UIPath RPA Adoption by U.S Government Agencies

The United States government’s executive branch continues to advocate and set the stage for robotic process automation (RPA) deployment. The government’s prompt acceptance of RPA automation programs indicates its capability. Presently, over 30 government entities are using UiPath to alleviate bottlenecks, resolve compliance concerns, streamline operations, and conserve valuable funds paid by taxpayers. 

UIPath RPA enables federal employees to serve individuals best while relieving them of tedious but vital tasks. It also offers opportunities for persistent learners to excel in administrative offices. Especially at a time when the governmental sector is anticipated to be most affected by the “silver tsunami,”  a.k.a the rapidly aging population.

 

Government Agencies are Adopting RPA at a Rapid Pace

RPA is transforming how the government operates. Any impartial evaluation will show that governments are utilizing RPA more expeditiously than any other innovation.

The United States budget for the fiscal year 2020 included RPA. A dialogue box highlighted RPA automation to draw attention to its significance. This addition to the expenditure complied with the President’s 2018 Management Agenda’s recommendation. The recommendation mentioned transferring individuals from low-value to more lucrative jobs.

The RPA Community of Practice was created at the GSA in the middle of 2019 and wasn’t designed to assess UIpath RPA. The RPA accomplishments are what motivated the RPA Community to step up and assist U.S. government organizations not presently employing RPA. The following are a few of the 70 UiPath RPA deployments

  • the GSA
  • NASA Shared Services Center
  • Air Force Personnel Command
  • Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Government RPA experts from various defense and non-defense agencies gathered to catalog automation best practices. Government organizations just starting to employ RPA automation can use these tips to speed up adoption.

RPA Automation Milestones 

According to Gartner, by 2024, 75% of governments are anticipated to have at least three hyper-automation programs established or in progress. 19% of federal participants are already using RPA according to the 2021 Gartner Digital Transformation Divergence Across Government Sectors Survey. And 33% plan to implement it within the next two years. The following are the main reasons why RPA is so prominent.

  • The process improvements it yields.
  • How rapidly it can pay off.
  • How organization can use it to automate legacy system activities. 

The federal reskilling initiative is demonstrating that when the employees are adequately retrained, RPA can be applied faster and further across government entities. This is more applicable when federal agencies reconfigure, restructure, and accommodate retirement plans.

 

UIPath RPA Automation Resolutions

Because of the emphasis on RPA by the government, UIPath extended the duration of their Academy Live hands-on workshop by two-thirds to 8 hours. As RPA begins to expand even further,  the workshop will assist non-technical staff members in comprehending how RPA integrates technology infrastructure. And how it instigates modern digital tools like artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML), and virtual agents.

Seventy federal deployments of UiPath, all of which have been functional and are increasing, indicating that RPA is making headway in the effort to improve government.

 

In Conclusion

RPA is gradually revolutionizing governmental processes and will continue to do so in the near future. Virtual assistants are taking care of the essential but time-consuming job on employee systems. This means federal employees can quit functioning like machines for their computer systems and start assisting the general public in other productive ways. 

UIPath RPA automation adoption makes the most mundane and tedious tasks easier to accomplish while also strengthening IT infrastructures across different sectors of government. TechSur Solutions solves your problems with RPA technology to automate many repetitive tasks. Learn more about our enterprise RPA solutions and how dedicated we are to improving government operations. 

 

Benefits of Using AI on AWS Platforms

Citizens seek fast, straightforward interactions with their government agencies. Governments may contact constituents, attend to their demands for knowledge, services, and transactions, and then answer those needs with the aid of a citizen engagement system. It is essential for organizations to integrate an efficient strategy that pays close attention to relevant parties within the administration. Especially in order to foresee demands and invent alternatives before dilemmas arise. This allows the government to deliver timely solutions to citizens to address their current needs. The integration of Amazon cloud helps achieve just that.

To enhance citizen engagement systems and the process of interaction with the administration, government agencies across the United States are utilizing the Amazon cloud and strengthening it with AI. Due to the cloud, governments are investing in the forthcoming wave of multichannel services. These omnichannel technologies and AI enhancements minimize direct interaction constraints on personnel. They can consolidate input locations to free resources for more essential operations. Further, AI enhancements decrease and eliminate latency for company personnel and their consumers and enhance the constituent communication process. 

