 3 in 4 want mobile-friendly options.The global pandemic has shifted expectations long term.3 in 4 say the pandemic has made them more open to accessing government services digitally.And 85% want access to government services digitally after the pandemic ends.The digital customer service opportunityConsumer brands are doing a better job of customer service than government.8 in 10 believe consumer companies provide better customer service than government.4 in 10 say better customer service would have improved their recent dealings with government.Governments have an opportunity to deliver the customer service Canadians want with digital tools.84% want real-time support, such as live online chat formats or SMS text messages for real-time support.Deliver a better government digital service experience.See how LIKE.TG can help.servicenow.com/solutions/industry/gov.htmlThis online survey was facilitated by Edelman in collaboration with Angus Reid. The study was in field between March 15 and 20, 2021, in collaboration with Angus Reid. It included a nationally representative sample of 1,500 Canadian adults aged 18+, and was offered in both English and French.
Digital transformation in government and the citizen experience
There are many moving parts when it comes to the digital transformation of government and the citizen experience, and just as many questions about how to make it happen.What lessons can the government learn from the private sector in creating high-quality digital services and experiences for citizens? What role does digital identity play in delivering these services? And what factors would enable the government to simplify its digital transformation journey?We explore the answers to these questions and more in our second episode of the Canadian Leadership Exchange, where we met with Imraan Bashir, partner of cyber and digital solutions at KPMG Canada to discuss how the Canadian government can evolve the way it delivers digital services to its citizens.Imraan breaks down how digital transformation in government should not be treated as a single project to be completed by a certain date. Rather, digital transformation is the ongoing effort of improving agility and responsiveness to ensure government is able to meet the evolving needs of citizens.When it comes to improving how the government manages digital identities and the citizen experience around them, Imraan explains that the various personal attributes and documents belonging to each Canadian need to be handled in way that is privacy respecting and convenient.The Canadian government is currently evolving the way citizens use digital identities by eliminating unnecessary barriers to the experience. In provinces like Alberta and B.C., citizens can possess a digital identity and use it to access both provincial and federal services online without having to manually provide personal information.Watch the video below to learn more about how government can successfully digitize citizen services with a practical approach to digital transformation.
Increasing agility and rapid change during a crisis
Agility within agency information systems is critical in times of rapid change and crisis. Interoperability and transparency are essential to federal agencies’ ability to deliver services which can change to meet fast moving adoption of new business process and policy change. No matter how robust a technology ecosystem becomes, how much data it holds, or how many users it serves, it should never become so complex that it can’t quickly and easily provide insights and meet government agencies’ goals. That means the technology must offer the ability to seamlessly integrate with other technologies and provide full transparency across the agency while maintaining necessary security postures.One proven way federal agencies can enable both integration and organization-wide visibility is to shift from manual-based processes to digital workflows supported by machine learning and artificial intelligence. This type of digital transformation is the driving force behind a modernization strategy that makes it faster, more cost-effective, and easier to share information and provide services while increasing overall contextual awareness across the enterprise.A single platform with digital capabilities, process automation, and machine learning, especially one that’s cloud-based for scalability, can empower agencies to improve the delivery of services and enhance outcomes for their employees and citizens alike. Whether agencies are meeting the needs of military service members, veterans, Medicare beneficiaries, or other citizens, an advanced platform allows them to provide best-in-class services and user experiences.Ensure collaboration via a knowledge hubOne way to get past the challenge of departmental and data silos while bringing new levels of collaboration into the agency is to implement a knowledge hub. The hub can simplify the sharing of information both internally and between outside organizations, healthcare providers, academic institutions, and others.The knowledge hub can also offer a dedicated safe space for innovation. It’s a place for agencies and their partners to share best practices, implement standard operating procedures, and accelerate innovation to advance the delivery of care or other services. In addition, the hub can help with facilitating app rationalization, developing leading-edge technologies, and consolidating sites throughout the organization for a centralized location for information.What makes a knowledge hub successful is a platform that can work with the multiple systems that agencies are currently using. Many organizations rely on a mix of new, legacy, and open-source technologies. It usually doesn’t make sense fiscally or from an operations perspective to replace the entire system. Instead, a platform offering interoperability can connect all of the disparate systems to improve interaction, engagement, information sharing, and identification of market trends.Building a knowledge hub that benefits the entire agency requires the right architecture. Find out how to architect IT to meet critical mission and business needs.Gain cross-agency visibility with digital processesAnother key to reaching agency goals and mandates is having end-to-end visibility. This allows, for example, organizations providing healthcare services to access the electronic health records (EHRs) of military service people or beneficiaries. This provides a line of sight into an individual’s complete medical history, including when and where the person received treatments.With digital processes, agencies can share EHRs with other organizations and providers that have the proper clearance. When service personnel are relocated to different bases or Medicare beneficiaries move to new locations, their records can move with them. Agencies benefit by removing the time-consuming manual process of filling out paper forms. Digitization also avoids having redundant forms that can lead to confusion. Instead, it ensures complete records are readily available to allow providers to make the most informed healthcare decisions.With digital processes and omni-channel visibility, agencies can experience improvements in everything from patient care via faster access to treatments to efficiently scheduling patients with the appropriate providers. Enhanced visibility helps with other business aspects, too. It allows effective communication between stakeholders, offers the ability to view key agency milestones, and enables the tracking of records from their origin to their current status.A new brief from LIKE.TG offers additional details on bringing visibility into an agency, then optimizing the benefits.The Now Platform offers tech integration and transparencyTechnology continues to advance healthcare. With the Now Platform® from LIKE.TG, those advancements can happen at a faster pace through agency and industry collaboration, and with full visibility across digital workflows.The modern digital platform helps federal agencies realize the promise of health IT. The platform has been shown to cut manual government processes from four to six weeks to just one to two days. It has delivered time-to-value productivity gains by end users that amounted to more than $20 million over three years.Organizations that accelerated their development efforts of apps and digital business processes with the platform improved their Net Promoter Score (NPS) by 29 percent and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) by 25 percent. The platform can help any agency reach its goals faster and get more value from current technologies already in place.
