Faced with shrinking budgets, many governments around the world are being forced to do more with less. In the United States, for example, consumption and investment by all levels of government—local, state and federal combined—recently dropped to 17.6 percent of gross domestic product, its lowest level in 66 years. Similar trends are occurring in many advanced economies around the world.

In the current climate, it’s imperative that governments make every dollar count—and shared services offer a compelling way to do just that. Since the 1990s, many governments have been sharing services—combining resources, functions, and infrastructure—to reduce costs and deliver services more effectively to citizens. And now, thanks to cloud computing, the opportunity exists to share services even more easily and cost-effectively, leading more government agencies to embrace this operating model with impressive results.

A great example is the Baltic country of Estonia, which is transforming citizen engagement by issuing a digital ID to all its citizens 15 years and older. This secure, authenticated identity acts as a national health insurance card, proof of identification for bank accounts, a pre-paid public transport ticket, voting identification, and more. With 600 e-services offered to citizens, Estonia is making access to government services much more efficient for citizens, no matter what service they need to access and which individual agency oversees it.

Likewise, the United Kingdom is reducing costs and increasing efficiency by combining technology across government departments located overseas. Specifically, the UK government is creating a Common Technology Service that allows overseas governmental agencies such as UK Trade and Investment, the Department for International Development, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to collaborate on documents, communicate by voice or video, share calendars, and work from mobile devices using common cloud-based systems. The effort is part of the UK’s “One HMG Overseas” agenda, which aims to remove barriers to joint working so that all overseas staff in the UK government can deliver the UK’s objectives more efficiently.

Saudi Arabia is taking yet another approach to shared services. Its Ministry of Interior’s National Information Center (NIC) is unifying data across government systems to provide better information to citizens while improving public safety and national security situational awareness. Charged with providing comprehensive e-services to citizens, residents, and businesses, the center is improving its e-services through the creation of a massive public data exchange database that can handle tens of terabytes of data and tens of millions of citizen requests per day. To provide public safety and national security officials with improved information, the center also deployed a system using a unified data integration platform, data management hosting, data warehousing, and business intelligence. The solution integrates with 182 internal and external systems and handles petabytes of structured and unstructured data.

These are just a few of the ways governments around the globe are sharing services to improve efficiency and deliver better services to constituents. To learn more, please see our “Best practices for government shared services” white paper. Also, be sure to reach Michele Bedford Thistle’s recent blog post, “A new era of shared services.”

Also, look to request a trial and experience how technology can empower your agency: Azure Government Trial, Office 365 Government Trial.
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As the amount of open data grows, the key is turning it into actionable insights that lead to higher-quality decisions. Yet analyzing the skyrocketing quantity of information can be an overwhelming task. Microsoft Power BI is designed to help customers overcome this challenge by making it simple to transform vast amounts of data into rich visuals that can be examined from multiple perspectives. By reviewing data in visual form, governments can more easily identify critical patterns that move their communities forward.

To demonstrate how Power BI can improve government effectiveness, we recently leveraged open data to show how governments can turn publicly available data into critical insights. We leverage open data in four areas of interest—optimizing transportation, promoting job growth, addressing citizen complaints, and analyzing government budgets—to spot patterns that can help government leaders better focus their efforts.

In each of these instances, we used Power BI to visually display large amounts of data to easily examine the information by different variables—and ultimately obtain key insights that can improve how communities are governed:

Optimizing transportation

Accessing Australian car accidents data, we obtained detailed breakouts of vehicle collisions across the continent, including the time, location, and severity of the accident; the participants involved; whether alcohol was a factor; and much more.

Analyzing this data, we were able to identify the seasonality of accidents, with the lowest occurring in the winter months, and the highest in the summer and early fall. We concluded that the majority of accidents are vehicle-to-vehicle crashes, with collisions with fixed objects as a predominant second. We also observed a gradual climb in the number of accidents as the day progresses, with the exception of 8 a.m., where there is an abnormal surge in accidents.

