• Connecting more closely and ensuring transparency with citizens.
• Developing strategies and solutions that integrate data to drive insights, collaboration and action.
• Leveraging today’s devices—body-worn cameras, drones, robots, holsters, weapons and other kinds of sensors—to capture data in new ways.

We come away from IACP with an even greater commitment to address these issues and enhance public safety through our trusted Azure and Azure Government cloud platforms, and the breadth of cloud-powered law enforcement solutions offered by our partners. We’re humbled by the strong response to our cloud offerings, which serve nearly 10 million government users across more than 7,000 federal, state and local government entities. One of the key criteria for U.S. police departments is compliance with the FBI’s rigorous Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy. To date, we’ve signed CJIS contractual commitments with 33 states, covering two-thirds of the U.S. population and 80 percent of sworn law enforcement officers.

Microsoft booth

We hosted the Microsoft Public Safety Innovation Theater in our IACP booth, where 25 of our partners presented their law enforcement solutions and successes. Highlights included:

• Safariland announced new capabilities in partnership with Motorola so that when an officer draws a weapon from its holster, a real-time alert is automatically sent to the command center. Its VIEVU subsidiary also announced a partnership with Digital Ally to automatically activate an officer’s body-worn camera when the patrol car’s lightbar is turned on.

• Axon introduced its new Citizen solution that empowers community members to submit evidence directly to law enforcement agencies for crimes under investigation.
• Genetec released Citigraf, a solution that instantly detects and displays relevant information from disparate systems so that first responders can make more effective decisions for situations in progress. The Chicago Police Department has deployed Citgraf in two districts, resulting in a 22-percent drop in shootings.
• Ten8Tech showcased its CaseService solution for citizens to communicate with law enforcement and VictimLink, which revolutionizes sexual assault reporting and connects victims with community resources.
• BlueForce and Yardarm collaborated to share how Yardarm weapon-based sensors connected to the BlueForce Command solution increase officer safety and situational awareness.

Our booth also featured the Microsoft patrol car, a Chevy Tahoe Police Pursuit Vehicle (PPV) that showcases cutting-edge law enforcement solutions from Microsoft and our partners.  We also shared new breakthroughs for law enforcement, including several artificial intelligence solutions, such as an Azure-powered photo-matching system to help stop human trafficking. This AI solution was developed in partnership with Thorn, a nonprofit that drives technology innovation to fight sexual exploitation of children. “Part of our mission at Thorn is to put the best and brightest minds in technology to work on behalf of our most vulnerable children,” said Julie Cordua, CEO of Thorn. “Our partnership with Microsoft delivers on this mission by tapping into leaders in facial recognition and child safety to help find missing and exploited children faster.”

Microsoft IACP sessions

In addition to the solution presentations in our booth, we hosted two formal IACP sessions. Richard Zak, director of Microsoft’s Justice & Public Safety Solutions, shared insights on deploying the cloud for mission-critical law enforcement solutions. He summed up the value of the cloud in serving all law enforcement organizations by saying, “The cloud makes modern, powerful solutions available to even small departments.”

It was a privilege for me to host a panel discussion on using technology to help connect the dots in investigations, improve situational awareness and operational efficiency, and increase citizen engagement. My sincere thanks to four law enforcement leaders for joining in this stimulating session:

• Keith Meadows, chief, College Park (Ga.) Police Department
• Jerald Monahan, chief, Yavapai College Police
• Mary O’Connor, retired assistant chief, Tampa (Fla.) Police Department
• Mike Sena, executive director, Northern California Regional Intelligence Center.

The panel delivered several “wow” moments. In framing the challenge of capturing and using data in new ways, Sena said, “Despite the fact that a lot of times we’re walking distance from the data, we need tools to help cross that bridge.”

O’Connor then put the importance of technology into perspective after explaining Tampa’s success in reducing crime by an impressive 74 percent over the past 10 years, in part due to the NC4 Street Smart solution powered by Azure: “Don’t just think of the 74 percent as just a number, think about the 100,000 fewer victims being impacted in Tampa.”

For me, that statement underscores the fact that driving safer communities is really all about improving the lives of people. This was our third year as a platinum sponsor of IACP, and Microsoft and our partners remain dedicated to empowering law enforcement to create safer cities and make a difference in the lives of the citizens they serve. Please learn more at:

• Microsoft for Public Safety and Justice
• eBook for Justice and Public Safety
• Check the facts: Not all clouds are created equal
• Microsoft CityNext Safer Cities.