5 ways federal agencies can augment a zero-trust architecture
A May 2021 executive order mandated that federal government agencies invest in both technology and personnel to centralize and streamline access to cybersecurity data, accelerate migration to secure cloud architectures, and advance toward a zero-trust architecture.A zero-trust architecture doesn’t refer to a predefined, out-of-the-box network security solution. It’s a strategy based on an agency’s cybersecurity plan that contains a collection of zero-trust concepts. It requires multiple security solutions that cybersecurity teams need to orchestrate in their environment.To help avoid disruption to daily operations, federal agencies can simplify their zero-trust architecture by including an enterprise platform strategy. This will help centralize and streamline cybersecurity data using multiple technologies from different manufacturers to avoid silos.The Now Platform® is a single, cloud-based architecture platform that provides enterprise capabilities for legacy software, point security solutions, and agency workflows. It can augment a zero-trust architecture by addressing five high-level goals identified by the Joint Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and National Security Agency (NSA) zero trust engineering team.1. Modernize information enterpriseAccording to the DOD Zero Trust Reference Architecture, IT modernization includes eliminating agency or command silos. In the past, federal agencies divided IT responsibilities and IT budgets along organizational, operational, and doctrinal boundaries. This led to the development of many capabilities in silos, multiple security philosophies, and multiple security solutions installed in the environment.A zero-trust framework gives an agency the flexibility to choose best-of-breed technologies that best meet their zero-trust cybersecurity expectations. However, having a variety of technologies from different manufacturers on the network could introduce complexity and impede operations.The Now Platform has a single data model and contains powerful cross-functional workflows that connect people, functions, and systems in a zero-trust environment. With extensive third-party integration capabilities, the Now Platform can connect security solutions selected by an agency, helping network administrators bridge organizational gaps, technology gaps, and process gaps.2. Simplify security architectureThe Zero Trust Reference Architecture document claims, “A fragmented approach to information technology and cybersecurity has led to excessive technical complexity, which creates vulnerabilities...and high levels of latency.”When connected to the Now Platform, security solutions and monitoring tools can be coordinated to work simultaneously to respond to security events. They can activate automated cross-functional workflows to notify security officers, quarantine suspect systems, update vulnerable assets, and lock suspicious accounts.The Now Platform can correlate threat intelligence feeds collected from multiple security tools, providing agencies with an integrated, real-time view of compliance and risk across the entire agency. This could save administrators time on analysis while providing them with streamlined critical information to make informed policy decisions.Security Incident Response, a SOAR security solution on the Now Platform, is a key component of a zero-trust architecture. It can be configured to consume data from point security solutions or from a security information and event manager (SIEM) solution, such as Splunk, so that incidents can be automatically prioritized.
3. Produce consistent policyTo achieve and maintain a zero-trust architecture, administrators must be consistent when applying policies. If policies are not clearly defined, documented, or enforced by agency security applications and secure workflows, the agency could be at greater risk of a security breach.“Waivers and exceptions to written policies, based on short-term operational needs, have led to inconsistently managed, reconfigured, and/or disabled security systems, thereby making them porous and ineffective,” the DOD Zero Trust Reference Architecture reports.To maintain a healthy zero-trust architecture, cybersecurity administrators define security policies so they can control hardware and software configurations on the production network. Policies are also defined for onboarding new capabilities, new or updated software packages, new or updated services, new IT hardware, new cloud providers, and new personnel roles.The Now Platform can be leveraged to support an agency’s IT acquisition policies. Powerful onboarding workflows can provide governance to an agency’s acquisition processes, helping to ensure a security and risk evaluation is performed prior to a technology purchase or an installation.ITIL change management capabilities on the platform can help administrators prioritize configuration change requests. Subsequently, change request workflows will help ensure each request is properly analyzed and approved before it’s implemented into the production environment.4. Optimize data management operationsThe DOD Zero Trust Reference Architecture states, “While data standards and policy exist, they are disparate and inconsistently implemented.” As a result, challenges exist between applications, organizations, and external partners. Many agencies are not able to “fully leverage the benefits of cloud computing, data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.”Cybersecurity administrators can centralize and streamline access to cybersecurity data by integrating agency security tools and solutions into the Now Platform. Platform integration provides a central repository for agency security tools to exchange data or to share relevant information. It also gives analysts quick access to all the information they need to make informed policy decisions.When cybersecurity data is centralized and streamlined, machine learning frameworks available on the Now Platform will be able to analyze enormous amounts of data in seconds, providing analysts the information they need to produce relevant knowledge articles. Furthermore, text analysis processes that are powered by artificial intelligence (AI) will help security administrators identify major incidents while providing suggestions for mitigating problems.5. Provide dynamic credentialing and authorizationIdentity, credential, and access management (ICAM) is designed to create a secure and trusted environment in which users can access authorized resources. ICAM allows the agency to see who is on the network at any given time.The Now Platform can help administrators support their ICAM security solutions by providing a self-service portal with predefined “access request” workflows with approval capabilities that document each request. This creates an audit trail with detailed information about the request, such as why an employee needs to access a resource and for how long access is required.When access is approved, workflows can notify resource owners or trigger additional processes external to the platform. The Service Catalog can also provide prepackaged onboarding requests that trigger automated workflows to request a Common Access Card (CAC) and network access for a new employee.Learn more about how LIKE.TG helps government agencies improve efficiency.