 

Benefits of AWS Platforms and Services 

With more than 7,500 federal organizations utilizing AWS, the need for U.S. government organizations to strike an equilibrium between affordability/flexibility and cybersecurity, accountability, and dependability has increased significantly. AWS has regularly assisted in navigation related to regulatory concerns linked to cloud services. It has further helped in overcoming government conformity difficulties posed by cloud computing. It is feasible to accomplish operations with a consistent set of tools, a continuous supply of new features, and the versatility to grow quickly with the objective. This is mainly due to AWS’s cloud hosting competency throughout all classification levels.

 

Amazon Connect-Enabled Constituent Services

Amazon Connect is an omnichannel, virtualized client service platform that enables organizations to deliver strong, less expensive customer care. 

Regions of the US, such as King County, and Washington, utilize the Amazon cloud to guarantee that citizens have easy, fair access to the amenities they seek. They go further than the call center services, adopting a proactive and sympathetic stance. The Amazon Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is now integrated with digital assistants (Amazon AI bots) across multiple channels. This includes voice, web, text, and social media, giving everyone accessibility anytime, anywhere, on any system. Instances involve generating information that is uniform across all mediums and improving accessibility for individuals who understand a different language or have hearing and vision issues.

Washington, DC, provided contact center employees with Amazon Connect so they could provide smoother and more affordable services to customers. The self-service program for DC’s Child Support Services Division, inaugurated in 2010 on a single network, cost more than $1 million to deploy over ten months. Repairs and maintenance cost far more than $75,000 each year. It took about six months and no extra expenditure to implement the same functionality utilizing Amazon Connect. Using Amazon Connect, contact centers can gather information from many sources, such as agent broadcasts and contact trace data, and store it in a centralized data lake where authorized users can view the client information.

 

Benefits of Amazon Cloud AI Enhancements

To enhance constituent engagement operations outside of office hours, governments are quickly implementing AI-enabled technological devices. These include chatbots and digital voice assistants that are accessible around the clock. These modulation schemes can also deliver data and services via gadgets and software that users are already accustomed to and at ease using. Individuals can use speech, text, and the telephone to access a centralized data and service request center. 80% of the incoming flow in governmental contact centers is for data requests that require the same response for one inquiry as it is for 1,000. Amazon AI can liberate resources from mechanical, repetitive work so administrators can concentrate on higher-order activities. 

For various governments around the US, Citibot, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner, creates AI-powered chatbots. Amazon Lex is a service used by Citibot to create intelligent interface designs for both text and voice programs. Citibot sought to add a generic search feature to more efficiently utilize selected FAQ information and recent statistical sources from numerous targeted websites. Ultimately, this increases the versatility of their chatbot for powerful new inquiry kinds. Citibot used the Web Connector Tool from TensorIoT, an AWS Partner, and Amazon Kendra, an enterprise web service, to create an all-purpose search system. 

Pre-trained AI technologies from AWS offer pre-made expertise for workflows and services.  AI services are simple to incorporate with platforms for solving typical use cases. These include tailored suggestions, upgrading contact centers, boosting protection and reliability, and raising consumer engagement. Government organizations can benefit from reliability and precision from continuously-learning APIs. This is because these APIs leverage the same deep learning technique that underpins Amazon.com and ML Services. The AWS is sufficiently developed using computer vision to classify resources, spot anomalies, and boost processes with autonomous supervision.

Amazon cloud adoption makes communication, establishment, and transfer of data easier while also strengthening IT infrastructures across different government sectors. TechSur Solutions solves your problems with Amazon cloud technology to enhance various communication tasks. Learn more about our enterprise cloud solutions and how dedicated we are to increase flexibility for government operations. 

TechSur #7 Fastest-Growing Small GovCon!

Each year, Washington Technology ranks small businesses who serve government customers, according to their compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the last five years. TechSur Solutions is delighted to be named as the 7th fastest-growing small business serving government customers in 2022! Thank you to Washington Technology and GovExec for this honor.

https://washingtontechnology.com/rankings/fast-50/2022/

We look forward to climbing this list each year as we deliver emerging technologies to Federal agencies!