With information such as this at hand, governments can create more measures to prevent vehicle-to-vehicle collisions, especially in the summer months. They can also put measures into place to prevent the high volume of accidents during morning rush hour and evening hours.

Promoting job growth

Using Canada’s employment and social development data, we were able to identify where the majority of Canada’s workforce resides, knowing that a large percentage works in the retail, healthcare and manufacturing sectors. By displaying this data in a map layout, we were able to see employment data by province, with the size of each bubble indicating the number of those employed in each area. These insights could be used for job education and training programs aimed at growing industries where more workers are needed.

Addressing citizen complaints

Analyzing New York City’s detailed 311 data, we obtained detailed information about the calls being made, including the time of day, location, incident type, and agency involved—leading to insights about where the city can ramp up its services.

Analyzing citizen complaints by month, for example, we were able to see that the highest number of complaints in February were related to street conditions, blocked driveways, and snow. Similarly, analyzing certain types of complaints by time of day, we learned that most garbage-related complaints occur between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., while most noise-related complaints occur between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. With these insights, the city could secure snow removal equipment before it’s needed. It could also work with trash removal services to deter complaints, while enforcing noise ordinances during the hours when complaints are highest.

Analyzing government budgets

Lastly, we examined San Francisco’s budget data from 2010 to 2016, gathering detailed information at the departmental level. Visualizing this information using Power BI, we could easily observe where budgets are growing. We could also see where most of the revenue is being generated.

By comparing revenue to spending by department, for example, we observed that Public Works, Transportation, and Commerce make up the vast majority of both spending and revenue for the city. Examining this data in greater detail, we were also able to see which departments are consistently over budget from year to year. With these insights, the city could either allocate larger budgets to those departments that consistently come in over budget, or focus on ways to increase revenue or cut back spending within those groups.

These are a few of the ways governments can turn data into critical insights. By putting increasing volumes of data to better use with Power BI, governments have the opportunity to improve efficiency while better serving their constituents. To learn more, please see the Microsoft Power BI blog.

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Microsoft SQL Server can help public safety agencies collect, manage, and analyze large volumes of data, turning this information into actionable insights that inform their work. By putting SQL Server to strategic use, public safety organizations can dramatically improve their outcomes. Consider the following examples:

Create safer cities

Located on the west coast of India, the City of Surat, the world’s fourth-fastest-growing city, created a new video-enabled command center that is helping Surat’s small police force maintain safety as population increases. The command center includes a 280-square-foot video wall monitor that streams real-time video feeds from critical public locations and major traffic junctions around Surat, along with the city’s entry and exit points. To manage the video footage, the city built a datacenter on SQL Server that can scale to accommodate 5,000 cameras and integrate with state and national security systems. Since implementing the command center, city officials have witnessed a 27 percent reduction in crime in the surveillance zones. Says Rakesh Asthana, Commissioner of Police for the City of Surat: “Our biggest shortcoming in recent years has been a lack of personnel. So we feel it is important to maximize our use of technology to bridge the gap between the number of police officers and the growth of the city.”

Reduce global warming

National Air Traffic Services or NATS, which manages all flights in the United Kingdom controlled airspace including traffic for the busy Heathrow Airport, wanted to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that lead to global warming by improving flight efficiency. The organization had been performing sophisticated analytics on flight data across UK airspace for more than 20 years, but had hit a wall as the volume and complexity of the data it collected continued to increase. Using SQL Server, Microsoft Azure, and other Microsoft technology, NATS has powered through four years of data in less than one month, helping the company to reach its goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 2020. Says Ray Lim, NATS Business Intelligence Manager, “With our SQL Server solution, we can analyze a flight plan versus a flight’s actual trajectory and accurately model fuel usage and CO2 output to understand the effect of network influences and operational decisions. This enables us to strategically manage the air traffic operation with more information to hand, and have more confidence in our decisions.”