How government agencies are improving citizen and employee experiences
Government agencies had to adapt to a rapid increase in demand for services in 2020. They also had to adjust to a remote workforce. Many found themselves picking up the pace of their digital transformations and trying to modernize during a global health crisis. Perhaps above all else, many learned the importance of using the right digital tools, platforms, and services.They still have a long way to go. Government agencies have traditionally purchased technologies that support silos serving their department functions well, but they don’t allow information sharing across departments.A human-centric design approachLIKE.TG helps agencies accelerate their technology strategies to synthesize silos of excellence and create cross-functional systems of record. The goal is to deliver a commercial-like experience when providing citizens with enterprise services.For instance, the mayor of Los Angeles requested a system that helps citizens find COVID-19 testing stations, monitors how many people use them, and tracks positive results. LIKE.TG helped the city design, build, and launch a custom COVID-19 testing app in only 72 hours. It was a quick process because the Now Platform has out-of-the-box applications, already certified and accredited, that an agency can subscribe to as needed.LIKE.TG also helped when Delaware’s unemployment claims increased dramatically during COVID-19, jumping from about 450 to 16,000 per week in the pandemic’s first month. The state unemployment agency had no metrics to track the number of open cases pouring in from multiple websites, emails, and call centers—nor did it know how long it took to process claims.The agency got LIKE.TG App Engine up and running as a temporary solution in one week. Then, it brought in LIKE.TG Elite Partner GlideFast Consulting, which introduced a self-service portal with virtual agents and 24 new knowledge bases. All that streamlining enabled Delaware to process 35,000 unemployment cases in just a few weeks, about the number it had previously handled in an entire year.A McKinsey podcast notes very few government agencies use artificial intelligence (AI) or supervised machine learning. The Now Platform can provide those capabilities to help accelerate digital transformation and a human-centric design approach.
Enhanced human decision-makingModernizing the workforce and adopting new technologies:
Empowers employees
Consolidates human resources functions
Improves workforce efficiency
Allows faster productivity
Lowers costs
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, a government organization that supports New Zealand businesses around the globe, used LIKE.TG to develop six unique employee journeys. The employee experience was considered the top priority, and the solutions—such as one for new hires that covers everything a new employee needs to do and know—were a big hit.As a result, the company’s net promoter score for employee experience, specifically with people leader experience, went up almost 100 points.Enterprise service deliveryMany government agencies still use paper-based systems and manual processes. Digital transformation can help them create a modern and agile IT infrastructure. Government agencies at all levels, of course, require highly secure environments when operating in the cloud—and they can get that with ServiceNow.The fully certified and accredited Now Platform deployed in Microsoft Azure cloud service has many levels of security certifications. LIKE.TG provides more than 80 different compliance standards through Azure.Download the Government Book of Knowledge to learn more about how your government agency can better meet external and internal expectations.
Modernizing service delivery for government employees and citizens
Modern digital experiences play a major role in how government agencies serve their communities. Digital enhancements can streamline processes, improving reliability and accessibility for employees and citizens.Both groups need to access services through multiple channels. Modernized solutions that enhance employee experiences can improve service delivery across the board.Simplifying employee experiencesIn our seventh episode of the Canadian Leadership Exchange, we spoke with Sheila Robinson, assistant deputy minister and chief information officer at British Columbia’s Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction. She shared how the ministry is improving digital experiences within its Information Services Division (ISD) so that ministry employees can better deliver services to British Columbians.To offer service delivery throughout the ministry virtually, and to provide remote access for those delivering and receiving services, ISD looks for digital tools and platforms that are intuitive, accessible, manageable, and data-centric—without increasing workload.Throughout the public sector, services need to be modern, accessible, and streamlined. Robinson sees three fundamental shifts driving digital accessibility:
Hybrid models
Virtual and face-to-face delivery of services
Services provided through apps
Ensuring digital transformation successAs leaders embark on transformation initiatives within their workplaces, people-centered solutions can help break down silos between departments. This streamlines workflows across teams and can significantly improve project delivery times.Robinson’s team collected feedback from staff about which solutions worked and which didn't. From there, they focused on creating a single source of truth, built on LIKE.TG, that would provide real-time insights. This allowed teams to see and share how their services were being used and where improvements could be made.Watch the video to learn more about how the ISD enhanced employee experiences and service delivery through transformative digital solutions:
4 trends shaping the future of federal government work
At LIKE.TG's annual Federal Forum in March 2022, more than 1,400 government leaders and contractors convened for the first time since the start of the pandemic. We recently surpassed the two-year mark of a rapid shift to remote work, and federal leaders reflected on the widespread modernization that took place during this period.Although the number of federal employees returning to offices continues to rise, according to Axios, the world of work has changed dramatically. As it continues to take shape, speakers underscored the importance of federal employees using agile, efficient, and effective workflows.Let’s explore four key topics from the event that are shaping the future of federal government work.1. Hyperautomation and zero-trust architectureThe pandemic illuminated outdated and inefficient workflows across the federal government, which initially hindered employees from working productively at home. In the Digital Transformation in the Modern Workplace and Embracing Zero Trust for a Resilient Federal Government sessions, federal leaders explained how a shift to remote work and policies, such as President Biden’s Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity spurred their agencies to:
Modernize legacy applications.
Embrace automated solutions.
Deploy zero-trust cybersecurity strategies that allow employees to securely work from anywhere.
