This article is an excerpt from GovLoop’s recent report, “How the Cloud Enables a Secure and Safe Customer Experience Made For the 21st Century.”
It’s natural that some governments are better prepared for cloud transitions than others. But did you know that there are tips that apply across agencies for finding the right cloud solution to improve services, reduce costs and even, improve customer experience?
One tip? Cloud solutions have to be case-tailored; they shouldn’t be generalized or templatized.
Below are more best practices from Ian Greene, Enterprise Architect, and Jodi Thompson, Senior Principal Business Consultant, experts in the Government Group at Genesys. By following these tips, you’ll learn how your agency can find a secure cloud solution with the tools to improve CX.
Define your goals and reasons for moving to the cloud.
It can be difficult to articulate exactly why the cloud can help, but just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean it’s right for your agency. Have an educated discussion about CX goals and areas for improvement, and if there are problems of backload, data-sharing and system optimization, then the cloud might be right.
“It’s all about the best practices and the business outcomes when you move to cloud,” Greene said. “It’s no longer a thing about the system.”
Although cloud’s potential is powerful in government, an agency’s capabilities and pain points also constrain it. In homing in on specific use cases for cloud adoption, agencies can approximate what the benefit of cloud adoption might be.
Consider all stakeholders and different perspectives.
Cloud solutions come in all shapes and sizes, so it’s important to have an idea of what you might want. Engaging all interested parties is good policy from the start, as it prepares and energizes the workforce. Cloud migrations represent a fundamental shift in workflows and personnel management, and while new capabilities are welcome, oftentimes bumps do come along with the process.
Business leaders who decide that cloud can accelerate mission progress need to communicate with IT along the way and clearly define milestones for CX and the end goal in their strategy.
Agencies also should understand what level of security they need to meet, based on the sensitivity of their data. FedRAMP levels exist for a reason, and it’s important to map your security needs back to those baseline requirements and determine if additional measures should be taken. If the aim of cloud adoption is to improve CX, then the maximum amount of time and funding resources generated by cloud investments should be redirected toward CX.
Find the right technology partner.
While the cloud represents a technological change, it also embodies something more: a new way of doing business. Agencies that go to the cloud must have a clear direction and invest in employee training and workflow transformation, or they risk adopting a technology that fails to address their crucial needs.
Partnering with the right cloud service provider will assist agencies in the process. By alleviating the security requirements of the migration, the industry partner can show agencies where to redirect their attention.
One advantage of the cloud is the incorporation of advanced metrics. Cloud service providers should be able to review these with agencies during their cloud journey, to explore possibilities for future efficiencies and treat any problems that might come along the way.
By analyzing the incremental gains and losses of a CX, strategy, agencies can be sure to maximize the power of cloud technologies.
To learn more about how cloud can improve your CX, read the full report here.
Photo by Pope Moysuh on Unsplash
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