Government Bits

Tracking how technology is transforming interaction between governments and citizens.

Adobe’s Acrobat and Creative Suite products are ubiquitous across the DoD and Intelligence Community. Over the last few years, we have amassed a compelling number of case studies in which agencies like the US Army Corps of Engineers and many others use Adobe’s desktop tools to conceive, prototype, create, publish, distribute, track, optimize and secure documents and content ranging from simple inter-office communications to detailed technical schematics to high-level classified documentation. Whether it’s high-resolution digital imaging, HD video processing, enterprise-class RIAs, mobile app development, or redacting and encrypting sensitive PDF documentation — the DoD depends on Adobe Desktop.

Because of the broad familiarity that our DoD customers have with our desktop software, Adobe has “taken its show on the road” with a 17-date roadshow called the Create and Secure Military Tour 2011!

These half-day briefings are designed to help keep our customers ahead and abreast of the emerging trends in PDF and document security, publication design, web development and video post-production with practical introductions to the latest innovations in Adobe technology.

Included in these briefings are demonstrations of Acrobat X Professional, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Encore, and other Adobe desktop tools. Hot topics so far have included: document encryption and security, forms data collection workflows, PDF Portfolios, creating apps for Android and iOS devices, HTML5 best practices, smoothly editing multiple streams of HD video in real-time, and much more.

Check here to see if we’re coming to a city or military installation near you soon!

Have you ever researched a product or service at a particular website, and then bought it someplace else? Used a mobile device to compare the price of a product online while shopping in a store? Been influenced by the opinions of others in a social community when selecting a healthcare provider or learning more about ailing symptoms?

That list is just a small sample of behaviors that illustrate how customers are educating themselves beyond the information that traditional organizations are providing, and transforming the consumer lifecycle. When coupled with heightened expectations for personalized service after a commitment is established, this environment presents a unique opportunity. Leading enterprises understand the correlation between creating loyal customers and driving performance.

Conditioned by immersive digital experiences in the private sector, citizens now expect more from interactions with their government in the public sector as well. As a byproduct of powerful user-centric citizen experiences, government agencies have discovered they are also able to realize significant cost savings. For example, by making it easier for citizens to dispute inaccurate medical claims, Medicaid agencies could save millions of dollars annually by helping to reduce fraud.

Adobe’s “Experience Delivers” tour recently stopped in Washington DC where the focus was Customer Experience Management (CEM) in government (see the event video we created above, including our conversations with several of the speakers). Attendees from federal, state, and local agencies learned more about our CEM platform, and ways that it can be leveraged to build “brand” differentiation and improve citizen engagement across multiple channels.

Presenters from Adobe and our featured partners, Deloitte and SapientNitro, shared their perspectives and set the stage for CEM industry luminary speaker Bruce Temkin, Managing Partner of the Temkin Group, who articulated the measurable benefits of an effective CEM solution. Bruce further engaged the audience as he identified the following four competencies required to effectively leverage CEM in the enterprise.

1. Purposeful leadership
2. Compelling brand value
3. Employee engagement
4. Customer connectedness

Preliminary feedback from this event has been overwhelmingly positive. Other US cities in the Experience Delivers Tour include San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. European cities include London, Stockholm, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels.

Here at Adobe, we’re passionate about CEM and very interested in your feedback and general thoughts. Is there an opportunity to improve engagement with your agency’s constituents? Let us know in comments and on Twitter @AdobeGov and @AdobeCEM.

How can we address digital exclusion and encourage the mass channel shift to low cost online service delivery that we all need?

Digital Champion, Martha Lane Fox, is calling for ‘e’ Revolution not Evolution with online becoming “the first point of contact” for public services. And the new Government ICT strategy states that the government “will work to make citizen-focused transactional services ‘digital by default’ where appropriate” – but enable a network of ‘assisted digital’ service providers for those who are unable to access this brave new world.

There is, however, much work to do in understanding the user’s needs and experience of online public services with the goal of making them simple and accessible to all.

On the panel:

• Graham Walker, Government Director for UK Digital Champion (Martha Lane Fox)
• Dr Lorna Peters, Connect Digitally, Department for Education and Hertfordshire
• Gilles Polin, Adobe’s European Head of Government Solutions
• Helen Olsen, Managing Editor, UKauthorITy and ITU magazine

An on demand version of the webcast is available from this link.

Are solving the issues of effective identity and authentication pre-requisites to delivering channel shift to low cost online public services?

The future of public services is most definitely digital: confirmed last month in the Government’s new ICT strategy. Indeed, in the Age of Austerity the potential for reducing the costs of service delivery by a switch to digital is too great to miss – but unless we can securely deliver the right service to the right people we risk even greater waste through fraud and further contact.

The London Borough of Brent has been trialling a new concept – the Mydex citizen data store – along with exploring use of the Government Gateway; Enfield, meanwhile, has implemented a new corporate authentication service with help from Serco and GB Group. The panel explored the benefits and pitfalls of getting ID and authentication right.