The US Department of State operates embassies in more than 190 countries, in addition to 29 domestic offices. Ken Rogers, chief digital strategist at the department, acknowledged some agencies and bureaus within the organization were further along in their modernization journey than others at the start of the pandemic. His team helped integrate tools across the State Department for all employees to use to enhance productivity and achieve their unique mission goals.“It’s been a continuous process of technology iterating far faster than an organization can adapt, so you really have to think through where does the value of the technology meet the business of the organization,” he said. “[This ensures that] I’m introducing the right things to the organization and not stressing the organization out because change is such a challenge for everyone.”Rogers explained that by consolidating the State Department’s contracts and migrating to the Now Platform®, his team achieved greater continuity and, ultimately, enhanced employee experiences and workflows.
2. Attracting Gen Z talentIT mandates continue to serve as forcing functions of digital transformation across the federal government. In the Lunch and Congressional Commitment to IT Modernization panel, Nichole Francis Reynolds, vice president and head of global government relations at LIKE.TG, spoke with members of Congress about the modernization efforts agencies must make in 2022 to help attract and retain federal talent.Less than 7% of the federal workforce is under the age of 30, according to the Partnership for Public Service. More than 29% is above the age of 55, meaning hundreds of thousands of jobs will soon become vacant due to expected retirements.Rep. Gerry Connolly illustrated the importance of enacting policies that provide lower barriers to entry for younger talent, including internship opportunities, hybrid work models, and streamlined hiring processes.3. DEIA initiatives and equal opportunitiesIn addition to the pieces of legislation Rep. Connolly outlined, the Biden Administration’s Executive Order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility provides a blueprint for agencies to modernize their recruitment efforts. LIKE.TG Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer Karen Pavlin led a panel on the ways agencies can advocate for—and empower—diverse individuals in the federal workforce.“We recognize we have to stay competitive, not just as a federal agency, but also as an employer of choice across all sectors,” said Traci DiMartini, chief human capital officer at the US General Services Administration (GSA). “The only way we’re going to do that is by embracing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.”DiMartini and her team established GSA’s equity team. It’s a group of cross-functional leaders who are committed to identifying and understanding the barriers that policies and programs present to supporting underserved communities.Establishing decision-making teams with varied perspectives and using tools such as data analytics in the recruitment process can help. Moves like these can ensure all current and prospective federal employees have equal opportunities to advance in their careers within the federal government—our nation’s largest employer.
4. Accelerating service deliveryAt the height of the pandemic, Americans relied heavily on government services, from small business owners obtaining relief funds to citizens collecting stimulus funds and information about COVID-19.I had the privilege of moderating the last panel session of the day, Accelerating Service Delivery, where federal and IT leaders explored the implications of the President’s Management Agenda and the Customer Experience Executive Order. We discussed how agencies can carry forth the administration’s vision by using automation, analytics, and enterprise software delivery with low-code development.Barbara Morton, deputy chief veterans experience officer at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), stressed the importance of operationalizing moments that matter most for customers. Her team conducted in-depth interviews with veterans to understand the quality of care they received when visiting medical facilities.These insights informed new programs, such as the Red Coat Ambassador Program, and technology, including a redesign of VA.gov, which Morton’s team deployed to improve veteran satisfaction levels by nearly 20%.The VA recently appointed its first chief design strategist and team of customer experience strategists and design specialists. Morton said this allows the organization to navigate the culture of government while prioritizing the needs of veterans.Looking aheadThe next year will undoubtedly present many opportunities for federal agencies to accelerate their digital transformation and shape the future of work. Our team continues to serve as a trusted partner to the federal government in helping them achieve these mission goals.At the Federal Forum, we shared our Impact Level 5 provisional authorization. It will enable the US Department of Defense, its mission partners, and select federal agencies to further modernize by moving highly sensitive data, including controlled unclassified information and unclassified national security systems, to LIKE.TG cloud-based solutions hosted on Microsoft Azure Government.Watch the Federal Forum sessions on demand.
How private and public sector organizations can better serve veterans
As we continue to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice made by service members following the 77th anniversary of D-Day, which took place on Sunday, June 6, we recognize the invaluable contributions all servicemen and women have made—they’re the backbone of our nation.We also recognize and appreciate the support military families provide. And yet, all too often, US veterans are overlooked when transitioning from active military duty to civilian life.As a US veteran, I have firsthand experience in making this career move and know how daunting it can be. Private and public sector organizations have a collective responsibility to ensure these individuals are given the necessary tools, resources, and training opportunities to enable a successful transition into professional life after leaving active duty. While there are countless ways to support our veterans, reskilling and providing better access to medical services are two examples of how to make an impact.Provide training opportunitiesThe social distancing requirements associated with COVID-19 impacted American jobs across industries. A study by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed the pandemic likely caused the unemployment rates for veterans to rise in 2020 for both males (6.5%) and females (6.7%). With more veterans out of work, it’s critical for organizations to provide access to training opportunities that will help unemployed vets build the skills employers in high-demand industries value.The federal government has expressed interest in investing in partnerships with other government organizations, businesses, and higher education institutions to provide citizens with greater access to job training, which means veterans will likely have more reskilling opportunities.Key industries are uniquely positioned to develop training programs and employment opportunities that are specifically designed for vets. Although some private organizations are already granting veterans access to training programs that offer certifications, these programs tend to vary in size. That’s why more organizations might consider developing their own programs as a way of helping vets re-enter the workforce.Veterans possess the soft skills needed to excel in many different professional environments, especially in IT. However, they often struggle to showcase these skills on their resumes. The ability to lead people, solve problems, create and collaborate with teams, and adapt to change are competencies valued in the civilian workforce.With the help of certification programs and guidance from trusted HR organizations, veterans can build tactical skills and gain a better understanding of how to translate the expertise