The post After IACP, an even greater commitment to public safety appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Leading-edge law enforcement solutions

It’s an honor for Microsoft to serve as a platinum sponsor of this premier conference for three years in a row, with the City of Brotherly Love providing a fitting location for the largest gathering of law enforcement leaders in the world. This year, we’ll have our most significant IACP presence ever so please join us at Booth No. 2125 to:

• Get behind the wheel of the Microsoft patrol car, which showcases solutions that can help law enforcement improve incident response and create safer communities. We’ll offer hands-on demonstrations of robots, drones, cameras, automatic license-plate recognition and other cloud-powered, connected technologies.
• Participate in 30-minute solution presentations in our Microsoft Public Safety Innovation Theater. Microsoft will join partners in presenting leading-edge law enforcement solutions—video, situational awareness, records management, dispatch, fingerprint identification, Internet of Things and more. Please review our complete list of sessions and stop by to learn about new partner solutions, best practices and success stories.  
• Experience interactive artificial intelligence solutions powered by Azure. Artificial intelligence is starting to deliver new breakthrough capabilities for law enforcement that can identify hidden patterns and trends, spot missing children and disrupt criminal enterprises.

Trusted cloud, digital transformation

We’ll also share key content in two formal IACP presentations:

• Trusted Cloud for Law Enforcement, Oct. 23: Richard Zak, director of Microsoft’s Justice & Public Safety Solutions, will share how the cloud is powering new capabilities in law enforcement and the best practices for leveraging cloud-based tools for analysis, collaboration and mobility.
• Digital Transformation for Safer Citizens, Communities and Responders, Oct. 24: I’m excited for law enforcement leaders to join me in discussing how technology is enabling transformations, including examples of agencies using cloud solutions to increase operational capability, situational awareness and citizen engagement.

Law enforcement’s most trusted advisor

Our participation in the 124^th annual IACP Conference and Exposition provides a great opportunity to share new capabilities, demonstrate Microsoft’s commitment to helping police departments keep citizens and communities safe, and further IACP’s mission of serving the global law enforcement community. Please learn more below and join us at IACP to discuss how our trusted cloud platforms are helping transform public safety and justice organizations. See you in Philly!

• IACP 2017
• Microsoft at IACP 2017
• Microsoft for Public Safety and Justice
• eBook for Justice and Public Safety
• Check the facts: Not all clouds are created equal
• Microsoft CityNext Safer Cities.

The post Empowering public safety at IACP 2017 appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

I’m especially looking forward to moderating a panel discussion on how smart cities are leveraging the cloud to better serve constituents. Here are a few examples of innovation using our Microsoft Azure and Azure Government cloud platforms:

Urban mobility and transportation:

• Cubic Transportation Systems is supporting Miami-Dade County in modernizing its Cubic-supplied, Azure-based EASY Card revenue management system to book, route and pay for transit across bus, train, bike-share and ride-share options.
• Microsoft is working through a new City Innovate Foundation public-private partnership to help advance transportation solutions for all cities, starting with Chattanooga, Tenn., Los Angeles, Miami-Dade, Oakland and Victoria, B.C. Please learn more here.
• Azure-based TransitScreen empowers commuters with a convenient, real-time picture of all their nearest transportation options—and helps cities become more sustainable and healthier places to live, work and play.
• Through a partnership with DataKind, Microsoft is analyzing traffic collision data in New York, Seattle and other Vision Zero Cities, which aim to reduce traffic-related deaths and serious injuries to zero.
• Fathym’s Internet of Things-enabled WeatherCloud enhances driver safety during inclement weather.
• The Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform provides a set of services built on the Azure cloud to empower auto manufacturers to create custom connected driving experiences.

Health and human services:

• Diona is working to engage citizens with health and human services agencies through Azure-based mobile solutions.
• Foster Care Technologies has a leading edge foster-care placement solution called ECAP, which runs on Azure Government.
• Tetrus is enabling HHS agencies find loving, adoptive homes for children in a fraction of the time through an Azure Government-based information exchange.
• The California Department of Social Services, Microsoft and Planet Technologies partnered to redefine the entire citizen experience by empowering employees, engaging with citizens and optimizing operations through Surface, Azure and Office 365.

