Government Bits

I had the priviledge to speak at the first annual FPPOA – National IT Conference & Expo yesterday in Universal City. They had very good attendence and the atmosphere was brimming with interest on a topic I am passionate about, the use of technology to transform how we do things.

Even now, as I peck at the keyboard, I know that once I click on the "publish" button, you will have the opportunity almost instantly to read my ramblings. I still remember the days when I would put printed articles ready to be laid out through a waxing process and roll it onto a large newsprint template and wait half a day until the story was printed and delivered.

Information used to, and still travels on paper. Words and photos are gently laid down on bleached, pressed wood pulp. When we want to archive these words of wisdom, much of it is still stored as paper filling large rooms in dark building basements and other scary places.

Soon when the rooms fill up, we realize something, storing it isn't nearly as challenging as finding the information later. Not only that, but paper records are vulnerable to destruction by floods, fire and other calamities. In many jurisdictions, paper court records are all that stands in the way of a convicted felon and their freedom. No record, no conviction.

This is why it is comforting to know that according to a recent AIIM survey 90% of organizations are now using the PDF file format for long-term storage of scanned documents, and 89% convert Office files to PDF for sharing and archiving. Paper is still used by all organizations but in the next 5 years, paper as a long-term storage format is anticipated to drop to 77%. Betsy Fanning, Director of Standards at AIIM also notes that "PDF/A is a good option for archiving electronic documents and is far better than archiving native files from any specific application." (source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/01/prweb1861224.htm)

I am glad many organizations are revisiting the ways we store information. Digital is by far superior for the storage, retrieval and sharing of information.

Posted by Loni Kao at 5:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With coffee in hand this morning at 8 am, I snapped out of my weekend mode quickly as I dialed into a conference call that our PR team had set up. The familiar mechanic voice prompted me for my name. I quickly cleared my throat and stated, "Loni".

The meeting had already began and I recognized the familiar voice of Adrian from Vangent and Dominic from Southwark Council in the UK crackling over my phone. It was late on a Monday across the ocean and I was grateful that we were on a level playing field; early for me, late for them.

The first time I had met the two gentlemen was in San Francisco, at the Adobe MAX conference. We all had a good chuckle over the fact that Dominic couldn't walk two blocks in San Francisco without giving money to a homeless soul, such the heart of a public servant.

My thoughts about our first in-person meeting were chased away by some factoids that both gentlemen were sharing about the Vangent OneTouch solution which was implemented at Southwark Borough (region) to handle incoming calls and visits from citizens for services.

Dominic managed a team of customer service reps whose job and passion was helping the citizens of Southwark get much needed services such as housing benefits. Sure, he was interested in efficiency. Yet, more importantly, like many who get into public services, he wanted to make access easier.

But how?

Firstly, they tried to understand the journey of a citizen in seeking services. The technology was seen as merely the means to support the process. Instead of just looking at a particular transaction, they looked at the "why" of a citizen request.

All of a sudden, a citizen call to register property taxes was not seen as merely a transaction. No, it was diagnosed as a "new resident" event and the citizen was also asked if they needed school grants, parking permits, library cards, garbage service, and change of address.

Magically, what could have resulted in tallying of many minutes wasted on the phone became one. The agency was happy because it costs less to deal with fewer calls. Happily, the citizen reduced their time spent getting required services.

Secondly, common information across all the applications for services are collected only once. How wonderful is it to only be prompted for your name once for a multitude of services?

Thirdly, by collecting the information electronically, the approval process speed up and what was on average a 26 day wait period for services became 6 days.

After the conference call emptied, I reflected on the call. I realized I could share with you some bulleted list of best practices, cold and crisp. Or, I could try to share with you some of the ways a borough in Harry Potter's hometown decided to weave some magic and make it easier for their citizens to get the services they need.

Posted by Loni Kao at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you missed it, last week's eSeminar featuring Loni Kao is now available OnDemand. From business services in Australia to temporary assistance for needy families in Illinois, Loni shares how government agencies worldwide are using technology solutions to increase interaction with constituents and deliver services to those who need them most.