from their military careers.Improve healthcare accessIn addition to ensuring veterans are equipped with the skills needed to re-enter the workforce, it’s imperative that we provide better access to healthcare services through the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).Last year, the VA was awarded $19.6 billion in supplemental funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19.A majority of these funds went to the Veterans Health Administration and the VA Office of Information Technology. Although the VA Office of Information Technology used some of its funds to expand its telehealth capabilities, $9 billion hasn’t been used yet, according to the US Government Accountability Office.This suggests there are still opportunities for the VA to enhance veterans’ access to hospital services using the untapped funding. This includes investing in tools that can improve the healthcare services and overall experiences veterans receive, as well as vaccine management tools, such as those offered by LIKE.TG, which can streamline the time it takes to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine.It also includes investing in workflow technologies that help return the VA’s federal employees back to work, improve citizen and veteran services, and create better experiences.As we honor our vets who served on D-Day, we can and should do our utmost to support all vets returning to civilian life, with both industry and federal leaders identifying opportunities to support veterans during this inflection point. While there are many additional ways we can make a difference, setting these individuals up for success and providing better access to health services are two great ways to say “thank you.”Learn more about how LIKE.TG supports veterans through government workflow solutions.LIKE.TG, the LIKE.TG logo, Now, and other LIKE.TG marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of LIKE.TG, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
Transforming citizen experiences in federal healthcare agencies
Throughout my career as a federal government CIO, my teams and I continually strived to provide the best possible experience to anyone who interacted with our agency. In the age of COVID-19, this sentiment has never been truer, especially for agencies providing healthcare services to citizens, beneficiaries, veterans, or others.Government CIOs, like their private sector counterparts, are prioritizing the citizen experience to improve health service quality and access. Their focus is ensuring that every citizen interaction is consistent, visible, and relevant across all channels. The challenge healthcare organizations face, both in the public and private sectors, is that they can’t easily access and analyze all relevant data. Various departments using their own information, coupled with voluminous third-party data sets and data tools, has resulted in ever-growing numbers of data silos.Solving this problem and delivering consistent and relevant omni-channel citizen focused healthcare experiences must start with a platform that is highly scalable and capable of deep integration across a variety of tools. This type of platform, along with a company culture that trusts and embraces data, allows organizations to accurately predict and respond to citizen needs. Those responses can be automated, self-service, or via representatives who have data at their fingertips to make informed decisions.Best practices pave the way to better experiencesThe private sector is providing higher customer satisfaction than federal agencies, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. As a result, healthcare agencies are paying higher costs and dealing with more citizen frustration than private companies.Industries like retail are stitching together a comprehensive 360-degree view of their customers. The view allows companies to develop products and services to meet customer needs, and also understand how to curate meaningful customer journeys and hyper-personalized communications.Federal healthcare agencies are starting to take a similar approach. According to IDC, 26 percent of agency executives are deploying key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the customer experience and advocacy. See IDC’s advice for how agencies can implement private sector best practices to enhance the customer experience.The government should follow suit by using data to better understand the citizens they serve. For healthcare service providers, this can include social determinants of health, medical histories, prescription drug use, and other relevant information. These details help agencies better meet beneficiaries’ needs, which in turn improves health outcomes, lowers costs, and increases citizen satisfaction.Digital workflows connect and improve patient careFederal healthcare agencies have a mandate to move toward digitalization. Digital workflows and processes enable a range of benefits, including automation, fast and easy information sharing, and improved service quality. To optimize digitalization, agencies need a single, centralized platform that’s capable of integrating data and workflows from across the federal, state, and local healthcare ecosystem, then sharing the insights.A common problem with many legacy systems is that they don’t offer interoperability. The inability to connect technologies and offer visibility into data sets limits digital capabilities, which in turn negatively impacts the citizen experience. By contrast, a platform built for workflow will facilitate collaboration, the sharing of best practices, and drive innovation, all of which will improve medical care and the delivery of innovative health services.The right platform can also consolidate data in a single location while providing cross-functional agency workflows, with the citizen at the center. This allows agencies to improve health service quality, access, and citizen experiences through effective and efficient care. To get started, review the 10 steps to transforming the customer service experience using automation, machine learning, AI, and other advanced processes.Develop a responsive citizen service environmentFederal agencies at the forefront of digital transformation are using digital solutions to automate manual or paper-based processes. They are saving time, money, and resources by eliminating redundant processes. Automated processes can also highlight and prioritize citizen needs. This helps agencies respond quickly to enable better outcomes, reduce overall costs, and ensure continuity of care.Digital processes also improve self-service capabilities. Citizens or their families can access forms quickly, fill them out only once, have them securely shared with the proper healthcare providers, and have full transparency into who is using them.These same techniques can lower the cost of healthcare. One way to do this is by investing in a platform that can serve as a knowledge center or provide knowledge-center support. This allows anyone with the proper authority to access digital forms, data, or other information from any location at any time. Platforms like this can offer cloud-based customer service management (CSM) solutions to enable an intelligent digital transformation that remains focused on the citizen experience.In federal healthcare agencies, CSM takes a patient or beneficiary-centric approach to digital experiences, rather than an agency-centric view. CSM applications can provide citizen information management in areas such as customer history, problem tracking, and contact management. For answers about creating citizen service excellence using CSM, read this QA from IDC.Enhance citizen experiences using an advanced platformThe Now Platform® from LIKE.TG offers all the core capabilities that enable federal healthcare agencies to quickly and efficiently digitize workflows and run them at scale. It delivers enhanced omnichannel experiences through a single platform to accelerate innovation and reduce issue resolution times. With LIKE.TG’s support, agencies can deliver on their mandate to improve health service, quality, access, and experience through effective and efficient care.