Ways to Accelerate Big Data Analytics

The data-driven nature of the world has been aided largely by the rapid advancement of technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data analytics. Increasingly more areas are realizing the usefulness of data and how tapping into it can open a world of growth and development.

Big data analytics is a fast-growing field that has transformed government operations. The sheer volume of data is astounding; for governments, most, if not all of this data is useful. Big data analytics tools help uncover insights and extract meaning from all of this data. The volume of data will continue to increase considerably for federal government organizations and agencies. The question becomes how organizations can make use of this massive amount of data to facilitate development.

 

The Importance of Big Data Analytics

 

Understanding and manipulating data has not only helped make numerous processes more efficient, but it has also opened up the possibility of extracting insights that were not possible before. For governments, this means a better allocation of resources and a greater understanding of peoples’ needs as they change. Some examples of ways big data analytics can be of use are:

  • Predicting the spread of disease and taking precautionary measures to prevent it.
  • Developing a public transport system and increasing convenience and efficiency for its users by understanding travel patterns and needs.
  • Fraud reduction.
  • Understanding educational needs and responding with better thought-out study programs.

Data analytics has allowed companies to gain a competitive edge for the private sector by understanding their customers’ needs. For federal government organizations and agencies, the motivating factor is not to outperform their competitors but to provide better services for citizens and make more efficient use of resources. Evidence-based policymaking can be achieved, the outcomes of which can be analyzed and monitored to refine the policies better, accelerating development for the country at large.

 

Taking Advantage of the Data-Driven World

 

Once you realize the importance and potential that lies in data, the next step is exploring how organizations can analyze big data in an optimized way.

1. Utilizing Big Data Analytics Tools

Newer, more advanced big data analytics tools have allowed for more efficient means of data collection. Traditional data collection methods, such as household consumption surveys, left room for discrepancies and misinterpretations. These methods were also time and cost-consuming and prone to error. These weaknesses are the same for most of the areas that make use of traditional tools and methods. 

Big data analytics is time efficient because it’s faster and more accurate than traditional methods. As big data analytics tools include bigger and better technologies, the accuracy of data models will only increase. This creates new avenues for data collection that will lead the way for more appropriate policies to be devised.

2. Implementing Machine Learning

Machine learning has been revolutionary in allowing data to be analyzed and used in new ways. Organizations can manipulate complex data and bring out useful intricate patterns from it. Here, the question of data quality comes into play. Ensuring data quality before relying on big data analytics tools is essential for any data model to work to a reassuring degree of accuracy. Several factors can help improve data quality.

With the volume of data increasing exponentially, there’s bound to be ‘bad data’ – inaccurate, outdated, or incomplete data. Such data compromises the entire dataset’s quality, leading to a less efficient model. Cleaning data is integral to creating efficient models based on big data analytics. The greater the quality of data, the more useful it is.

 

Conclusion

As technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence advance, addressing weaknesses in current systems will gradually become easier, allowing producing stronger data models based on big data analytics. Presently, the importance of big data analytics is undeniable. As we progress, this importance will only become irreplaceable.

To learn more about the various aspects of data and the different ways in which organizations can use it, visit TechSur Solutions

Advantages of Cloud-Based Data Analytics Platform

Cloud computing has gained considerable traction over the years, along with technologies like machine learning. With increasing development in the field, it has shown the potential to revolutionize numerous sectors. With federal government agencies pursuing big data analytics, a medium for storing massive amounts of data is necessary, along with a capable conduit for the processes involving big data analytics. This is where cloud-based big data analytics comes into play.

 

What is Cloud Big Data Analytics?

Cloud big data analytics provides organizations with a platform on which they can carry out all data analytics processes. Instead of burdening its in-house servers, an organization or agency uses a third party’s infrastructure is. Because the infrastructure belongs to another, its maintenance is also handled by a third party. This simplifies the organization’s process and reduces their responsibilities, allowing them to focus solely on performance.

The involved third-party vendor essentially provides the entire infrastructure to the organization, the setup for which they are responsible. This ends up saving time and money in setting up the infrastructure and maintaining it. When another party handles this task, agency employees can better focus on scaling productions and redlining their processes to gather deeper insights.