During the eSeminar, Loni references a research report from the Economist titled "Meeting the Challenge of Engagement in the Public Sector." The report is available here.

Posted by Beth Lovett at 4:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was reading this article (http://tinyurl.com/c7zex5) earlier today and it sparked a few thoughts about netbooks. I've been in the tech industry for over 25 years now and I've witnessed so many innovations. Today, we have a very interesting combination of powerful, yet flexible 'servers' or services (feel free to substitute your favorite term here), powerful yet highly mobile devices, relatively stable (at least in the more populated areas) and affordable wireless networks and access to ubiquitous 'client-side' technologies (Yes, I'm referring to Reader, Flash and AIR!) that enable the creation of sophisticated, yet easy to use applications.

So, netbooks. I bought one of these 'toys' for each of my kids this Christmas, thinking that they would now play Webkinz there and leave me to my favorite MacBook Pro to do (ahem) "real work". Well, wouldn't you know it, within a couple days, the dang things hooked ME! Why you ask? Is it the 'coolness' factor or something more? Ok, admittedly, netbooks are cool. If you don't believe me, take one into Starbuck's and see how many people talk to you about it. However, the real impact was on my way of thinking about how I use my computer. I realized that with this little device, the hotspot at Starbuck's and a few well chosen online applications, I could be just as productive as I am with my Mac for day to day use. As well, I've been watching my kids use them. They carry them everywhere. They connect everywhere. They communicate, socialize, research, do homework, play games, you name it, all on these little devices that have practically no software loaded on them.

Since the future belongs to these kids, I am encouraged to see governments around the world taking steps to embrace technology as one means to create a nicer place to live. Whether we are talking about better ways to share government financial information without compromising privacy, creating a workplace that gives consideration to 'green' issues or simply making it easier for a citizen to request service from the government, it will be through such devices that the younger generations (and maybe a few of us older folks) will demand to interact with government. So, those of you creating and deploying online government services, keep up the good work and don't forget to take advantage of the free software Adobe has deployed for you!

@BobbyCaudill

Posted by Bobby Caudill at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With the world-wide economic downturn, government is caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the issue of helping businesses and citizens with tax cuts.

No one disagrees that the public could benefit from tax cuts in these challenging times. Shrinking tax revenues from decreased property values, sales and incomes on one end, and rising demand on social services and benefits at the other end, make tax cuts difficult to conjure up. Some regions, such as California, are even talking about tax hikes in order to control deficits and debt.

However, there are other ways to help which would achieve the same impact as tax cuts; that of lessening the burden of government on citizens and businesses. Where government cannot lend a hand by extending a dollar, it can by lessening time burden of dealing with government.

Time burden, you say? Yes, time burden.

Think about the last couple of times you interacted with a government agency yourself to access services, to file for a permit or to even pay your taxes.

How much time did you spend to:

• find where you had to go to interact with government?


• waiting in line, whether on the phone or in-person?


• deciphering the language on forms and documents?


• waiting as your information got routed within the government system through an intricate review and approval dance?

These time costs are significant and government can help businesses and citizens by reducing this time burden. There have been many innovations to reduce these burdens at some agencies.

In my next entry, I'll share best practices that some government have applied to reduce this time burden on citizens and businesses while decreasing the time burden within the department as well.

Posted by Loni Kao at 12:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In my last post, I shared some of the statistics around paper waste in both private and public sector.

Sometimes, meaning gets lost in abstract statistics. They provide a great way to keep pulse of trends, but what can agencies and departments do to reduce paper waste? And what does it really mean in terms of cost savings?

Just asking these questions is a start to a potential goldmine in green. Both the Mother Nature and the Las Vegas type green.

Below are some of the examples of how reduction of paper waste led to significant savings. Some of these agencies followed the "green" line of inquiry whereas others started by looking at initiatives such as improved services or increased efficiency.

