This blog is the first of three articles about the value of understanding the latest trends in government technology. GovLoop partnered on this series with GovWhitePapers, a hub for educational content and thought leadership about the public sector. Working together, we aim to explain how ongoing awareness of technology trends can make agencies safer, strengthen their teams and help their employees use their tools more effectively. Click here for the rest of the series.
For agencies, keeping up with the latest developments in tools, tactics and strategies can be daunting.
While government workforces have resources, the sheer volume of information scattered across countless websites and repositories is still overwhelming. To make matters worse, the gaps in agencywide knowledge are growing as the pace of change accelerates. At many agencies, knowledge gaps are hindering both professional development and key IT initiatives.
How can agencies improve the performance, efficiency and security of their operations and services under these circumstances? The answer is continuous learning anchored by a strategic resource making this discipline manageable.
Enter GovWhitePapers. GovWhitePapers serves as a central hub for assets and research aimed at supporting agencies nationwide. Using these insights, agencies can grasp the latest technological developments while helping their people and processes leverage these solutions better.
“In a time where agencies need to make quick decisions, we need to provide access to information that takes these complex technology issues and speaks directly about how to implement these tools in a government environment,” said Kerry Rea, GovWhitePapers’ President.
A case in point is hybrid work. With many workforces mixing on-site and remote employees for the first time, numerous agencies are unsure about operating in this new normal.
Cloud computing is one part of this workplace reality that perplexes some agencies. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, lots of agencies used legacy IT to deliver their products and services. Now, modernizing these systems with the cloud has many agencies rethinking how they approach their IT daily.
“The COVID-19 pandemic forced organizations to move to modern, digital cloud systems,” Rea said. “Now they must look at how to make those quick turn investments – some made simply to keep the trains running – sustainable and part of their ongoing IT strategy.”
Why is the cloud’s role in hybrid work so confounding? First, agencies are not used to leveraging computing resources like data storage on demand using the cloud’s decentralized IT infrastructure. More importantly, these agencies’ people and processes are not adjusted to routinely utilizing the cloud.
Agencies eager for a way out of this dilemma should look at GovWhitePapers’ recent uploads. Using GovWhitePapers’ information, agencies can learn about topics such as cloud computing. The education these materials provide can overcome challenges like reimagining agencies’ employee and customer experiences for the cloud.
“It’s less about how the technology works – the bits and bytes – and more about how it serves the government user,” Rea said. “People of all generations are using consumer tech and expect their workplace tech to be up to the same standards.”
Without modern technology, agencies may struggle to recruit and retain younger people who grew up working digitally. For instance, some people prefer jobs that let them work from wherever they want instead of insisting they make long commutes to the same location daily.
While subjects like these may seem intimidating, organizations like GovWhitePapers can assist agencies with navigating them.
“By providing governments with the latest information and solutions that can be applied to their current challenges, we hope to free up a little more time for them to focus on what’s most important – their mission success,” Rea said.
To learn more about closing the public sector’s knowledge gaps with continuous learning, click here for GovWhitePapers’ content.
And for more information about public-sector people, processes and tools, click here to read the rest of GovLoop’s series about technology trends.