Enhance disaster recovery efforts

SQL Server is helping the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with recovery and economic development in the aftermath of natural disasters such as the Nepal earthquake. In the aftermath of the earthquake, UNDP teamed up with the Microsoft Innovations Center in Nepal to create a mobile application that uses SQL Server as its back-end database to coordinate debris removal. The app records data on damaged structures, tracks the attendance and pay of workers removing debris, incorporates survey information from communities affected by the earthquake, and turns analytical data into progress reports. In the future, the UNDP plans to use the app to track relief efforts on a broader scale. “With all of that information already in the cloud, we have a helicopter view on what is happening and where, and whether people in need of aid were reached and supported,” says Jamie McGoldrick, the UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal.

These are just a few of the ways in which SQL Server can dramatically improve public safety efforts. And with the recent announcement of the SQL Server 2016 release public safety organizations will soon be able to take advantage of faster transactions and queries, improved analytics, and new hybrid cloud scenarios. To learn more, please see the Microsoft SQL Server 2016 webpage.

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Governments across the globe are tapping into big data to transform their everyday operations. They’re using predictive analytics to dramatically improve the quality of their decisions. And they’re collecting and analyzing large volumes of information to enhance both their efficiency and their service to citizens.

A great example is Montgomery County, Maryland. The county is harnessing the Internet of Things to start an agriculture testbed to help farmers become more productive and prosperous. Specifically, Montgomery County is working with farmers to voluntarily deploy sensors on their farms that help them operate more efficiently by measuring everything from ground temperatures to water and pesticide usage. They are also using technology to help dairy farmers comply with reporting requirements for milk production. Says Dan Hoffman, Montgomery County’s chief innovation officer and Thingstitute leader, “At the end of the day, we want to make our farmers as profitable as possible by helping them be as smart as possible. We want to better understand how we can use technology to help county farmers.”

Halfway around the world in Jordan, the Aqaba Water Company, which supplies and delivers water to 130,000 inhabitants, needed a better way to monitor and manage water supplies—ultimately delivering water more efficiently to customers. Using SQL Server, Microsoft Azure, and other Microsoft technologies, Aqaba Water Company has found an easy way to remotely monitor its infrastructure and pumps. “Now, with our network, via a set of automated alerts and alarms, we can detect and fix problems as soon as they occur,” says Naem Saleh, General Manager of Aqaba Water Company. “This means we immediately know about problems and where they are. We don’t need to send staff out to try and find breaks, helping reduce the resources we spend on this.”

And in Australia, the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) is utilizing SQL Server to make its massive BioNet database available to the world. Recognizing that informed decisions require the most up-to-date and accurate information available, OEH wanted to open its biodiversity records to scientists using the OData protocol, the standard for open data. OEH collects valuable data that centers on biodiversity, endangered species, and native vegetation, but its data was tied up in many systems—providing stakeholders with limited and difficult access. OEH concluded that leveraging Microsoft .Net and SQL Server’s native support of OData was the most cost effective way to make its data available in a short space of time. “Now, if you run a query or a request for data, you get immediate response and data you can trust,” says Geoff Clarke, Regional Standards Officer at Microsoft. “This kind of service not only helps in getting the public educated and involved, but allows scientists from around the world to work together to solve the environmental issues we all face.”

Indeed, big data is transforming the public sector in powerful, new ways, making government far more efficient and responsive than was possible in the past. And as governments embrace big data, Microsoft SQL Server 2016 represents a large leap forward—helping them transform complex information into actionable insights. Using SQL Server 2016, governments can:

• Collect and manage large volumes of structured and unstructured data from multiple sources.
• Analyze and transform complex data into easy-to-use data models that enable them to identify patterns and predict future trends.
• Analyze data directly within their SQL Server database using R, the popular statistics language.
• Transform data into actionable insights and deliver visual reports on any device—online or offline—at one-fifth the cost of other self-service solutions.