• US Government Printing Office (GPO): The Federal budget exceeds 2,000 pages. Through digital distribution, GPO expects to save $1 million and 20 tons of paper and 480 trees
• US Internal Revenue Service (IRS): The agency saves millions of dollars annually by lowering the costs to print, store, and mail tax materials—plus it has helped reduce the amount of paper discarded by minimizing the amount of paper forms that have to be thrown away when more current forms are printed.
• State of Illinois Department Human Services: Savings of $6M per year in reduced paper use
• Veterans Administration: $100,000 per form; The United States Office of Veterans Affairs saves one hundred thousand dollars worth of paper for every single form they deploy electronically with LiveCycle.
• Australian Government: Using LiveCycle for a project they call “SmartForms” to get government agencies off of paper. They cited the following benefits:
  
  1) Reduce CO2 Emissions - 5.4kg for every ream of paper, 6% of a tree for every ream of paper
  2)Save Water - 1 Litre of water for every 3 pieces of paper.

The bottom-line results they each arrived at shows environmental stewardship can also significantly reduce operational costs. In these budgetary times, this is a very good thing.

Posted by Loni Kao at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As I was cruising the news this morning, I came across an article on nextgov.com referring to the quality of federal web sites. (http://tinyurl.com/d7uq93) In the article, Allan Holmes discusses a few of the challenges that face government agencies as they take services and information online. Mr. Holmes also presents somewhat opposing views from other bloggers on the topic. Rather than debate or comment on the views presented, I'd like to make an additional point, specifically regarding experience, user experience to be precise.

So let's think about this, just like commercial organizations, the quality and capabilities of the IT resources found in the federal government varies from agency to agency. You can find bright minds, innovators and hard workers just as easily as you can find folks who are having a harder time keeping up. So, the debate, in my opinion is not the quality of the people and, for that matter, not even the quality of the tools (hand coding vs. Dreamweaver for instance). However, what many agencies are missing is a depth of understanding with regards to creating online services and sites that are intuitive and easy to use. I've met many very capable government IT people who can discuss architecture, data modeling, etc., but, very few who understand aesthetics and usability.

This said, is it really fair to suggest that aesthetics and usability are the IT's shop responsibility? Maybe, maybe not. Since many citizens are now comparing the quality of government online services to commercial concerns, perhaps, it would be fair to take into consideration who is usually responsible for such things in, let's say, a software company. Since it is the goal of any software company to sell as many of it's products as possible, usability, aesthetics, and the efficiencies of the user experience are all critical. If people find the software hard to use or unsatisfying in some way, it is very likely that people will look for alternatives. With this in mind, companies, especially these days, spend a great deal of time and money on getting that experience right. Mostly, this is done through having the right talent available as well as a rigorous process to test new ideas. Once the experience is designed, it is then that things get handed over to the development team. (In reality, this is an iterative process, but, this is not really relevant to my point.) Also, keep in mind that commercial organizations have marketing departments who are usually quite fussy about the look and feel of anything the public sees. This certainly has an impact on what users see and experience as well.

Now compare that to a government IT shop. Most IT shops in government were built to internally support the agency they belong to. Generally they are quite competent at infrastructure, architecture, custom software development, maintenance and support. However, very few IT shops have the experience in house required to build a product or service. Sadly, unless you engage with the large SIs, there are also very few contractors who have this experience as well. Compared to commercial product organizations, trained designers are harder to come by, there's little in the way of guidance with regards to a consistent look and feel and there is little or no experience with building for a finicky user population that might just choose to go somewhere else.

So, perhaps, many people have been just a little hard on the dedicated IT folks that work for the federal government. Rather than ding them, perhaps those of us with industry experience in building products could join together to advise them.

@BobbyCaudill

Posted by Bobby Caudill at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Looking back on 2008, one of the big issues world-wide was Green IT across both private and public sector.

As we head into 2009 with challenging budgetary times for all, I think this issue will continue to dominate, having traded all it's Kermit the frog cuteness for the pragmatic mantra of "saving green by being green".