With the improvement in data analytics tools through the implementation of advanced technologies such as machine learning, there’s an opportunity for organizations to hone their operations and scale them by making use of the best infrastructure possible.

 

Benefits of Cloud Big Data Analytics

As the scale of operations becomes progressively bigger, organizations are looking for ways to agilely use big data without compromising the quality or scale of their operations. Opting for on-premise solutions forces them to make just that compromise. Cloud analytics offers numerous benefits to organizations and agencies.

 

1. Improved Work Flexibility 

With remotely located servers or infrastructure, organizations can effectively distribute work. When the entire infrastructure is on an organization’s premise, there’s less flexibility in working dynamics. More often than not, employees are required to carry out all operations in person on the organization’s system. 

Cloud big data analytics offers the flexibility of hybrid or entirely remote work. Since the pandemic, the workplace has changed drastically. Instantaneous access from anywhere has become less about convenience and more of a need. A more distributed work model also facilitates scaling, as employees from across borders with different skill sets can offer unique perspectives to the organization’s growth.

2. Collaboration Between Teams

Cloud-based data analytics can be highly collaborative. It includes features such as snapshots of processes, adding commentary to provide context behind a process, or having discussions with team members. This kind of work allows for improvements in collective decision-making as a whole.

3. Centralized Data Storage

Additionally, one of the features of cloud-based data analytics is its ability to centralize data. Usually, in traditional methods of storing data in on-premise systems, data can be scattered across the various systems set up for different purposes. Therefore, getting an overall, cohesive view and understanding of an organization is tough. By centralizing data, cloud big data analytics helps build an integrated, complete view of the organization’s processes, which helps maximize insights.

4. Enhanced Data Security

For many organizations, data privacy and security are major concerns when third-party vendors store their data. For this reason, many organizations, especially federal government agencies, hesitate to go for cloud data analytics.

Data security is not guaranteed even if an organization stores its data on-premises. The reinforcement of Software as a Service (SaaS) environments is especially to protect against data leaks and hacks. The risk is far lower as on-premise servers need to be manually configured, leaving more room for errors and loopholes that lead to security risks. Additionally, SaaS operations are subject to strict standards to meet security needs.

 

Conclusion

Cloud computing has allowed organizations to explore a new world of operations – operations that can happen at a much larger scale than was practically impossible before. As the world grapples with huge amounts of data and making use of it, conducting operations on a massive scale to produce greater insights data available can be made possible by availing of cloud-based data analytics. 

TechSur Solutions can assist you in developing a data analytics platform that can enhance decision-making within your organization. Learn more about data analytics and how it can help improve your agency’s operations. 

 

4 Top Machine Learning Use Cases in Government Operations

Government agencies seeking to modernize operations while improving their efficiency and accuracy need technological advancements like machine learning (ML) to establish themselves with the wider public. With its powerful data processing capabilities, image classification, and detection capabilities, machine learning provides captivating opportunities for governments at all levels looking to automate repetitive and intensive processes. 

With artificial intelligence solutions in government expected to rise as much as 33% by 2024, the exciting prospect of machine learning in government operations should see an increase in digital transformation at local, state, and federal levels. Here are four prominent machine learning use cases for government operations and the benefits these use cases can generate. 

 

Fraud Detection 

Machine learning for government fraud is an increasingly reliable use case to detect any financial improprieties or budgeting oversights. 

Increasingly, machine learning has been used to optimize financial management and eradicate any outliers and abnormalities that can be used to improve the precision of budget audits and organizational activities. With machine learning tools, government agencies can cut unnecessary spending and speed up contracting processes to keep track of where money is going or coming from.

With machine learning at the core of operations, ML tools pinpoint any deviations from regular activity, collecting data from various sources and processes in live time to establish normal patterns while alerting administrators of any unusual happenings. Considering how costly and prevalent government fraud is, having machine learning to keep things in check provides unprecedented control for agencies and departments. 

 

Image Detection and Classification 

Machine learning tools are also known for their image identification and classification capabilities, helping government entities to identify criminals and criminal activity. As recognition software continues to evolve, including the refinement of facial recognition software, governments can use machine learning to spot wanted criminals in public. 