Governments need a Total Experience model for service delivery
At its core, government should be human centered. To deliver the best experiences for people, agencies must put citizens and employees first. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for many public sector agencies to rely on legacy operating models to get work done. These models were not built with the user in mind, but rather the task at hand. Now, as governments tackle digital transformation, new opportunities arise to make service delivery and operations more human and more citizen-centric.Government has entered an era of human-centered design, where priority is placed on people’s needs and what is most convenient for them. It’s about putting user experience first.What it takes to build an experience-led agencyEmployee Experience (EX) and Customer Experience (CX) have both become major priorities for many government agencies. While both are clearly important, they are often treated separately, creating missed opportunities for truly transformational experiences.The future of government work is changing. As technology advances, demographics shift, and citizen expectations evolve, agencies are re-evaluating and rearchitecting how work gets done. Governments need to adapt and consider how to improve all interactions, both employee and citizen.There’s an undeniable link between a good employee experience and better citizen experience. When employees are happy and motivated, they provide better service for citizens. But experiences can’t be improved overnight. It’s the intersection between humans, processes, and technology that yields the biggest change.Total Experience (TX), a strategy that creates superior shared experiences by connecting the employee and customer experiences, seeks to unite these for a better outcome for all concerned.The role of technology in TX“It’s human-centric products and services that make the best use of emerging and emerged technologies, be they the relatively simple website to advanced AI enabled by the cloud,” said Simon Cooper, director of digital government-focused customer strategy at Deloitte. “That in turn transforms how government operates and how those experiences are delivered in terms of services.”The public sector is seeing growing demand for faster, digitally-enabled service delivery. Technologies such as AI, automation, and cloud are helping agencies meet that demand. Deloitte outlines how automation and AI provide an opportunity to improve efficiency and ease the burden for employees and citizens by:· Doing more work: Computers can process more data at a higher speed—enabling more work to get done without increasing employee workload.· Doing work better: Optimized processes help agencies improve quality, lower costs, and enhance speed—freeing up employee time for more strategic tasks.· Doing work differently: AI gives agencies the ability to redesign work as a partnership between human workers and intelligent machines—taking advantage of the unique strengths of both.With the implementation of automation and AI into day-to-day processes, employees can focus their efforts on more pressing and high-level issues. This means employees are more satisfied and can deliver better experiences for citizens. But despite the potential that digital technologies offer to government, innovating with a TX lens comes with its challenges.Removing the roadblocks to building the government of the futureThe government of the future will be experience-driven—but getting there is no simple task. Like any new initiative, government leaders face their own set of challenges in building experience-driven agencies. A 2021 LIKE.TG and ESI ThoughtLab report surveyed 900 senior business leaders in five industries across 13 countries to identify the top-of-mind challenges leaders face when building an experience-driven organization:1. Uncertainty around the potential ROI and business case, as an experience focus is still a new concept for many leaders and management teams2. Lack of shared metrics for EX and CX, making it daunting to bridge the gap and develop a unified strategy3. Overall employee resistance to change driven by employees wanting to stick to known approaches and ways of operatingHow these challenges are addressed will influence the success of your TX strategy. To be truly experience-driven, government agencies will need to go beyond treating customer and employee experiences as separate disciplines and take a TX approach to interactions. With a more holistic strategy, agencies can improve citizen outcomes, lower errors and costs in government processes and programs, and better attract and retain an engaged workforce.Discover how government leaders globally are driving total experience efforts.
How Australia can elevate government customer experience
The pandemic shifted us all online, whether we wanted to or not. It forced the public sector to adapt more than most industries, requiring citizens to interact digitally with governments to receive the health and financial support available to them.Digital technology promises to elevate government customer experience (CX) by scaling services, cutting wait times, and reducing costs. Yet, according to the 2022 LIKE.TG customer experience survey in Australia and New Zealand, government services haven’t maintained fast, responsive digital delivery. Consumers called out the public sector as one of the worst-performing industries when it comes to CX.What can governments do to improve CX outcomes? Here are three steps.Connect the disconnectedOne unique challenge the public sector faces is the need to provide for everyone. That requires designing experiences for both people who are connected and comfortable with technology and those who aren’t or don’t have access.According to a 2021 EY report, nearly one-third of people believe technology will not be equally available to all groups in society.That’s true in Australia, where many people living in remote and rural areas lack access to technology and/or reliable internet. Some Australians could be left behind.The EY report further found one-third of citizens want governments to use more digital technologies for service provision and bridge the technology and connectivity gap.Ask for feedbackGovernment agencies and departments must listen to what taxpayers are saying. Then they need to incorporate that feedback into their service offerings.“Digital transformation is only successful if it provides a better experience than before—and the only way to know that is by getting good feedback,” shared Victor Dominello, minister for customer service and digital government in New South Wales, at Knowledge 2022.Traditionally, governments didn’t want to know what people thought, he added. “But you can’t elevate the citizen experience unless you understand it. Now we’re actively inviting and providing easy channels to capture feedback...It’s a massive culture shift.”