So what does this translate to for government agencies?

A lot of the focus has been around server energy efficiency, renewable and alternative energy, air and water quality and land use. All important, however there is a simple way agencies can go green while significantly reducing costs and its right under our noses - reducing paper use.

When we think about Green IT, its not just about how we can make IT green, but also how IT can help transform processes critical to government (delivering services, ensuring public safety) so they are more environmentally friendly.

Here are some statistics that really highlights the prevalence of paper waste and the opportunity for the public sector to take a leadership role in reducing this waste with IT/technology: electronic documents, forms and automated processes.

• The typical office worker uses about 10,000 sheets (20 reams) of paper per year.
• The average document gets copied 19 times.
• Chlorine-based paper processing uses up to 50,000 gallons of water per ton of paper.
• The paper industry emits the fourth-highest level of carbon dioxide among manufacturers.

By applying technology to this problem, government can not only improve the environment through policy creation, but also by example. In my next entry I will highlight practical ways some government agencies have achieved this goal of paper reduction and how it has led to significant return-on-investment.

Posted by Loni Kao at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was asked by a reporter last week to offer considerations for the Obama administration with regards to updating publicly facing federal Web sites. Here's what I told her:

1.) Assess Web sites based on audience orientation not agency orientation. Many Government agencies immediately provide information about the agency leader, recent press releases, organizational structure. As I've written here before, imagine if you went to Amazon.com and were greeted with a picture of Jeff Bezos, his press releases and links to marketing and finance departments. You wouldn’t buy books. In government, the audience likewise won’t pursue service. Think about modifying these sites to suit your audience needs.

2.) Look for opportunities to consolidate web entry points around services. People who want to use a government Web site want to solve a problem, they don’t want to learn the agency. A good example is Australia with their business to government Web site - http://business.gov.au/Business+Entry+Point/ - they consolidate the services a business needs into one system and effectively do more with less.

3.) Assess if a Web site is a static information source or designed to initiate an interaction. Many government agencies treat web sites like a bulletin board rather than a strategic communications channel and don’t attract traffic or ongoing interaction. But some create a dialogue with the audience. The former type of Web site is one to change. The latter, you don’t want to give up on the brand and existing audience – you can see great examples at NASA.gov - www.nasa.gov/50years & www.nasa.gov/externalflash/ISSRG/ - they are amazing.

4.) Assess if a Web site is inclusive of all technology users. Web sites that leverage Flash and PDF provide services to everyone because the technologies are platform independent and pervasive. They provide an opportunity for an agency to scale and extend services. Web sites that don’t are limiting their audience and not inclusive to all types of users. Agencies should ask themselves if anyone can use these services, or does it require my end user to have a certain computing platform or application on the other end. A good example can be found at www.SBA.gov and click 'free online training' on the left bar You'll find they have training converted from Powerpoint training presentations to Flash which allows folks to view even if they don’t own Powerpoint software available to them.

Posted by Rob Pinkerton at 6:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since the election last fall, there's been a deluge of information, opinions and speculation regarding the priorities of our new administration. As a citizen of the United States, I have my own thoughts and opinions on what the administration should concentrate on first, the areas of the agenda that I personally think will have the greatest positive impact on our society and, well, me and my family in particular. At the end of the day, it will be folks with much larger voices than mine that truly dictate the priorities, however, that will not prevent me from sharing my thoughts.

As a technologist, in particular, a solutions architect, I am generally predisposed to looking for common use cases, patterns, and the ability to reuse anything of value that currently exists. Why recreate the wheel, right? So, from this perspective I dove into the wide array of potential initiatives that have been discussed in the past months. I cruised back through magazine articles, blogs, forums, Change.gov, anyplace that could offer ideas to toss into the mix. If you've been following the various discussions, you will not be too terribly surprised with what I pulled out. Here are a few of the ideas and challenges that seem to getting the most press:

* Heathcare - Electronic Medical Records
* The Economy - address the credit crisis, help for homeowners
* Veterans needs - faster benefits delivery
* Work/Life balance - more time with family
* Homeland Security - information collection and sharing
* Technology - cybersecurity, social networking
* Green - telework, environment
* Increased Efficiencies AND Increased Effectiveness - more with less, lower cost

There are of course, many others but these will serve just fine for the remainder of this exercise.