SQL Server 2016 also offers unprecedented flexibility. Governments have the option of using it on-premises, in the cloud, or from within a hybrid cloud environment. For example, they can save money by storing infrequently used data more cheaply on Azure, while retaining the ability to search that data from their on-premises database. They can run SQL Server on the open source operating system Linux. And they can tap into enhanced security features that improve encryption, while helping to keep unauthorized users from accessing data.

As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella put it when he first announced SQL Server 2016 at Microsoft’s Ignite conference last year, “SQL 2016 is perhaps the biggest breakthrough in database technology that you have ever seen.” It is an unprecedented breakthrough—and a database platform governments will want to consider. To learn more, please watch the recent SQL Server 2016 video in which Nadella explains how to harness data and transform it into intelligence, insights, and actions.

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Microsoft discussed the upcoming SQL Server 2016 at an event in New York City on March 10, setting a new standard for the pace of innovation. As government IT administrators evaluate Microsoft’s new database, here are some of the capabilities they won’t want to miss:

Advanced analytics

Industry analysts recognize the breadth and depth of Microsoft’s capabilities in data, intelligence, and the cloud. Microsoft is the only company recognized as a leader across data platforms and cloud by Gartner in both vision and execution, in database, business intelligence, advanced analytics, data warehouse, cloud infrastructure and cloud application platforms.

SQL Server 2016 builds on this reputation by bringing next-generation, advanced analytics to governments, helping IT administrators turn vast amounts of data into actionable insights. The database uses in-memory technology to improve the speed and performance of data queries. It includes the ability to run the R open-source programming language within the database itself, opening up the opportunity to perform advanced analytics right from within SQL Server. SQL Server 2016 also includes PolyBase, a new technology that makes it possible to extract value from both structured data and unstructured data without the time and expense of moving it around or transforming it into a common format.

Used in combination with other Microsoft technologies, SQL Server 2016 puts data at the fingertips of government workers. For example, employees can use Power Query to pull data from numerous sources into data models and analytical reports. Moreover, they can view these insights as rich visualizations using their Windows, iOS, and Android mobile devices. Whether it’s predicting future outcomes from past trends or analyzing the results of public programs, SQL Server 2016 can deliver the advanced insights that governments need.

Enhanced security and encryption

SQL Server already has an outstanding security record. In fact, for the last six years, it has had the fewest security vulnerabilities of any major database on the market, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. SQL Server 2016 builds on our commitment to security by offering several additional features to ensure that government data is always protected.

Always Encrypted is an industry-first technology that helps protect data by encrypting it while at rest, in use, and when processing queries—with the decryption key provided only to authorized users. By using Dynamic Data Masking, IT administrators can create rules that hide sensitive data such as phone numbers, social security numbers, and bank information to prevent unauthorized access. Similarly, Row-Level Security enables IT administrators to restrict the information employees can see in database tables based on their role within the organization. And an enhanced AlwaysOn Availability Groups improves database recovery by allowing up to three synchronous replicas for auto-failover across domains.

Improved hybrid environments

SQL Server 2016 is designed to work in a hybrid environment, delivering a flexible and consistent experience both on-premises and in the cloud. New tools in SQL Server and Microsoft Azure make it possible to shift database content between a government agency’s on-premises infrastructure and the cloud, to back up on-premises databases to Azure, and to access resources no matter where they’re stored. For example, IT administrators can pin a Reporting Services paginated report item to a Power BI dashboard so they can view all their information in one place. They can also access on-premises data from the Power BI service without the need to move the data to the cloud. In addition, they can take advantage of Stretch Database to automatically move on-premises data to the cloud for archiving after a specified length of time, freeing up valuable on-premises storage space while maintaining easy access to their data in both environments.

All these features are built directly into the database without the need for expensive add-ons. To learn more about how SQL Server 2016 can benefit your government agency, please see Joseph Sirosh’s blog post, “SQL Server 2016: The database for mission-critical intelligence.” Also, watch the recent webcast in which Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other leaders discuss the power of Microsoft’s new database.

