AWS Partner Network Helps Agencies Navigate the Shift to Remote Work and Increased Citizen Demands

This blog post was created in collaboration with Sandy Carter, VP of Worldwide Public Sector Partners & Programs at Amazon Web Services.

The rapid shift to remote work due to COVID-19 created a challenge for many public sector agencies. Suddenly, organizations were faced with the question of how to best address citizens’ needs while helping their remote workforces continue to remain productive.

One of the most efficient, reliable and secure ways agencies are addressing productivity needs is to migrate their existing applications and IT assets to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud.

Migration to the AWS Cloud enables public sector agencies to use solutions and tools from the wide-reaching AWS Partner Network (APN), such as virtual workspaces, contact centers, and online communication and collaboration platforms.

For example, the Kansas Department of Labor received 877,000 calls from  constituents in a single day amid the COVID-19 crisis, which is more than they would normally receive in an entire month through their call center, according to Sandy Carter, Vice President of Worldwide Public Sector Partners and Programs at AWS.

By migrating their call center to the cloud and using Amazon Connect, the agency was able to expand their call center capacities – allowing agents to work remotely from home, and enable an automatic triaging of calls — directing routine calls to an automated resource and complex calls to an appropriate representative. Through these types of cloud-based solutions — that provide elasticity and can scale to meet mission needs — remote agents can have access to the full suite of tools and technology that they would have had in the office.

Public-facing agency websites provide another migration opportunity. These websites exist to provide constituents and businesses with access to the latest government guidance, critical services, and support. They can also alleviate the pressure on agencies’ call centers. Therefore, it is crucial that agencies are equipped to manage a huge surge in traffic on both their websites and at call centers during COVID-19. Website migrations could potentially eliminate gaps in getting critical agency information to residents and businesses that rely on it.

“Any minute of downtime is one minute too many. Real-time migration is being done today in record time. Website migrations that government agencies would plan over weeks or months are now completed in less than a day,” Carter said.  “Government organizations don’t have to be limited to the physical constraints of their IT systems. There are several robust remote work productivity solutions, but it’s really the first time that we’ve seen them deployed in such massive numbers within the public sector.”

Here are a few examples of how APN Partners are supporting government workforces with those solutions:

• Mobile Marketing Campaign Platform:  AppsFlyer, a Software-as-as-Service (SaaS) mobile marketing analytics and attribution platform, provides tools that agencies can utilize while working from home to stay connected and maintain the efficiency of their marketing campaigns.
• Remote Work Collaboration Platform: monday.com, a work operating system that enables organizations to build custom workflow apps in a code-free environment, brings teams together so they can continue to collaborate, manage and track work in one easy-to-use platform, wherever they are.
• Virtual Desktops for Remote Workers: VMware, a global leader in cloud infrastructure and digital workspace technology, provides a business continuity solution for building remote worker capabilities with VMware Cloud on AWS that can enable remote workforce and provide simple, intrinsically secure and scalable virtual desktop infrastructure.
• Remote Contact Center Agents: NICE inContact, a leader in cloud contact center software, offers governments with remote employees their inContact solution to move their contact center agents home in 48 hours.
• Workforce Health Monitor & Inspection Stations: Deloitte aided U.S. state and local government clients by providing new and bundled offerings, such as the Horizon Workplace Offering, designed to help governments navigate the citizen demand and crisis response. The Horizon platform enables organizations to monitor and manage the workforce through self-assessments, automated and manual inspection stations.
• Mapping & Satellite Imagery: Maxar Technologies is working with the U.S. Intelligence Community to expand government adoption of the NGA Open Mapping Enclave (NOME) –a telework-friendly option that is growing in popularity in recent weeks, providing online access to collaborative mapping tools and current satellite imagery in response to COVID-19.
• Virtual Agents & Call Center Overflow: Accenture’s Virtual Assistant Platform deploys an application with highly engaging user experiences and lifelike conversational interactions, providing relief to support agents. The solution supports call overflow for call centers to enable additional call center agents, either at home or in a call center, to respond to the increased volume of inbound calls.

Learn more about the full range of APN Partner solutions and how they can help your agency shift to remote work while meeting the needs of citizens on the APN website.