In addition, the Obama Administration has made clear a number of on-going themes that should characterize the approach and execution of the initiatives. Building upon a platform of privacy and security, the administration is driving towards a government that is far more citizen friendly than ever before, focusing on easy to use and understand interactions, openness and transparency, wide access to information and an environment of collaboration, not only inside the walls of government, but also with any citizens who wish to participate.

With my list defined, the next step was to seek the commonalities, to look for solvable issues across the widest possible range. I won't bore you with ALL the ideas I came up with, however there are few that I believe are compelling:

* all the initiatives I looked at are focused on making a better life for some, if not all, citizens (vs. technology initiatives for the sake of technology)
* in some form or fashion, technology exists to help address the initiatives
* whether it be for data collection, information sharing or collaboration, paper still plays a big role

The focus on people and the usage of technology as the solution to the many issues was not a surprise, especially given the the platform from which President Elect Obama ran his campaign. But paper? Since at least the mid-90's, there has been legislation imposed to reduce and eliminate paper from government processes and yet, as we enter 2009, we find that paper is still alive a well in government. Of course, I'm not suggesting that there's been no progress, on the contrary, there are many government agencies that have worked diligently to reduce paper, however, when compared to traditionally paper-oriented entities such as those in the financial industry, there's still many opportunities for improvement, improvement that could have an immediate positive impact on the people of this country.

So what happens when paper really does go away. None of this is new news, but, given how easy it is for our society to become enamored with the newest, shiniest toy, I believe it bears repeating.

First, there are the environmental impacts, meaning Green. Since this is not intended to be an environmental blog entry I'll keep that facts short here. But, did you know that 1 trillion sheets of paper are used in digital printers and copiers each year in the U.S.? What's the cost for all this on the environment? Try 850 million trees a year for starters. (For more stats, check these: http://tinyurl.com/a6gwcs and http://tinyurl.com/862wyn)

Second, there are the financial burdens of paper. Sticking with the 1 trillion sheets from above, imagine the costs. That's a lot of paper, paper that needs to be made, purchased, stored, handled, shipped, and disposed of! Add on top of that the cost for all the ink needed to print out all this paper. Doing a simple back of the envelope calculation, it would cost me $67,600,000,000.00 just to purchase all this paper, shipping NOT included! (Admittedly, in this quantity, I would probably get a discount, but......)

Third, there are the process impacts. Paper has long been a bane to efficiencies. It takes time to move it from place to place, it gets lost (or, 'reported' lost such as, 'I didn't get that'), people have to write on it and worse, people need to read it, many times needing a special decoder ring to decipher what was written. (I've long been a culprit of lousy handwriting!) Typical paper based processes are quite slow and always run the risk of introducing data integrity issues.

My fourth and final point is the social impact of paper. There are a couple interesting perspectives on this idea, such as manufacturing and disposal, however, the elimination of paper from processes is the most interesting within the context of this blog. Think about the ramifications of freeing people from passing paper and making processes fully automated. No longer are people necessarily required to be in a certain place to perform their job. No longer does a citizen need to make a trip to the local library or government office to pick up a form. People can interact with government from wherever they are, at what ever time they choose.

When taken collectively, the impact of paper in government and specifically on many of the Obama Administration's agenda items, can be quite significant. At this point, I will leave it to you to imagine the benefits to homecoming veterans, single working moms and even the security of our homeland. However, I will leave you with this parting thought, let's be careful not to forget a good idea from the past just because it seems all dull and boring.

@BobbyCaudill

Posted by Bobby Caudill at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)