Government Bits

Tracking how technology is transforming interaction between governments and citizens.

Last week I had the opportunity to hear Linda Cureton (@curetonl), NASA CIO, at FedScoop’s 3^rd Annual Lowering the Cost of Government with IT Summit in Washington DC, an event at which I also spoke (see the brief video we shot below). Linda was the first speaker of the morning and her presentation really resonated with me and the way we at Adobe are trying to help agencies lower the cost of government. She grabbed my attention early on, admittedly after a tough morning at the house, with her admonition “don’t eat your young”.  She made many other great points such as: Don’t be penny-wise and pound foolish; and Measure twice, cut once. However, it was her “don’t eat your young” statement that I want to concentrate on for this post.     

Linda made the point to urge her peers to view innovation as critical for survival. I couldn’t agree more during these times of budget cuts, budget deficits, and the necessity of having to do more with less. As IT leaders, this is the time to innovate. History teaches us that we have always come out of crisis periods stronger and this will be no different.  As government IT leaders, we’ve got to change our way of thinking and Linda drove this point home for me and the audience. Innovation comes from every part of the organization, young, old or just plain-old middle aged like me. As Linda noted, we must encourage new money-saving ideas to continue to provide the services our citizens need.

There’s been much written as of late regarding the consumerization of IT, especially in regards to consolidation and virtualization of our data centers and infrastructures. As Linda noted in her presentation, the low-hanging fruit has been picked. I agree. Government agencies I speak to regularly have all standardized on commodity technologies like virtualization, storage, and networking. We’ve got to move up the stack now and focus on the application layer and how we can consumerize that and make it easier for citizens to engage with their governments on their terms (in person, on the phone, or online) and device (PC, Mac, tablet, mobile). If you’re a government IT leader and you’re looking for ways to save money, look no further. Driving citizen interactions online and off of the phone or a piece of paper will save you money. However, it does take thought and measurement.

That’s what we’re focused on at Adobe, trying to help government agencies move more and more of their interactions online. To drive that online adoption you’ve got to simplify and make that online experience engaging and intuitive. If it’s too hard to figure out online, I know what I personally do. I either skip to another site (not an option for citizens) or I hop on the phone (an expensive option for agencies). At Adobe, we help governments create rich online content with the world’s best digital editing tools. We help move this content online and streamline business processes with best of breed enterprise solutions like the Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform, which helps you leverage the current investments you’ve made in ERP and document management systems. After you’ve moved content and business processes online you need to ensure people like me aren’t abandoning your site because it’s too hard or complicated. We help ensure that doesn’t happen with our Online Marketing Suite. As Linda might say we help you measure twice and cut once, be penny wise, and also help keep your young safe and sound…

In a recent conversation, Mark Whitmore, the Deputy District Attorney at the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, told us how the organization accelerates Juvenile Court proceedings using Adobe Acrobat Pro in a Microsoft SharePoint environment. The organization, together with its partners—San Diego Juvenile Justice Partners, the County Technology Office, the Probation Department, and the Office of the Public Defender—uses advanced PDF capabilities in Acrobat Pro and SharePoint document management. The digital case file environment, known as the Justice Electronic Library System or JELS, was developed by the County Technology Office and serves all county juvenile justice stakeholders in the DA’s office, Probation, and other areas.

By using Acrobat to convert case files to searchable PDF files integrated into its SharePoint environment, the division saves administrative staff from having to sort, collate, file, retrieve, and photocopy countless case files on paper. The improved case file management has already freed up time for 10 staff members to devote to other critical activities. Deputy DA’s and other participants with access to the JELS system can go over case documents electronically prior to each hearing, greatly accelerating case file review.

The JELS system has dramatically enhanced collaboration in the office and the courtroom. Based on its success, the California County Information Services Directors Association (CCISDA) awarded San Diego County a first place Innovation Award in the collaboration category.

To learn more, check out the full story on the San Diego County DA’s office here.

You can keep in touch with the Acrobat team on Twitter @Acrobat and, of course, keep up-to-date with all things Adobe in goverment on Twitter @AdobeGov.

Earlier this year, the TechAmerica Foundation comprised a group of thought leaders to serve on the Commission on the Leadership Opportunity in U.S. Deployment of the Cloud (CLOUD2). The Commission’s three-month mandate was to provide the Obama Administration with recommendations for how government should deploy cloud technologies and for public policies that will help drive U.S. innovation in the cloud.

On July 26, the Commission released its recommendations in a report (.pdf) on its site and at events in a few locations across the U.S., including Washington, D.C. A shorter summary of the report is also available from the TechAmerica Foundation site.