Share dataLIKE.TG research revealed speed is the most important factor in good service for Australians. One way governments can improve this area is introducing a digital ID to validate residents so they don’t need to repeat themselves or log in multiple times.The Australian government has made some progress on this front, with its myGov portal for multiple services. It’s still limited to a handful of departments, as many state and local governments vary in their digital maturity.This technology offers promise. When the Department of Home Affairs introduced portals to manage returning citizens during the pandemic, they cleared a backlog, accelerated processing, and removed the risk of human error.The key to success with these types of technologies is data sharing, the absence of which is a concern for consumers, according to the LIKE.TG research. Nearly half (44%) believe a lack of ownership between departments leads to bad service. Additionally, 41% believe inefficient communication within an organization results in poor experiences.Connecting teams through technology and enabling data sharing can give governments a 360-degree view of the citizen experience. With this, agencies and departments can provide faster services arranged around an individual’s needs and life experience.What does the future look like?If a government is going to have a comprehensive view of its population to provide effective digital services, it needs to capture data from multiple sources and make that data available to all services that require it.One example is NSW Health’s IT platform, HOPE, which was co-designed by consumers, clinicians, and managers across New South Wales in partnership with the Agency for Clinical Innovation, eHealth NSW, and the NSW Ministry of Health. It’s built on the Now Platform.The system allows both consumers and clinicians to access real-time information, better understand what matters to patients, and support shared decision-making about care, treatment, and health interventions. It’s making services faster, more collaborative, and responsive to individual needs.It can also take data from both digital and analog inputs so that anyone can benefit—regardless of their digital capabilities.Improving government CX isn’t the work of a moment. By listening, incorporating feedback, and creating easy-to-access and compelling linked digital services, governments can deliver a seamless experience—one that leaves no one behind.Find out more about how technology can improve public sector services.
How secure tech can improve public service delivery in Australia
Australia’s government has big aspirations to increase public service capability and capacity. By reducing its reliance on external firms and bringing capabilities in-house, the government hopes to boost efficiency, improve spending, and become a more equitable, inclusive employer.This transition won’t necessarily be easy. Manual processes and disparate legacy systems will make it difficult for government agencies to deliver great employee experiences. To accelerate and expand its capacity to deliver services, government must streamline its digital infrastructure to:
Optimize the way public servants do their work
Automate repetitive, manual processes
Empower people to do their best work
At the same time, the Security Legislation Amendment aims to improve the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure in response to increasingly frequent and severe cyberthreats. Agencies must align the need for rapid digital transformation with critical security and compliance requirements, but how?Rising need for public service transformationMost government agencies rely on multiple legacy systems to complete work and uphold critical security requirements. Take the public service application process, for example. To address the current labor shortage, agencies are expected to hire thousands of new employees. If only 10% of applicants move on to the interview stage (as commonly projected), some agencies could be left juggling tens of thousands of applicants.Inefficiencies and opportunities for human error abound, from toggling between systems to entering data manually. Add in the need for comprehensive background checks and detailed onboarding for this high volume of workers, and the process quickly becomes unwieldy. It’s clear legacy systems and manual processes won’t be able to keep up.To improve recruitment efforts and track the talent pipeline more effectively, agencies need to simplify their onboarding processes. Automating an inefficient and error-prone process can exponentially amplify inefficiencies and errors.When done right, optimization followed by automation can free government workers to focus on high-value tasks, improving employee experiences and satisfaction.
Balancing security and complianceThe need for rapid digital transformation is clear, but government can’t compromise when it comes to security. Amid the Security Legislation Amendment, critical infrastructure entities—including government agencies—must adapt while supporting digital resiliency. The amendment emphasizes risk management planning and mandates incident reporting for systems of national significance.Compliance with these regulations will include giving government agencies:
Full visibility into IT and operational technology assets on their networks
Complete awareness of vulnerabilities
The ability to respond to threats quickly and effectively
Building the future of governmentThe LIKE.TG Protected Platform is uniquely positioned to help address these needs. Built on Microsoft Azure, it gives agencies access to the capabilities and utility of the Now Platform while keeping their data and support in Australia. Because the LIKE.TG Protected Platform is a software as a service (SaaS) platform, it’s possible to deploy it in weeks rather than years. The platform is assessed at the PROTECTED level by an independent assessor for the Information Security Registered Assessors Program (IRAP), assisting with the security and resilience of critical data and infrastructure.The secure platform empowers government to rapidly onboard new public servants, expand capacity, and comply with increasingly rigorous security standards.
Delivering real resultsIn May 2022, Australia’s Department of Industry, Science, Energy, and Resources (DISR) successfully implemented the LIKE.TG Protected Platform to streamline and automate enterprise service management for more than 4,000 employees. The department procured and implemented the platform in less than six months.“By using one platform to manage complex tasks and requests, we have improved our automation and streamlined a range of administrative tasks, enabling us to assign team members to more important work,” says Steve Stirling, general manager of ICT operations at DISR.“In our work with more than 100 Australian state and federal agencies, we see them facing increasing demands to deliver more with less,” says Eric Swift, vice president and managing director of LIKE.TG for Australia and New Zealand.“As a result of this go‑live, DISR will significantly improve its employees’ experience so staff can focus on what’s important: improving outcomes for citizens. In both the private and public sectors, outstanding digital experiences for employees are the key to unlocking productivity and freeing up time,” he adds. “This is driving significant demand from a range of regulated industries for the LIKE.TG Protected Platform.”Find out more about how the LIKE.TG Protected Platform helps public services optimize and automate to complete work efficiently and securely.