On the panel:

• Dane Wright, IT Strategy Manager at the London Borough of Brent
• Lee Grafton, Serco and Enfield’s GB Group identity solution
• Gilles Polin, Adobe’s European Head of Government Solutions
• Helen Olsen, Managing Editor, UKauthorITy and ITU magazine

An on demand version of the Webcast is available from this link.

Our recent conversation with Michael Murtha, Adobe Department of Defense Solutions Engineer, continues today with the second of a two-part series.

Today, Mike discusses:

• 0:05 – An overview of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Defense Connect Online
• 1:30 – Breadth of offering with Adobe Connect
• 2:30 – What the future holds in his market area of focus

If you haven’t yet, check out the first part of the conversation here.

And if you’re reading and watching this, you might also be interested in our recent conversation with Barry Leffew, Adobe’s vice president of Public Sector Sales. You’ll find parts one and two here and here.

To keep up on the latest with Adobe in government, be sure to follow us on Twitter @AdobeGov.

For the Bainbridge Island Police Department, Adobe Connect has become an integral part of the department’s ability to conduct live and on-demand meetings to communicate sensitive information and respond faster to emergency incidents.

According to Detective Trevor Ziemba, Bainbridge Island officers and law enforcement partners can collaborate instantly with Adobe Connect, further enhancing public safety. Ziemba and the other detectives appreciate the fact that Adobe Connect requires little to no training and can be used easily and reliably across diverse teams. This means officers and law enforcement partners can start collaborating right away to get to the bottom of cases and quickly resolve critical incidents.

With Adobe Connect, Bainbridge Island Police Department and its safety partners are collaborating in real time. Many of the officers also have individual, persistent meeting rooms, so they can engage their peers and partners when and where they need to. To learn more about how Adobe Connect has transformed the way law enforcement officials help keep the community safe, see the full story here.

Earlier this month, Adobe and Emergent hosted the first in-person event of the Adobe Connect Public Sector Users Group. We wrote about the new Users Group earlier in the year in this post.

The first event focused on Adobe Connect 8 usability, and included discussion on what’s new with the technology, accessibility, best practices, and more on the new Users Group itself.

We attended and captured some video footage, including a few words each from our colleagues, Heyward Drummond and Emily Timmerman.

Check out the Users Group blog for a few follow-up posts to the first event – one includes several links to helpful resources and the other more detail on integrating video in a web meeting.

And if you haven’t already, considering joining the Users Group; check out their site for more details.

Along with Federal Computer Week, we recently presented an event in Washington, D.C. focused on online analytics. The March 1 event was titled, “Leveraging the Power of Online Analytics to Elevate your Agency’s Performance”.

We were appreciative to have a great keynote speech by Bajinder Paul, Senior IT Advisor to the Associated Administrator, Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, General Services Administration. And the event also included a panel discussion with speakers including:

• Phil Kemelor, Vice President of Strategic Analytics, Semphonic (Moderator)
• Tim Fullerton, Director of New Media and Web Communications, Dept. of Interior
• Mike Kruger, Director of New Media, Dept of Commerce
• Rob Pinkerton, Senior Director, Industry Solutions, Adobe
• Mike Evans, Senior Solutions Consultant, Adobe

We captured footage at the event, and spent some time with Rob to get his thoughts and perspective on the day. Check out the video below – and, as always, we’re interested in hearing from you in comments.

Sergeant Sean Holtz of the Training Bureau at Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) recently talked about the department’s decision to use Adobe Connect to provide officers with simple, dependable access to rich, interactive online training courses. Holtz says, “The Adobe solution provides an intuitive, convenient platform for us to create and deliver vital training to officers in every area of our department, regardless of location.”

Holtz likes how Adobe Connect enables MDPD to determine whether or not information is sticking with officers by testing their comprehension and retention.  MDPD can easily add or modify the existing content to make it more effective to train officers.

Check out the complete story here.

Our colleagues in the UK recently began a series of interesting webinars on key government IT topics, and featuring some great speakers from gov organizations and elsewhere.

The latest in the series takes place tomorrow, Feb. 17, at 9:00am ET, and is titled, Online Citizen and Business Services: Online citizen self-service in the age of austerity. You can read more about it on the Adobe UK enterprise blog here, and can register for the event here. @AdobeEnterprise will also be live tweeting. Regardless of where you’re located, we encourage you to check it out.

The webinars are planned each month for the next several, and topics include:

• March 17: Security – Citizen Data and Transactions
• April 14: Designing and Delivering Intuitive Processes and Service Transactions
• May 12: Simplifying Service Transactions and Business processes

Keep your eyes on the Adobe UK enterprise blog and @AdobeGov for the latest.

Update: an on-demand version of the Feb. 17 webinar is now available. Please check it out here. The discussion of Online Citizen and Business Services featured the following panelists:

• Dominic Cain, Head of Client Services at the London Borough of Southwark
• Guy Ker, Publishing Director at Directgov
• Gilles Polin, Adobe’s European Head of Government Solutions
• Helen Olsen, Managing Editor, Informed Publications