Public safety:

• The Microsoft Patrol Car is a great example of our work with partners to integrate cloud based, connected technology solutions into patrol vehicles.
• Genetec launched a Microsoft Azure-based security solution that police, fire and other departments can use to manage images from video security, access control and license plate recognition cameras to help cut crime. Microsoft and Genetec also are providing 10 U.S. cities with Community Connect starter kits to enable local businesses to connect surveillance cameras to police through the cloud, providing a vital tool that’s already reduced violent crime by 50 percent at participating Detroit businesses.
• The Miami-Dade Police Department is transforming its operations through two solutions powered by Microsoft cloud technology: VIEVU body-worn cameras for officers and the Community on Patrol (COP) mobile app that connects citizens to each other and to police.

Sustainability:

• Spatial Wave worked with Los Angeles to implement an Azure-based mobility component that provides more effective sanitation services while reducing costs.
• To improve building management and energy efficiency, Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University implemented the PI System from OSIsoft, based on Power BI for Office 365 and Windows Azure.

Microsoft also is proud to be the first technology company in the country to achieve Gold Level of Zero Waste Certification for our Redmond, Wash., campus, recognizing our work to divert at least 90 percent of food, office and construction waste away from landfills.

We’ll look forward to discussing more cloud-based solutions at Smart Cities NYC ’17 and demonstrating our Azure and Azure Government platforms, which support nearly 6 million government users across 7,000-plus federal, state and local organizations, and fulfill stringent security and compliance requirements. For example:

• Microsoft is the only cloud provider that offers a cloud that is DoD Impact Level 5 Provisional Authorization (PA)-ready for infrastructure, platform and productivity services.
• Azure Government meets a multitude of certifications and accreditations, including FedRAMP, FBI CJIS agreements with 27 states, HIPAA and many more.

If you can’t join us at Smart Cities NYC ‘17, please take advantage of our free trials of Microsoft Azure, Azure Government and Office 365 U.S. Government to experience the most trusted, comprehensive cloud for your smart city solutions. More information also is available at:

• Microsoft in Government
• Microsoft CityNext
• Check the facts: Not all clouds are created equal
• U.S. government cloud map
• Microsoft Trust Center.

The post Smart cities harness the power of the Microsoft cloud appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

I believe Microsoft plays a unique and impactful role in helping federal, state and local governments implement accessible technologies so that citizens with disabilities can easily use public services, participate in civic employment and be part of an inclusive society that embraces equality. One way we do that is by helping the federal government meet its obligations to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, the U.S. law specifying requirements for accessible electronic and information technology that each agency must follow, and its standards, which some state and local governments have adopted.

Our commitment to develop products and services that help provide an accessible user experience starts with a formal, internal Microsoft process, which follows U.S. Section 508 and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The U.S. Access Board recently updated its Section 508 standards to include requiring federal agencies to make all their public-facing electronic content and “agency official communications” accessible. Microsoft is committed to helping government customers meet this new rule, grounded in our profound belief that technology is an important enabler for people with disabilities. The latest Office 365 PC, Mac desktop clients and Online applications include improved capabilities, such as built-in accessibility checkers and new accessible templates, which can help governments adhere to the update.

Through the efforts of our engineers, accessibility experts and a corporate mission of empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, we endeavor to meet or exceed the Access Board’s new accessibility requirements. For example, customers have told us that they need more information and transparency than what is provided in Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs), the standardized forms that show how our products and services meet key technical requirements of Section 508. We have started enhancing many of our product VPATs to include validation by external suppliers under the Department of Homeland Security’s Trusted Tester Program (please learn more at this recent blog). By incorporating accessibility and a renewed focus on usability into our designs, we demonstrate our commitment to enabling all U.S. citizens to participate in their government, take full advantage of technology and live life to the fullest, including people like:

• The Eagles football team at the California School for the Deaf
• Former NFL player Steve Gleason
• Special education students at Georgia’s Holly Springs Elementary School.