Our own Barry Leffew, VP of Public Sector, was among the 71 Commissioners who lent their expertise and participated in the process of developing the recommendations.

Barry attended the Washington, D.C. event last week and also spoke as part of a panel arranged by BMC Software, which also had representation among the Commissioners. In addition to Barry, the panel included Commissioners from BMC, Red Hat, Inc., Cisco Systems, and Harris Corp.

We caught up with Barry at the CLOUD2 event to capture his thoughts on the Commission, the recommendations and the BMC panel on which he sat. Check out the video below.

As always, we’re interested in your thoughts and continuing the conversation on CLOUD2 and otherwise. Keep in touch with us on Twitter @AdobeGov and our Facebook page.

With Monday’s Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform and Customer Experience Solutions announcement and our related video interview with Adobe’s Rob Pinkerton in mind, we thought it timely to share another look at a recent, relevant conversation from our blog.

Last fall, we interviewed Adobe’s Steven Webster, senior director of Technology and Experience Innovation, to get his perspective on customer/citizen experience and Government. Take a look at the three-part interview below for Steven’s insights on the topic.

And if you haven’t, you might also be interested to check out two recent posts from our Alec Chalmers discussing customer and citizen experience (here and here).

As always, we’re interested in your thoughts and perspective. Let us know in comments or on Twitter @AdobeGov. And you can reach Steven on Twitter @swebsteratadobe.

In the meantime, enjoy a look back at this conversation:

Today, Adobe announced the new Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform for Customer Experience Management (CEM). Additionally, we introduced a new set of Customer Experience Solutions built on the platform. The news has particular relevance to Government in several respects.

We caught up with our own Rob Pinkerton, senior director of Product Marketing, to get his insights on the announcement and how and why it’s important for Government. Check out the video below.

Want to learn more? Visit Adobe’s corporate blog for a post and video from Rob Tarkoff, senior vice president of Digital Enterprise Solutions. And also swing over to the Experience Delivers blog to learn more about a Tweetaway our CEM colleagues are running the week of June 20.

We’re interested in your thoughts, comments and questions, of course. Leave a comment below or reach out to us on Twitter @AdobeGov or on our Facebook page. You can also keep in touch with our team focused on CEM on Twitter @AdobeCEM.

In my last post I discussed the concept of customer or citizen experience in government and focusing on how we as citizens want to engage with our government on our terms, and on the device we’re currently heads down on (unless, of course, we’re driving!). So where do you begin if you’re a government employee trying to focus on your “customer”?

While simple, you should begin by focusing on the outside in. Truly focus on that citizen first and not on the sometimes byzantine rules and stove-piped systems you may already have in place. Easier said than done, I know, but it really is how you begin to transform the way your agency deals with its customers, both internal and external.

How many times have you been to a doctor’s office, motor vehicle agency, or applied for a permit and had to write your address down more than one time? How many times have you had to read the manual of instructions on how to fill out the form or wait in line to discuss with someone the process to determine eligibility for a grant, license, or benefit? Compare this to the first time you used a social media application like Facebook or LinkedIn. How hard was that? Was there an instruction manual you had to pore over before you got online and started sharing photos and stories with all those “friends” in your network? Of course not, that’s what makes it so fun (perhaps dangerous in some cases!) but most importantly that’s what keeps people engaged and online, and coming back for more. I’m not sure we’re ever going to make renewing your driver’s license or applying for unemployment benefits “fun” but we can make the process more intuitive and keep more and more people online rather than in a line. That’s where the savings come into play.

Last year 70% of the individual tax returns in the US were filed electronically. Do you know how much money that saved the IRS? Hundreds of millions of dollars according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  For every electronically filed return the IRS saves $3.10. “In addition to reducing costs, e-filing provides higher accuracy rates, improved convenience, and faster processing and refunds for taxpayers.” To me, that sounds like a great customer (and agency) experience. How is this happening? Most of this electronic filing is taking place with the assistance of great software from Intuit and H&R Block that takes users through a complex (sound familiar?) tax code/business process and breaks it down to a nice and easy interview. They have essentially broken down a tax code that is thousands of pages of not-too-easy-to-read instructions and have made it a breeze (for most) to complete their taxes.

Government agencies are beginning to see this kind of experience is just what they need to do in times of budget reductions. Adobe has helped many government agencies follow this same approach. We look forward to sharing some examples with you as we move forward. In the meantime, let us know if you’d like to talk with us more about it. You can reach me via comments, on Twitter @alec_chalmers, and also connect with the Adobe Gov team on Twitter @AdobeGov.

