For government organizations facing budget cuts, limited IT resources, and rising citizen expectations, efficiency is the name of the game. Many are turning to the cloud as a way to deliver technology capabilities more quickly and cost-effectively. In fact, cloud computing is expected to account for roughly 20% of the overall global IT market, excluding IT services and client devices, by 2015. As most know by now, the cloud enables organizations to efficiently share information, increase transparency, integrate processes, and strengthen service delivery. Despite the growing number of public sector organizations adopting cloud technology, many questions still remain. Perhaps the most asked questions are:
- How do we get started and who leads the effort?
- Should we use cloud applications, platform or infrastructure?
- What is the right cloud strategy for our organization – Public, Private, or Hybrid?
- What should we put into public clouds?
To free up resources for innovative technologies, like cloud computing, organizations are transforming their data centers. Two years ago, the Federal government launched the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative, which aimed to close nearly 40% of duplicative or inefficient data centers by 2015. There are countless examples of agencies saving money, time and resources by closing inefficient data centers, and you can check out how agencies are doing against their goals here. In addition to closing duplicative data centers, consolidation is about simplifying and standardizing your IT infrastructure to make it work better for your agency.
Cloud computing and data center consolidation are two important solutions to increasing public sector efficiency and delivering better service to citizens. Social media, smart phones, and tablets have completely changed the customer experience and how we find and share information. In the mobile era, citizens expect to interact and find information with their government anytime, anywhere, and on any one of their devices. However, to do this, agencies must first integrate and simplify their processes to reduce waste and lower costs. By doing this, they can focus on other technologies and innovations to enable a digital and social government.
To help you with these various solutions, Oracle is hosting a breakout session all about increasing public sector efficiency at their Public Sector Virtual Summit. It’s all about modernizing your IT department to curb spending and position your organization for future success. The sessions will provide you with tangible tips and best practices to improve processes and get the most out of your IT infrastructure. Most importantly, experts will address your questions!
Oracle’s Public Sector Virtual Summit is free and will feature a keynote session from Thom Rubel, Vice President, Research, IDC, as well as four different break out session tracks ranging from security to data center consolidation. It’s taking place March 6 from 12-4PM ET– you can learn more and register here. This is a great opportunity to learn valuable information about improving IT infrastructure, reducing costs, and delivering better service to citizens without ever leaving your office chair.
There are a number of great resources out there (and on GovLoop!) to help you transition to the cloud, consolidate data centers, and maximize the power of big data and analytics. I encourage you to check out the Tech Trends page for trainings, white papers and other resources.
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Oracle offers an optimized and fully integrated stack of business hardware and software systems that helps organizations overcome complexity and unleash innovation. Check out their Optimize with Oracle group on GovLoop as well as the Technology Sub-Community of which they are a council member. |
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Increase efficiency? People should start with taking some time to “clean up their computers, shared drives. Don’t just start deleting things, make sure you follow record keeping guidelines for digital files.
Also, start looking at all your processes. List each process and who is involved. How much time it takes you to do that process and brainstorm what might be better.
Example: You produce a report once a month. It has a distribution list. It takes you a week to compile all the data and refine it. You send a customer survey the next time you do the distribution. Questions:
Do you use this report or does it just get filed? If you don’t use this report, what data would you need instead? How often would you prefer to get this data? Is this report needed any more?
Don’t just keep doing things because that is how they have always been done. You may find a lot of things that your customers don’t need and find out what they do need. Let your customers help you get rid of a lot of outdated processes.
Then start looking at the cloud and how it can help move that data.