Beginning in 1988 with the launch of Windows 2.0, we’re delighted that the broader community appreciates our long-standing commitment to accessibility. Just recently, Section508.gov acknowledged a Microsoft training event for their program managers, where we covered new accessibility capabilities built into Office 365 and Windows 10. “508 coordinators may see Windows 10 and Office 365 deployed faster than they expect,” said Allen Hoffman, deputy executive director, Office of Accessible Systems & Technology, Department of Homeland Security. “Section 508 requires that when the government develops, procures, maintains or uses electronic and information technology that we select the product which best meets the Section 508 provisions from those which meet business needs. Windows 10 and Office 365 both clearly meet more Section 508 provisions than previously released versions. I have Office 365 running at home and it just works in more accessible ways than earlier versions of Office.”

With governments increasingly challenged to do more with less, Microsoft is committed to helping our public-sector customers meet their digital inclusion goals. By demonstrating how our products and services comply with these standards, Microsoft is not only expanding inclusion for people with disabilities, we’re helping governments reduce their risk, increase inclusion and ensure accessibility in a cost-effective way. This is an ongoing journey that we are all on and we’re humbled by what we have learned so far, and look forward to partnering with you in the future.

To learn more about Microsoft’s commitment to accessibility and inclusion, please register for a free webcast on enhancing digital accessibility to comply with Section 508 and sign up for a free trial at the Office 365 U.S. Government site, and visit our new Microsoft accessibility website and other links listed below.

• Empowering us all website
• Microsoft Accessibility Demonstrations
• Microsoft and Section 508
• Microsoft Accessibility Blog
• Accessibility in Office 365 Blog
• Resources to help advance accessibility initiatives
• Making Microsoft products more accessible: Our path forward.

The post Empowering people with disabilities through digital accessibility and inclusion appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Miami-Dade County is a perfect example. Driven by a desire to foster trust with its diverse community, the Miami-Dade Police Department embarked on an ambitious initiative to transform its operations. It launched two new solutions that are in use today: VIEVU body-worn cameras for officers and a new Community on Patrol (COP) app, both powered by cloud technology from Microsoft. To learn more about these solutions and how they have transformed the way officers engage with the community and enhance the public trust, check out this Microsoft Transform blog.

As more and more departments evaluate their technology needs, they need to carefully evaluate whether their cloud provider meets proper standards for security. One top concern for public safety agencies across the U.S. is whether a cloud platform meets the applicable requirements of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy, which enables departments to access, transmit or store any of the FBI’s criminal justice information.

Microsoft is committed to providing justice and public safety organizations with cloud services they can trust and is uniquely equipped to help them become CJIS compliant. Over the past few months we have continued our commitment in this area. Last week, Microsoft signed a CJIS agreement with Oregon, making it the 23rd state to give its police access to Microsoft Azure Government. Microsoft has more CJIS agreements than any other hyper-scale cloud provider.

With the new challenges law enforcement is confronted with in its daily responsibility of protecting people, trust and technology are uniting as important standards for selecting solutions to advance the effectiveness of public safety. For more about why Microsoft is the ideal partner for powering the mission- critical workloads of government customers, check out an Azure blog.

The post Policing and the cloud: Law enforcement agencies turn to Microsoft for the most complete cloud platform appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Microsoft is committed to providing Justice and Public Safety (JPS) organizations with cloud services they can trust and is uniquely equipped to help them become CJIS compliant.  We have assessed the operational policies and procedures of Microsoft Azure Government, Microsoft Office 365 Government, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Government, and have attested contractually with 33 States their ability to meet the applicable controls and comply with FBI CJIS requirements.  Over the past few months we have continued our commitment in this area and contractually worked with the States of Montana, Alaska, Tennessee, Rhode Island and most recently Virginia.  Any State, City, County Government in these 33 states is now able to use the Microsoft Government Cloud for organizations that require CJIS compliance.

Critical in the CJIS standard are employee background checks, detailed security updates and the ability for the State CJIS Systems Agency (CSA) to examine and inspect cloud solution providers to meet their audit requirements.  We design compliance from the ground up, so our cloud services and our entire Government Cloud are integrated via this approach.  Unlike other vendors in the market, we don’t have partial coverage, don’t make unsubstantiated claims, and we don’t require our Government customers to use third party software (that adds unforeseen IT cost and lowers user productivity).

Our approach empowers JPS organizations to utilize government cloud services to support their mission via a solution they can trust.  Our focus on regulatory compliance allows for greater cost savings and increased productivity via IT consolidation across the spectrum of current IT trends (e.g. Enabling centralized email across a State, City or County, enabling intra-agency productivity, citizen focused case management, advanced data analysis, IOT and hyper-scalable compute environments).   All of which reduce Government IT operational costs, increase productivity and allow for a digitally transformed, integrated Government.