Our recent conversation with Alec Chalmers, Adobe’s vice president of National Government Solutions, concludes today with the third of a three-part series. Alec is responsible for national state and local governments, and as well as select federal civilian agencies.

Today, Alec discusses:

• 0:05 – What State & Local governments find most surprising about Adobe
• 1:05 – How Omniture fits with Adobe’s enterprise offering and government
• 2:10 – The future of government IT

If you haven’t yet, check out the first two parts of our conversation with Alec here and here.

You can keep in touch with Alec on Twitter @alec_chalmers and with the Adobe Gov team @AdobeGov.

Our recent conversation with Alec Chalmers, Adobe’s vice president of National Government Solutions, continues today with the second of a three-part series. Alec is responsible for national state and local governments, as well as select federal civilian agencies.

Today, Alec discusses:

• 0:05 – Federal and State & Local government IT - similarities and differences
• 1:05 – Budget and technology challenges for government

If you haven’t yet, check out the first part of our conversation with Alec here. And stay tuned for the third and final part of the discussion Thursday, when we’ll cover:

• What State & Local governments find most surprising about Adobe
• How Omniture fits with Adobe’s enterprise offerings and helps support government
• The future of government IT

Be sure to follow us on Twitter @AdobeGov, where we’ll highlight when the final portion of this conversation is live on the blog. And keep in touch with Alec on Twitter @alec_chalmers.

The 2011 Print and ePublishing Conference in Alexandria, VA brought together 400+ graphic artists, visual information specialists, design and creative production managers from around the world for 3 days of learning, networking and swapping valuable industry tricks and tips. This year, a large number of US Government agencies were in attendance, including personnel from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Veteran Affairs, Internal Revenue Service, Department of State, NASA, the Defense Media Activity, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Energy, the US Office of Personnel Management, and many others.

Adobe presented multiple sessions during this conference, including an introduction to What’s New in Creative Suite 5.5 as well as a focused, day-long seminar entitled Designing for the Multiscreen Revolution: HTML5, CSS3 and the Flash Platform (.pdf). Over 300 customers attended these sessions, proving the industry hunger for best practices and tools to move them forward into the new territory of multiscreen design.

One of the hottest topics at this conference included best practices in designing for the ePub format, which is rapidly emerging as the industry standard for distribution of electronic books. As we’ve seen recently in the press, Amazon.com announced that their digital book sales have now exceeded sales of all print titles, both hardcover and paperback combined. As of April 1st, for every 100 print books that Amazon has sold (of any kind) the company moved 105 Kindle books, not including downloads of free titles. As we’ve also seen this year from multiple publishing analysts, 60% of Americans are expected to purchase a tablet device for reading purposes within the next three years. That’s over 150 million Americans! Almost every session in the 3-day outline included some form of ePub or eBook production tutorial, as publishers across the spectrum expect an explosion of devices and reading options for consumers and constituents very soon.

We were also especially honored to have Victoria Richards from SSA co-present with Greg Pisocky of Adobe Accessibility on how the new features inside InDesign CS5.5 help simplify and streamline the creation of 508-compliant PDF documents. And if you’re thinking to yourself, “I wish I’d been in that Accessibility session!” — there’s some good news for you: coming very soon on Adobe TV, we’re posting a 2-part series on all the great new workflow enhancements and productivity features that will cut your PDF remediation time from days to minutes! Keep your eyes peeled here to Government Bits for updates on that.

We were excited to sponsor and speak at last week’s FedScoop Citizen Engagement and Open Gov Summit at the Newseum in Washington, DC. The event brought together leading federal government and industry experts to discuss the state of open government and solutions to better engage citizens.

There was a lot of great discussion, including the morning keynote from Dave McClure (@drdavemcc), Associate Administrator, Office of Citizen Services & Innovative Technologies at GSA, and closing keynote from Chris Vein, US Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Government Innovation, Office of Science and Technology, Executive Office of the President (and, in his previous role with the City and County of San Francisco, the featured speaker at last year’s sf.govfresh event).

Our own Alec Chalmers, vice president of National Government Solutions, also spoke. Alec’s talk was titled “Citizen Experience at the Heart of Agency Missions”. We had a chance to catch a few minutes with Alec directly after the event. Check out the following video for Alec’s take on the event, some of the other speakers and what he covered in his speech.

If you were at the FedScoop event or watched some of the presentations online, let us know your thoughts in comments or on Twitter @AdobeGov.