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Thanks to everything from automatic license plate readers to gun sensors, the real-time data available to law enforcement agencies continues to skyrocket. And with Microsoft’s advanced analytics capabilities such as Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Azure Stream Analytics, and Microsoft Azure Machine Learning (Azure ML), police departments now have the capability to predict when and where crimes will happen in the future. By building a crime analytics and predictions Power BI dashboard, law enforcement agencies can take advantage of predictive policing approaches to bring about safer cities.

Our partner Third Eye Consulting Services created a Power BI dashboard that combines open data from the City of Chicago from 2001 to 2015 with crime data with U.S. Census data and real-time weather and traffic information. The solution enables law enforcement agencies to capture an overall picture of criminal activity across the city—both what’s happened historically and what’s likely to occur in the future.

Law enforcement agencies can use the Power BI dashboard to view the likelihood of crimes happening in various parts of Chicago based on different factors including the month, day, time of day, and traffic and weather patterns. By clicking on a map of the city, for example, police officers can see what crimes are most likely to happen by neighborhood at different times of the day and night. They can also see the predicted frequency of specific crimes, clicking on each type of crime to view where it’s likely to occur. In addition, police officers can use the dashboard to view historical crime trends, and compare these trends to what’s predicted for the future.

The dashboard has enormous implications for law enforcement. By assigning the appropriate number of police officers and needed resources at the right place at the right time, police departments can save millions of dollars. Moreover, they can arrive at the scene more prepared, better protecting themselves and their communities. They also have greater insight into why crimes occur in the first place, giving them the tools required to prevent crimes before they occur.

With Microsoft’s data platform, law enforcement agencies now have the tools they need to turn vast amounts of data into powerful information that will bolster the fight against crime. The tight integration of Azure ML with the rest of the Azure cloud platform makes it easy for data scientists to quickly feed data into machine learning models, test various ”what if” scenarios, and develop sophisticated models that make accurate predictions based on specified parameters.

As Dj Das, founder and CEO of Third Eye Consulting Services, sums it up, “For fighting crime and keeping every citizen safe, Microsoft has the most sophisticated cloud-based big data technologies stack, which can help police departments not only understand why and how crime occurs but also predict when and where it can happen. Powerful data analytics tools like Azure Stream Analytics and Azure ML, coupled with the dazzling Power BI visualization package, make it all possible at a reasonable cost and with the ability to scale up and down as needed.“

To see how Microsoft’s data platform compares to competitive solutions, please see our Why Microsoft website and visit our Azure Machine Learning and Power BI webpages to start gaining more insights from your data today. Also, read this whitepaper to learn policy best practices for deploying body-worn cameras along with trying one of our available trials: Azure Government Trial, Office 365 Government Trial, Cloud for Government Dynamics CRM Trial.

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To demonstrate how defense organizations can combine a highly secure portal with advanced analytics to improve their performance, we recently developed a proof-of-concept portal that tracks the logistics of a brigade deployment. Built on the Microsoft Azure cloud-computing platform, the portal demonstrates how armed forces can obtain the information they need, when they need it, enabling them to make quick, data-driven decisions based on real-time information.

[inlinequote]“This a great way to show how we (Microsoft) can solve problems that operational commanders face every day by capitalizing on the Internet of Things (IoT). Each asset is either equipped with connected sensors and devices or have had their status updated through the chain of command to give the Commander and overall view of the brigade. Microsoft Azure is able to collect, sort, store and present the data on the dashboard to give the Commander a powerful decision making tool.”[/inlinequote]

A.T. Ball, Managing Director, Asia, Public Safety and National Security (former Brigade Commander)

From the time an order is received to the time it is executed, Microsoft technology can help defense organizations plan, direct, monitor, and evaluate the success of their operations. In the case of our proof of concept, for example, a military commander has received orders to move his entire brigade from its current home base to another location to prepare for combat training exercises. Here’s what he can do with the portal:

• View orders: The commander receives his orders to move his brigade to the training location from within the portal via his on-premises Outlook email.