This approach empowers JPS organizations to utilize government cloud services to support their mission via a solution they can trust.  Our focus on regulatory compliance allows for greater cost savings and increased productivity via IT consolidation across the spectrum of current industry technology trends (e.g. Enabling a consolidated, centralized email system across a State, City or County; enabling intra-agency collaboration; enabling citizen focused case management, enabling advanced data analysis of multimedia, structured and unstructured data; enabling Internet of Things (IoT) and hyper-scalable compute environments).   All of which reduce Government IT operational costs, improve Government performance and allow for a digitally transformed, integrated Government.

Cloud service providers must be evaluated to meet the stringent CJIS requirements.

Microsoft has a long-term commitment to the promise of enabling digital transformation across global government and law enforcement agencies empowering law enforcement for citizen safety. Meeting CJIS regulations is a key part of this ongoing dedication to meet the needs of urban, regional, and state governments and law enforcement agencies in the U.S.  Microsoft is an industry leader across hyper-scale cloud providers in helping agencies to achieve CJIS compliance.

How should you choose the right partner for your agency to meet CJIS security policy?

Microsoft recommends seven essential questions you should ask in your selection process.

1. Does the cloud provider have experience with Justice and Public Safety and CJIS?

Microsoft is a leader in this area. Microsoft has contractually attested to the applicable CJIS controls and signed CJIS agreements in 33 states, reaching more than 61% of the U.S. population

 
In these states, with access to Microsoft Government Cloud solutions, information obtained through technologies such as body cameras, police video, and records management, will be managed in the government cloud according to the requirements of the CJIS Security Policy.

2. How committed is the cloud provider to CJIS?

Microsoft is a leading hyper-scale cloud provider with this scale of commitment to meet the applicable controls for adjudicated employees in CJIS Security Policy v5.5 which allows law enforcement agencies to be certified CJIS compliant. Microsoft is continually updating its services to meet and exceed evolving CJIS standards.

3. Is the cloud provider trustworthy and experienced?

Over 1,300 U.S. federal government agencies and over 8,700 state and local government agencies use Microsoft Cloud services.  Microsoft provides a differentiated end-to-end set of solutions and an integrated Microsoft Cloud for government platform, including Microsoft Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics CRM.

4. Can the cloud provider provide a multi-cloud, end-to-end solution?

5. What level of policy controls does the cloud provider have in place?

Microsoft is committed to the highest standards of policy control. Microsoft Government cloud services are available to qualified government entities, including US federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government entities, and other entities who handle data subject to government regulations and requirements.  In addition, Microsoft government services are operated by US Citizens that are being adjudicated and cleared by the states.  These background checks include, but aren’t limited to, fingerprint records, criminal histories, and other information that government agencies must review for access to Criminal Justice Information.  Microsoft Government Cloud differentiates with this level of employee security clearances spanning this broad geography.

6. What coverage exists for disaster recovery and reliability?

 7. Where are data centers located? 

Microsoft data centers are sited within the continental U.S. This eliminates any questions about U.S. national data sovereignty.  See Data Center information here.

When you are thinking about CJIS and digital transformation across your government and Justice and Public Safety priorities, you should seek a partner committed to CJIS compliance and security today and in the future.  We stand as leaders in the government arena, and continue building a government cloud you can trust.

Microsoft Cloud solutions can help drive increased cross-agency cooperation because they deliver familiar, effective tools to staff, contractors, and mobile workers anywhere. Millions of agency workers nationwide are already using Microsoft. Why make compliance more difficult to implement and/or risk the high costs of non-compliance?

The post Not all clouds are created equal: understanding security and privacy cloud requirements of justice and public safety appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Microsoft is a technology leader for law enforcement organizations with a deep commitment to supporting the critical security standards that agencies around the world must meet. Security and trust in a mobile first, cloud first world matter. Azure Government, a trusted cloud platform dedicated to U.S. federal, state, and local government agencies, is gaining momentum with law enforcement leaders and the solutions they rely on.

A prime example of this momentum can be seen in the announcement that Microsoft and TASER have launched an exciting new partnership that will bring together the two companies’ global scale, technology expertise, and shared commitment to law enforcement. TASER will integrate their Evidence.com solution and Axon camera systems with the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and Windows 10 devices, providing a connected approach for capturing, analyzing, and archiving video and other data to help improve effectiveness and transform operations.

