€I want us to ask ourselves every day, how are we using technology to make a real difference in people's lives.€ This is the quote from President Barack Obama on the first page of the digital strategy document of US government. This one sentence defines the importance of technology in government. It is about leveraging the latest technical innovations to support, help and manage the people.
The same document further states €Today's amazing mix of cloud computing, ever-smarter mobile devices, and collaboration tools is changing the consumer landscape and bleeding into government as both an opportunity and a challenge.€ This shows that the impact of the latest technology is not limited to the population. It has reached the halls of power. People today expect that they be able to send and receive information from anywhere, and at anytime. Therefore, the government has to adapt.
There are some important considerations for government mobility strategy. These need to be thought through well in order to avoid issues later.
1. Policy alignment - Government departmental IT teams are like fiefdoms, where the feudal lords decide what happens, and don't believe in sharing information or listening to others. Typically decisions are taken in isolation, be it the choice technology, or service vendor. This leads to disparate policies and strategies among different departments. It is important to have a single vision and unified strategy so that the user experience is uniform. Also, standardization saves cost and reduces complexity.
2. Device Support - The government has to create interfaces that can be accessed by the entire nation. Therefore, they need to invest in cross-platform development. The important factor to consider here is the user experience and performance. If the app runs better on iOS than on Android, it may be perceived that the White Hose is promoting Apple.
3. Security - The US Government agencies are perhaps every hacker's dream goal. Constantly under attack from intrusion attempts to virus threats, they have to ensure that adopting modern tech should not make them more vulnerable. We have all head about FBI laptops being stolen or lost. Mobile devices are much easier to lose or have stolen, due to their small form factor and the fact that they are carried everywhere. Data protection on govt. devices and safeguarding the datacenter from extraneous factors are the biggest security concerns.
4. Development ownership - with over 100 titles in the federal app stores, the maintenance, and management has the potential of becoming a challenge. Also, since the apps are created by different teams, the experience may vary from one app to another. It will be worthwhile to explore the option of having a centralized mobility organization, which will develop, maintain, and manage all the federal applications, and will also have an outward facing helpdesk.
5. BYOD - A key objective of the national mobility strategy is to equip an on-the-go workforce. The fastest and cheapest way to do that is to give government employees permission to "bring your own devices" to work. Some agencies have BYOD policies; others are moving in that direction. In general, however, BYOD is the exception, and that must change. The idea is that employee satisfaction translates into higher-quality work and increased productivity.
These considerations, if baked into the corporate strategy, can lead to a smoother transition from the legacy platforms to modern, innovative technologies, and enhance the user experience.
The same document further states €Today's amazing mix of cloud computing, ever-smarter mobile devices, and collaboration tools is changing the consumer landscape and bleeding into government as both an opportunity and a challenge.€ This shows that the impact of the latest technology is not limited to the population. It has reached the halls of power. People today expect that they be able to send and receive information from anywhere, and at anytime. Therefore, the government has to adapt.
There are some important considerations for government mobility strategy. These need to be thought through well in order to avoid issues later.
1. Policy alignment - Government departmental IT teams are like fiefdoms, where the feudal lords decide what happens, and don't believe in sharing information or listening to others. Typically decisions are taken in isolation, be it the choice technology, or service vendor. This leads to disparate policies and strategies among different departments. It is important to have a single vision and unified strategy so that the user experience is uniform. Also, standardization saves cost and reduces complexity.
2. Device Support - The government has to create interfaces that can be accessed by the entire nation. Therefore, they need to invest in cross-platform development. The important factor to consider here is the user experience and performance. If the app runs better on iOS than on Android, it may be perceived that the White Hose is promoting Apple.
3. Security - The US Government agencies are perhaps every hacker's dream goal. Constantly under attack from intrusion attempts to virus threats, they have to ensure that adopting modern tech should not make them more vulnerable. We have all head about FBI laptops being stolen or lost. Mobile devices are much easier to lose or have stolen, due to their small form factor and the fact that they are carried everywhere. Data protection on govt. devices and safeguarding the datacenter from extraneous factors are the biggest security concerns.
4. Development ownership - with over 100 titles in the federal app stores, the maintenance, and management has the potential of becoming a challenge. Also, since the apps are created by different teams, the experience may vary from one app to another. It will be worthwhile to explore the option of having a centralized mobility organization, which will develop, maintain, and manage all the federal applications, and will also have an outward facing helpdesk.
5. BYOD - A key objective of the national mobility strategy is to equip an on-the-go workforce. The fastest and cheapest way to do that is to give government employees permission to "bring your own devices" to work. Some agencies have BYOD policies; others are moving in that direction. In general, however, BYOD is the exception, and that must change. The idea is that employee satisfaction translates into higher-quality work and increased productivity.
These considerations, if baked into the corporate strategy, can lead to a smoother transition from the legacy platforms to modern, innovative technologies, and enhance the user experience.