The Census Bureau’s analysts and researchers use large amounts of data to predict survey response levels and estimate populations by using satellite imagery. In the future, governments can use machine learning tools to recognize and report suspicious objects in videos or photos. 

 

Data Management 

Machine learning algorithms learn from data and concentrate rules from it, subsequently applying learned insight to assess new data and use their insights to solve several distinct problems like classification or clustering. 

Government builds more seamless and engaging data processing models using machine learning tools, consistently extracting information from highly dimensional and unstructured data to unlock the true value of data. By doing so, machine learning frees up high-value work while eradicating the monotony of repetitive processes, much of which includes data entry or documentation. Business productivity improves by 54% when using machine learning to automate tasks and improve data flow, allowing governments to spend more time on labor-intensive tasks. 

 

Making Policies Based on Machine Learning Use Cases

Thanks to the improvement of data flows and processes with machine learning tools, government entities can optimize their policy-making capabilities. Machine learning enhances decision-making processes while generating information from the public, including analyzing social trends to influence and inform public policies. 

Machine learning also supports city planning at the local level by analyzing traffic flows and road conditions. With machine learning, government entities can enact laws that people can relate to and get benefits from while gaining newfound control over lawmaking and establishing greater public trust. 

 

TechSur Solutions solves your problems with technology to automate your simplest and most technical tasks through machine learning tools. Learn more about our AI solutions and how we take adaptive machine learning a step further to help governments generate enticing opportunities while capitalizing on the benefits of digital transformation.

 

DevSecOps Benefits and Why Government IT Should Adopt It

With today’s technological demands, government IT should foster cultural and engineering changes that break down barriers and implement revolutionary systems to stay agile. To achieve increased robustness, government IT requires a DevSecOps approach, encouraging open collaboration between developers and security and operations elements that focus on automation to ensure the quick and consistent delivery of a secure infrastructure. 

A DevSecOps approach facilitates increased collaboration while improving government innovation and security. Governments can collaborate with innovative partners who build and implement comprehensive solutions. This approach to software development delivers more secure and efficient services for government agencies. However, statistics show how rarely DevSecOps approaches have been adopted in government and how unfamiliar they are with these approaches. 

So, why should governments care about DevSecOps and start revolutionizing their IT frameworks?

 

Top Reasons for Consideration 

DevSecOps benefits for governments include the speeding up of workflows and the increase of transparency while ensuring management with minimal effort. The most successful DevSecOps teams have characterized processes by various elements, including: 

  • Low redundancy
  • High collaboration 
  • Repeatability 

Automation and auditability are prioritized, usurping subjective decision-making to create adaptive technological solutions. Furthermore, a DevSecOps approach in government would actuate various high-value metrics to judge the efficiency of software. Deployment frequency and change failure rate are key facets that make a DevSecOps approach viable. Meanwhile, time-to-value, the time between a featured request and the realized business value from the request, is another good judge of progress for government entities using this approach. 

A DevSecOps approach around security helps governments to reduce expenses and encourage more transparency during IT development. Additionally, this kind of approach shortens development cycles and keeps pace with innovation as government functions capitalize on cloud-native technologies.

 

The Importance of DevSecOps Benefits In Government

Rather than mirroring software development and focusing excessively on the production phase of development, DevSecOps approaches allow for government entities to shift security left. As a result, security is prioritized early in the planning stage. DevSecOps advocates for security at the beginning of the planning stage to catch any security flaws or issues quickly. By embedding controls and increasing visibility, the software development cycle speeds up while allowing the team to reduce vulnerabilities and malicious code as well as mitigate the potential of vulnerabilities being exposed. With security at the fore, development is streamlined, and government operations are more flexible. 

Additionally, a Dev SecOps approach for government IT eliminates friction between the development, security, and operations teams while leveraging modern technologies. And, DevSecOps addresses the main causes of vulnerabilities to prevent continuous security issues, including the strengthening of test tools and improving coding strategies. 

 

Eradicating Misconceptions of DevSecOps Adoption in Government 

While the implementation of a DevSecOps approach in government is exciting and prepares government IT for refreshed perspectives and unique opportunities, there are some typical misconceptions associated with its adoption that the leaders of government entities should look out for. 