Officers will be able to securely capture, store, and manage digital evidence through a trusted cloud platform that connects each part of the investigation process and streamlines operations from beginning to end. Microsoft Azure will also power next-generation analytics and collaboration with stakeholders throughout the criminal justice system.

From the device to the cloud, Microsoft puts privacy and security of information first, all while increasing productivity for officers in the field and throughout the department. Having highly secure, ruggedized devices with anytime, anywhere access to the cloud means that law enforcement agencies can contribute to ongoing investigations, analyze data, manage evidence, and help protect citizens from imminent threats.

With more than 30 certifications and attestations across Azure and Azure Government, Microsoft meets the most stringent compliance standards in the world and is the only hyper-scale cloud provider in the U.S. that has contractually committed to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Security Policy (CJIS). This is one of the primary reasons why agencies like the Los Angeles Police Department, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, the Memphis Police Department, and the Oakland Police Department have chosen solutions built on Microsoft Azure Government.

Panasonic is another global platform company that recognizes the benefit in partnering with Microsoft Azure as its Panasonic Arbitrator now offers in-car and body-worn cameras that use Azure Government for secure cloud deployments. Capturing, analyzing, and archiving video data is becoming more important than ever in the public sector, as agencies depend on their technology every day to help keep their citizens safe. Panasonic’s news of extending its platform onto Azure is a benefit to our joint customers, helping them to be more responsive, productive, and effective.

Many other strategic partners are moving to Microsoft Azure Government:

• NC4, which launched its StreetSmart solution that takes advantage of the security and scale of Azure Government to accelerate law enforcement collaboration.
• Motorola, which is launching its new Si500 video speaker microphone along with the Command Central Vault digital evidence management solution on Azure Government.
• MORPHO , which announced its Morpho Cloud, a multi-biometric solution for criminal investigators—including its Automated Fingerprint Identification System—that is hosted on Azure Government.
• Getac/IRSA, which is delivering world-class in-car video and body worn camera solutions with comprehensive digital evidence management and analytics deployed on Azure Government

Microsoft is proud to have been a platinum sponsor of IACP 2015 and to have the opportunity to share the latest innovations made possible with our industry-leading partnerships in law enforcement.

Want to learn more? See what Microsoft is doing in law enforcement.

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The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) is a health and nutrition program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered at the state level. Its goal is to improve the diet of infants, children, and women who are pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding and at risk for nutrition-related illness.

WIC statistics show that states reported average participation of more than 8 million people per month across the United States. Out of that 8 million, roughly four million are children, with the other half split between infants and women. The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) delivers the WIC program to eligible participants in all 254 Texas counties through 600-plus clinics, providing services to more than 875,000 women, infants and children each month.

The state’s current MIS system was implemented in 1995 and has outlived its usefulness. With challenges such as daily backup and data sync requirements, participants have needed to wait for information to sync prior to receiving their benefits. Not only does that create hardship for recipients who are often not able to travel back to the WIC office multiple times a week, but the antiquated system has also led to gaps in benefit coverage during outages.

To help address some of these challenges, Texas WIC needed a solution that was scalable for future growth, cloud-based to reduce downtime and coverage gaps, and optimized to enhance the participant experience through efficient certification and disbursement of immediate benefits.

The Microsoft Cloud Solution for WIC, based on the Microsoft Government Cloud, provides all of that on a secured platform. In addition, because of Dynamics CRM Online Government (part of the Microsoft Government Cloud) and its robust reporting solution, administrators will have a data-centric way to better measure and track health outcomes and make more informed decisions about future services.

On top of the improvements in eligibility and health recommendations that will result from the new solution, case workers and beneficiaries alike will also see vast improvements and efficiencies in scheduling and inventory management, reduced wait times, improved customer service, and enhanced employee mobility.

To gain perspective of the full participant experience and better understand how the updated system will benefit Texas WIC, Vexcel, a Microsoft subsidiary which will build and implement the solution, took 25 staff members to clinics in the City of Austin and Williamson County for a WIC program immersion day. The group learned clinic processes, spoke with employees about their roles, and participated in a mock grocery store visit where they could only purchase WIC foods. These hands-on experiences were d invaluable to the Vexcel Microsoft team, allowing us to use these insights to develop an even better system that supports the unique needs of Texas WIC.