3 ways to harness the power of low-code in government & public services
In the digital era, consumers measure the quality of a business experience against the best encounters they’ve had, regardless of industry.That means if they’ve enjoyed top-tier convenience and satisfaction from a streaming service or food delivery app, they expect the same level of excellence from every other business they interact with—even their local government or other public services.To provide the intuitive and seamless experiences citizens demand, government agencies need to offer simplified, unified, digital services. The power of low-code can help in three ways.1. Converting backlogs into swift assistanceLow-code solutions provide a transformative way for public sector organizations to quickly create solutions to address the biggest challenges facing their business. By enabling nontechnical employees to develop their own applications, low-code can streamline workflows, reduce bottlenecks, shorten queue times, and speed up project delivery.Gartner® predicts “over 35% of government legacy applications will be replaced by solutions developed on low-code application platforms and maintained by fusion teams by 2025.”1The City of Los Angeles created and deployed a custom low-code app in just two months to process a greater volume of applications for emergency rental units, such as oxygen tanks and other life-saving machinery, faster and more efficiently.Thanks to the optimized application process, including a specialized customer service hotline, the city was able to capture 4,800 rental applications on the app’s launch day and an additional 60,000 applications over the following two weeks. As a result, the city is getting help to those in need in a much timelier fashion.2. Unifying services across agenciesMany government websites require members of the public to manually complete forms. Whether a completed form is delivered to the correct agency is another matter. That’s because government agencies often struggle with siloed IT functions across dozens of departments.Low-code can enable governments to unite disparate departments, unify legacy systems, and connect agencies so that they work in harmony. This allows teams to guide users with a visual sequence of ongoing service tasks.Citizens can access a one-stop shop for all public-facing services. Employees benefit from access to the same single system of record. This helps eliminate departmental silos and encourages greater collaboration.When the New South Wales Government of Australia needed to coordinate multi-agency disaster response across the 300,000-square-mile state, it launched a low-code app in just one week.The app provides a central hub to rank, track, and manage disaster requests. It helps improve officer safety while enabling the state’s spread-out (and often remote) emergency services teams to seamlessly collaborate and efficiently mobilize resources.Since the app’s launch, the NSW Police Force has saved more than AUD$10.5 million and 30,000 hours of work and mobilization.
3. Enhancing field experienceLow-code can enable public services organizations to build apps that let people in the field capture customer information and access appropriate systems. In this way, workers can diagnose and solve issues as they arise instead of obtaining data manually and responding later.Self-service portals and mobile apps, for example, allow people to engage with their government and quickly address issues outside of typical working hours. The result is a B2C-quality, mobile-friendly, consistent brand experience.To significantly decrease child malnutrition in the South African province of Limpopo, LIKE.TG Elite Partner FlyForm built a low-code app for Ndlovu Care Group. The goal was to digitize the process of collecting and managing data to track outreach work, health screenings, and medical records.Thanks to the app’s success, Ndlovu has reduced the malnutrition rate from 45% to 21% among more than 5,000 children.Join the low-code revolutionThe increase in demand for digital services means governments must drive digital transformation and engage citizens with simpler and more unified experiences. Low-code can close the digital divide by leveling the app development playing field, reducing costs, and connecting legacy systems.By simplifying and democratizing the development process, low-code helps enable all areas of government and public services to ideate, create, and provide feedback on solutions that will enhance services and operations for citizens.Find out more about how LIKE.TG helps organizations innovate with low-code development.1 Gartner, Press release: Gartner Announces the Top 10 Government Technology Trends for 2023, April 17, 2023GARTNER® is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Transformation accelerated in government means trust accelerated
The 2023 LIKE.TG Federal Forum brought together nearly 1,800 U.S. government professionals and industry partners to discuss the successes and challenges of modernizing the business of government. Alongside the year’s theme of “Transformation Accelerated,” a secondary theme emerged across the various talks: trust.Only two in 10 citizens report they trust the government, according to Pew Research. That’s why building trust in government is a goal of the Biden administration. Trust has been low throughout the last three administrations, indicating that dramatic steps need to be taken.Moving the trust needleDuring the Federal Forum, attendees heard how innovative approaches to citizen service moved the trust needle for a variety of agencies. For example, at one agency, requesting a housing repair used to require numerous phone calls and emails, a lot of paperwork, and sometimes an in-person visit.With LIKE.TG, the agency was able to create an app that allows constituents to submit an issue online. That request is immediately turned into a case and routed to the most appropriate office and available technician to handle it.The whole process is transparent, with everyone able to see where the request stands. The efficiency in repairs has improved morale among constituents and the employees who perform maintenance work.Service departments—including HR, IT, and safety—support the workforce so they can carry out another agency’s mission. But each group had different processes and tools for communicating and interacting with employees.LIKE.TG enabled the agency to standardize processes on a single platform to create automated workflows for requesting services and getting support, regardless of the department.These examples speak to how the consistency and visibility offered by digital solutions can help build trust that systems are working in the best interests of the people they serve.
Embracing new technologiesTo transform experiences, agencies are tapping into key technology trends. More than a mandate, zero trust is seen as the logical way to deliver user-centered services. Discussion during the Federal Digital Transformation panel highlighted the old “trust but verify” model, which put the onus for security on end users. If they clicked a phishing link, a security breach was their fault.Zero trust, on the other hand, puts the obligation squarely on the shoulders of organizations equipped to handle that responsibility. This helps them follow the directives outlined in the National Cybersecurity Strategy.Citizen development, the ability for nontechnical business users to create applications, helps organizations meet the continuously growing demand for new digital solutions. There simply are not enough traditional developers to create all the technology solutions users need.By empowering more people to build basic digital workflows, highly trained developers are freed to focus on more complex, mission-centric applications. While singing the praises of citizen development, multiple speakers warned that application sprawl is a warranted fear, but one that can be combated with practical governance built into the process.Automating repetitive tasksSpeakers throughout the event stated that anything that can be automated should be automated. They repeatedly extolled the benefits of automation for federal employees, despite the fear that machines will take our jobs.Removing mundane, manual tasks allows for higher-level thinking and work, which in turn leads to increased job satisfaction. Upskilling was cited as a key focus for every agency to help employees understand how to use automated technologies and the data they produce to advance agency missions.The insights provided at the 2023 Federal Forum showed that transformation must be driven by the desire to improve trust among constituents and employees. With a human-centered approach to automation, technology can inspire a new appreciation for the services government provides, building a new experience with citizens.Explore all the discussions around transformation and trust in the 2023 Federal Forum on-demand library. And find out more about how LIKE.TG helps accelerate transformation and trust in government.