There’s a purveying thought that adopting DevSecOps is a signal that government IT is giving up control, especially when partnered with an innovative partner that regulates technological requirements and permissions. However, DevSecOps brings automation that allows IT to best achieve consistency with compliance requirements, enforcing the necessary access controls more effectively than traditional, manual processes.

Another misconception is that DevSecOps strictly focuses on speed, with faster deployment at any time. While speed is one of the benefits of DevSecOps that government IT can enjoy, speed is a byproduct rather than the central aspect. Compliance, stability, and quality are the core functions of DevSecOps, generating improved business speed by automating key IT processes. 

 

DevSecOps makes everything look simpler while strengthening IT infrastructures across various levels of government. TechSur Solutions solves your problems with technology to automate your simplest and most technical tasks. Learn more about our enterprise DevSecOps solutions and how they improve government operations. 

 

The Best Practices For Doing a Cloud Assessment

Being cloud-ready in today’s landscape is a necessity for governments to keep up with the consistently changing demands of the public sector as well as modernize infrastructures and preserve important information. Cloud readiness depends on the availability of resources that a government has, any specific government requirements, and the ability to scale business operations. 

It’s also a smart strategic move considering how much financial investment cloud migration costs, going up to five figures in the most complex cases. To avoid costly ramifications and ensure your move to the cloud is fluid, here are some refreshers on how to do a top-notch cloud assessment and make your migration worthwhile. 

 

Identifying the Right Scope, Business Cases 

Before going full speed ahead with migration, governments need to truly understand the purpose behind the migration and the degree of migration that’s necessary. As exciting as cloud migration is, going into it blindly without knowing the true scope and business cases defeats the purpose entirely, costing governments precious time and money. 

Successful cloud migration is meant to actuate several business cases. These cases include: 

  • Scaling different government resources to make them faster and easier to use
  • Boosting data resiliency thanks to backup services and disaster recovery software
  • Reducing costs caused by maintaining data centers and hardware replacements

When local, state, and federal governments conduct a cloud readiness assessment, there should be a clear idea of what to transfer to the cloud knowing which applications and data need to be moved. Not all data or apps need to be migrated, especially if, for instance, privacy and security regulations demand that governments know where data is being stored, maintained, and accessed. 

 

Assessing Infrastructure Demands

Doing internal research into the IT infrastructure and environment is necessary to determine the applications, data, and workloads that make the most sense to transfer to the cloud or can be removed outright. With this knowledge, governments know the requirements for the future cloud environment and conduct a thorough cloud assessment. 

Applications typically change to adapt to the modernized infrastructure, with the changes either involving a few changes to the application’s core or a complete rebuild. In other cases, the government can opt to leverage a software-as-a-service (SaaS) application for improved adaptability. 

 

Security Requirements 

Government regulations typically influence the security posture of organizations within the cloud and affect what’s included in cloud migration. When governments engage in cloud migration, the same thought process should apply, with a regular inventory of data taken to have a full view of what’s available. Knowing the degree of security that’s necessary puts governments in full control when conducting a cloud readiness assessment, using various measures such as

  • Encryption 
  • Access Management
  • Web App Firewalls 
  • Identity Management

Data leakage/loss and confidentiality have long been concerns regarding cloud security. Cloud assessment best practices help governments at every level examine every scope regarding security so that all sensitive data is fully protected and preserved. 

 

Timeline and Budget 

A migration timeline and budget to facilitate it are two vital elements when creating the optimal cloud strategy. 

The timeline is key so governments can track and hit certain milestones set for the cloud migration process. During a cloud readiness assessment, timelines also allow governments to identify setbacks and their reasons. 

A cloud assessment should also include a close tracking of the migration budget, with the budget consistently aligned with the aforementioned business use cases. The budget should include the total cost of ownership, labor costs, migration training, and licensing costs. It may take less time to put apps in the cloud with minimal periphery changes. However, such a minimalistic approach may dampen the benefits of cloud migration. Governments that are rebuilding applications may spend more time but can achieve greater cloud functionality and flexibility.