Ultimately, with its upcoming deployment, the new system will make huge strides in allowing Texas WIC staff to focus on their clients, helping them spend more time providing one-on-one services and nutrition education for women, infants, and children throughout the state.

Please visit our Cloud Map for more information on how state and federal agencies across the country are using the Microsoft Government Cloud. Governments around the corner and across the U.S. are modernizing their systems using this secure, hyperscale cloud computing platform that meets agencies’ unique regulatory compliance requirements for security and privacy.

The post Texas WIC aims to improve participant experience with Microsoft cloud solution appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

From the footage captured by body-worn cameras to fingerprint files, criminal records and surveillance video, to identity management and storage services, the digital media information and evidence that law enforcement officers collect is vitally important and deserves the highest standard of protection, regardless of jurisdiction.

This view is shared within the law enforcement field. To prioritize such protections, just this month, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the largest organization of police leaders in the U.S., issued updated guidelines recommending that cloud storage of all criminal justice information — including video — should comply with the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy.

We agree with the IACP. This is why Microsoft Azure Government is the only hyper-scale cloud platform that is contractually committed to meeting the FBI’s CJIS requirements. Furthermore, for Microsoft, CJIS compliance isn’t just a check box. While other technology companies claim to support CJIS requirements, many are vague on the subject and details around it or how they work with law enforcement agencies to meet the mandatory security and privacy needs. In recognition of this, we offer five questions that we believe law enforcement organizations should ask every cloud provider:

1. Do you support national standards like the FBI’s CJIS Security Policy for protecting criminal justice information?
2. Will you contractually commit in writing to managing data in accordance with the FBI’s CJIS Security Policy?
3. Do you have a separate, fully isolated cloud platform for U.S. federal, state, and local government customers?
4. Have the personnel working in your cloud provider’s data center passed a fingerprint-based CJIS background check provided by the FBI or your state’s CJIS Office?
5. Will you contractually commit to audits to demonstrate that you are providing full support for CJIS compliance?

At Microsoft, we can attest that we support and agree to all of these crucial components. Microsoft’s industry-leading approach to supporting CJIS compliance is one of the primary reasons why law enforcement agencies like the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, and the Oakland Police Department have chosen Microsoft’s Cloud for Government platform.

Los Angeles Police Department“The fact that Microsoft contractually committed to CJIS compliance by signing the FBI’s CJIS Security Addendum and having their employees background-checked by California DOJ helped give the LAPD the confidence that we could begin to leverage Azure Government for our most critical, sensitive workloads,” says Sanjoy Datta, information security officer, LAPD. “It is rare that vendors, on their own initiative, take the trouble to comply with the multiple regulatory frameworks that law enforcement, as well as all state and local government agencies, are required to meet. Microsoft has exceeded the LAPD’s expectations in this regard by taking on the difficult requirements of the CJIS regulatory regime and meeting them head-on.”

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department“In an ever-increasing threat environment, where the Internet and systems are continually being targeted, we decided that all our systems should meet CJIS requirements across the enterprise,” says Ted L. Byerly, team leader for Networking, Security and Infrastructure at the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. “Since we had decided to adopt cloud technologies going forward and Microsoft committed to building a government community cloud that met CJIS requirements, we felt we had a perfect solution. Microsoft committed to the same requirements we require of all our other vendors, so we knew we made the right decision.”

Oakland Police Department“Once we get our video onto the Azure platform we can aggregate it, we can learn from it, we can make the database proactive to tell us things,” says Oakland Police Department Officer Dave Burke. “We can run a keyword search against all the audio and pull up videos where certain things were said. From an emergency management or even a court and judicial process perspective, this really opens the door.”

Other leaders in the law enforcement community recognize that providing CJIS-level security to all criminal justice information protects both agency data and citizen privacy. In a USA Today column, Michael Chertoff, former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said, “Criminal justice information needs good security because it is information about citizens, often at their most distressed and vulnerable.” But there is a standard that can help meet this need, he adds: “Fortunately, law enforcement agencies have a good model to consider adopting when storing data in the cloud, one that addresses both security and privacy issues: the recently issued FBI policy on Criminal Justice Information Services Security Policy.”