 

TechSur Solutions solves your problems with technology to automate your simplest and most technical tasks. Learn more about our cloud-native application solutions and how these solutions generate enticing opportunities as you migrate to the cloud. 

The 5 Biggest Cloud Migration Challenges

Cloud migration is an intriguing time for the business adopting this approach, accepting the need to modernize and scale operations while improving the infrastructure. Migration is a value proposition for the businesses implementing it and for the clients who benefit from it. 

Governments at various levels have been increasingly trying to move to the cloud for years. But, there are challenges of cloud migration that must consistently be navigated to realize the technological, operational, and financial benefits it offers. From compatibility and security issues to the lack of a clear vision, cloud migration challenges can compromise the advent of such dynamic technology. Plus, a failure to address these challenges adds expenses, including the hidden costs of migration. 

Here are the biggest pitfalls to cloud migration that government agencies must address to realize the cloud’s full value and innovative possibilities. 

 

The Compatibility Issue 

One of the simplest ways to migrate applications and data to the cloud is to lift and shift them into the ideal cloud environment without any redesigning of the apps. While it seems easy enough to make such a shift in real life, it’s not, especially if there is a minimal (or non-existent) knowledge base of cloud technologies.

Additionally, suppose governments or any other industries have legacy applications that aren’t compatible with a cloud environment. In that case, the migration either loses all purpose or requires an extensive/expensive overhaul of the infrastructure in place. 

Practical approaches to the above-mentioned cloud migration challenges include: 

  • Shifting apps that don’t require compatibility changes
  • Aligning virtual networks to interact with the existing infrastructure 
  • Re-architecturing certain applications while rendering others obsolete

Any compatibility decisions depend on the types of applications used and their impact on business capabilities. 

 

Wrong Strategy Configuration 

The wrong cloud migration strategy can set back your organization considerably, especially if it doesn’t fit business requirements. It’s supposed to provide a clear roadmap for the complete process of assets to a cloud infrastructure. But, when the strategy and business demands/use cases don’t align, it leads to a dead-end for the governments adopting them, causing a diminished return on investment (ROI) and lower uptimes, causing serious operational issues. 

As mentioned above, the lift and shift method is a simple migration method but isn’t a one-size-fits-all migration strategy. When application runtime environments differ from cloud environments, lift and shift methodologies are rendered useless. 

Deciding on a suitable strategy requires analyzing business requirements, assessing use cases, and having a thorough cloud assessment to audit the current system data, as well as analyzing scalability needs. 

 

Scope Creep 

Scope creep, or cloud sprawl, typically happens when clear business use cases for cloud migration aren’t identified and initial budgets are exceeded along the way. Various cloud instances emerge without a clear reason, leading to expenses spiraling and diminished operational efficiency. 

Measuring costs is one of the biggest challenges of cloud migration but can be done by analyzing them alongside performance to assess ROI to determine the success or failure of the migration. 

 

Security Weak Points 

Governments must be diligent in securing sensitive data and eradicating siloed data infrastructures. Comprehensively assessing core services and essential data allow governments and other industries conducting cloud migration to understand the necessity for secure migration practices. However, various risk assessment initiatives lack a formidable framework to create a reliable management plan. 

Risk management frameworks require a clear identification of security policies and risks to counter them, considering strategic, external, and preventable risks. Having a centralized security policy with strong authentication methods and critical access checkpoints is a key element of enforcing enhanced security for cloud migration. 

 

Lack of Skills To Operate the Refined Infrastructure

Skill shortages are oft-talked about in today’s business landscape and that applies to cloud migration as well. Migration typically necessitates upskilling for existing employees, especially when a legacy infrastructure is in place. The lack of skill on hand is one of the most concerning cloud migration challenges for governments and businesses opting for migration, spending a lot on training. 

Studies show that cloud monitoring and cloud environment skills are among two of the highest skill shortages around. Cost and architecture skill sets are also low, requiring potential partnerships with cloud management entities for deployment and management purposes. If possible, establishing such a partnership allows governments, courts, and other industries to see the full, enticing benefits of cloud adoption and migration. 

 

TechSur Solutions solves your problems with technology to automate your simplest and most technical tasks. Learn more about our cloud-native application solutions and how these solutions generate enticing opportunities as you migrate to the cloud. 

 

5 Benefits of Using Bots in Government Organizations

Bots are reflective of the core principles that are fundamental to artificial intelligence, augmenting human decision-making while adding ease of use and precision to simplify tasks. They break down tedious processes and allow various services like logistics and customer service to become more flexible. 

Local, state and federal governments are increasingly open to the idea of adopting government bots for use in customer-facing departments, handling insurance claims and other use cases, as well as for sector interactions. These bots offer conversational AI communication to citizens around the clock, connecting them to technology-based public services. Bots do offer guidance on regulations, permits, and critical processes. And they can act as personal assistants to set up urgent meetings or organize calendars. The satisfaction rates and high support level that bots provide make them attractive propositions for governments worldwide. 

The possibilities for using bots within government organizations are intriguing, and when seeing what the benefits are, organizations will be brimming with excitement about the improved results they can look forward to. 

 

Governments Can Maximise Service Capabilities 

 

Governments are scratching the surface regarding the adoption and leveraging of bots. In fact, governments have a higher imperative for using bots and artificial intelligence-powered tools than any other industry. At every level, government offices can wave the proverbial flag for innovation with extensive bot integration.

Government services are varied, and the details fundamental to the success of such services are complex, technical, and sometimes intimidating for people using the government system because so much information is involved. Several governments are short-staffed while facing unpredictable, layered security/compliance requirements. Additionally, governments have to maintain service capabilities that may be utilized once every year or a few years. Because of these complexities, government service ratings have been at an all-time low

When built and implemented properly, government bots allow local, state, and federal governments to maximize their service capabilities. For example, The General Services Administration (GSA) has used bots to teach citizens about different scams, providing resources for people who have been scammed or are looking to avoid becoming victims. Delivering insights and managing such information becomes simpler with bots, providing more public access to information. 

 

Government Bots Improve Information Management 

 

Free MIniature Toy Robot on Top of Laptop's Keyboard Stock Photo

 

Bots are efficient information managers that can process what’s being said to them and offer solutions in real-time. They can direct citizens to vital information regarding important community or state-wide happenings like construction, community events, and public meetings. 

Additionally, local and state governments are designing Q&A bots to improve the public’s accessibility to information, providing repositories across various industries and agencies. Government bots aggregate information seamlessly, whether it’s information regarding tax documents, public health, or immigration. And bots engage in meaningful conversations, matching the urgency and tone of the inquiring public. 

 

Bots Offer Scalability

 

Government bots are efficient solutions that scale services up or down, depending on public demand or the goals of government leaders. Bots are instant problem-solvers using machine learning capabilities to understand requests and provide highly useful services. They offer instant responses to any questions and are fine-tuned by developers who ensure they have the conversational aptitude to help in any given situation. 

The more that bots can be leveraged to optimize processes, the more time government departments have to handle more complex matters. Bots and the platforms that utilize them are scalable. And, running them reduces costs by 30%, reducing the need for outside hirings. 

 

Bots Transform How Citizens View Government Services

 

Government bots positively transform citizen experiences with government services by improving the quality of customer conversations and providing valuable insights. These elements should make government staffers anticipate more streamlined workflows, driving productivity and improving the reputation. Who doesn’t want people boasting about how good they are?

Bots, as mentioned above, provide quick access to a wide range of public data. The real-time guidance that government bots provide eases the burden when looking through long, complex applications and more technical processes. And they can provide multilingual support. 

Leveraging bots for government operations could encourage more civic participation in government-related activities. 

 

Bots Offer Much-Needed Opportunities to Deliver Better Value 

 

With successful implementation, governments at different levels can offer formidable value propositions, providing more efficient mission services that win the trust and drive productivity. The impact on government staffing is more profound, leaving more complex responsibilities for staffers who can focus on tasks with higher value propositions. 

Government bots can offer more scalable and flexible solutions, potentially opening up organizations and agencies to more profit-making opportunities. 

If you’re wondering, ‘how do bots work?’ TechSur Solutions can solve your problems with technology to handle your simplest and most technical tasks. Learn more about our adaptive artificial intelligence solutions and how bots can help you modernize your operations in unprecedented ways.