Microsoft understands just how much of a priority security is to law enforcement agencies across the U.S. As more law enforcement agencies turn to the cloud, we will continue our commitment to providing the most secure solutions to our customers.

To learn more about Microsoft’s comprehensive commitment to compliance and CJIS, please visit the Azure Trust Center: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/trust-center/.

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Microsoft is proud to serve as a global sponsor of the Challenge Cup, support other activities during the weeklong, 1776-presented Challenge Festival, and to be a founding sponsor of 1776. However, our most important role at 1776 is to be onsite every week, helping one entrepreneur at a time achieve their vision and empowering them “to do more and achieve more.” We love hosting regular office hours, lunch sessions and other events at 1776, and contributing to the hundreds of new, D.C.-area startups that have tapped into 1776 resources and connections.

Last year, another tech leader, Steve Case, caught my attention with his commencement speech at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

He focused on the evolution of technology while revealing “the three P’s” that made him successful: people, passion and perseverance. What really excited me was his statement regarding the “third wave of the Internet breaks.” He told the graduates that “we’re entering a third wave where we’re integrating the Internet into everyday life. Whether it be the Internet of Things or really reimagining and reinventing education and health care and transportation and energy.”

Case went on to state: “Part of the reason I raise that with you is that the third wave will require more than just the three P’s. It’ll also require two additional P’s – policy and partnership.” I couldn’t agree more and believe these two P’s are especially important for entrepreneurs. It’s an exciting time to be in the third wave of Internet computing, with hyper-scale, cloud-based compute and storage capacity, more things connected to the Internet than people, where everything around us is more instrumented and more connected, and where the data being generated can offer greater speed to insight and enhanced productivity across a wide range of vertical markets.

To give a little historical context, the concept of supercomputing used to be a distant dream. Hardware costs for a “gigaflop” of computing in 1961 were roughly $1 trillion – about 17 million IBM 1620 units, costing $64,000 each. That reflected twice the entire U.S. GDP at the time and is more than $8 trillion in current dollars. In January 2015, the cost for the same computing power: 8 cents.

It also used to be that not every organization (commercial or government) could afford computing resources. For government customers this proved to be a big issue because a small city, county or town has the same mission as a bigger one: to provide for a society that is educated, healthy and safe. The smaller municipalities just had to fulfill that mission with less budget and/or knowledge of technology. Today, with cloud computing, this barrier is gone and enterprise-grade technology solutions are now extremely affordable to government organizations of all sizes. This gets back to the “two additional P’s” that Steve Case mentioned: policy and partnership.

Companies providing technology for the future must intimately understand the regulatory and policy requirements around the solutions that they are building for the markets they serve. Using Case’s vernacular, in the “third wave of the Internet breaks,” not all clouds are or will be created equal, and government customers will look for cloud solutions they can trust from a security and privacy standpoint. From law enforcement data to health information to financial data, the cloud is creating innumerable scenarios and opportunities for the public sector, which, by default, manages information of the most sensitive kind.

At Microsoft, we started down the policy and partnership journey years ago. Today, our Microsoft Cloud for Government helps governments become more productive, responsive and efficient in delivering new or improved citizen services, while keeping costs contained and meeting or exceeding critical public sector security standards and certifications like CJIS, IRS1075, HIPAA, FedRamp, FISMA and more. With tools including Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Azure and Dynamics CRM Online, the Microsoft Cloud for Government is delivering technology that governments can trust – which in turn helps citizens trust government to deliver services they need.

By including compliance as a key design criteria of our cloud products, significant barriers to entry are removed for any company (especially startups) to deliver solutions to the public sector, a market that is in desperate need of creative solutions to meet the growing demands of citizens. Providing technology solutions to government used to be the exclusive privilege of a limited number of companies but, with Microsoft’s Government cloud offerings, the smallest and newest organization can build solutions that operate at hyper-scale capacity and deliver against some of the most rigorous compliance requirements needed by state, local and federal government customers.

I’ve spent my entire career in the public sector and I’ve had the opportunity to see the impact of technology first hand, within the U.S. and around the world. We believe the pace of change is accelerating, and technology can empower every person and every organization on the planet to do more and achieve more in a mobile-first, cloud-first world. I look forward to seeing the entrepreneurs competing in the 1776 Challenge Cup do just that, with people, passion, perseverance and policy in mind, and through partnerships with 1776 and others dedicated to seeing startups flourish, prosper and thrive.

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