• Assess operational readiness: Using the planning page of the portal, the commander can see a detailed status of his entire brigade, including every piece of equipment and the operational readiness of each individual unit, updated in real time.

• Plan the move: The commander can drill down into each mode of transport—air, road, rail, and sea—to see what transportation assets are moving, their estimated time of arrival, and the current status of each. He can also view a map that shows the real-time location and status of each asset, including how fast it’s moving, the distance from its destination, and a summary of the cargo load it’s carrying.

• Receive alerts: The commander can receive alerts notifying him of issues as they arise. As a weather system develops, for example, the commander receives an alert via Microsoft Azure Machine Learning informing him that his cargo is being delivered slower than expected due to rough seas.

• Locate personnel as needed: The commander can use the Person Search tool to locate specific members of his brigade and see what tasks they’ve been assigned. In this scenario, he contacts the relevant personnel to discuss the worsening weather situation. He then notifies relevant personnel in his chain of command who inform him of a nearby location where the sea-based cargo can be transferred to aircraft and flown to the destination.

• Supervise the move in real time: The commander checks to see the impact of this change on his budget, and then issues the command to ship the critical cargo by aircraft. Through the final days of the operation, he automatically generates and sends daily status reports to his chain of command. He also monitors the dashboard, watching as the transports arrive at their destination and the deployment operation is completed.

• Evaluate the success of the operation: Once the operation is over, the commander can view a report summarizing high-level information about the deployment mission. Using Microsoft Power BI, he can also compare the deployment with similar ones in the past to discover trends that might help him increase his future efficiency.

• Monitor the budget: The commander can also evaluate his deployment from a financial perspective, comparing what was budgeted to the actual cost. In addition, he can obtain information about what types of operations and transportation methods typically go over budget and why, so he can plan better for the future.

By combining the real-time command and control monitoring of a secure portal with powerful analytical capabilities, defense organizations have the tools they need to visualize and analyze their entire operations in one place. And as our proof of concept demonstrates, this, in turn, makes it possible for militaries to operate far more effectively. To learn more, please watch a demo of our defense logistical portal in action or request one of our available trials: Azure Government Trial, Office 365 Government Trial.

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The post Governments worldwide embracing IoT appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Organizations—whether commercial enterprises, governments, or public agencies—already are using sensors and systems to monitor, manage, and automate traffic control, HVAC, video surveillance, physical access, and many other functions. These systems and “things” are being connected to create an “ Internet of Your Things” that generates large amounts of potentially valuable data. Unlocking that value requires correlating and analyzing that data.

Microsoft tools provide governments around the world with the visibility that they need to draw value from their data through its end-to-end data analytics services.

• The cities of Paris and Helsinki are modernizing transportation systems through the Internet of Things. Paris created an intelligent car-sharing service that is transforming the Paris commute. By combining data from more than 2,300 cars as well as charging stations and registration kiosks, Autolib’ is harnessing streams of data and gaining insights that predict customer behavior and optimize car utilization. By 2023, the Autolib’ fleet is expected to have replaced more than 25,000 privately owned cars, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 75 million metric tons. The Helsinki Bus Transportation Co. is capturing track traffic, driver performance, and gas usage data to realize a five percent savings in fuel. The data warehouse solution is unique in that it combines data across all buses and routes, giving a system-wide view rather than focusing on individual vehicles.
• On the other side of the world, officials in New Orleans, Louisiana, have implemented a technology solution from Microsoft and Motorola Solutions to streamline emergency communications, creating a unified intelligent system from first responder applications for disparate police, fire and medical services, the 9-1-1 call system, mobile terminals and tablets, and a data warehouse. Using server and database technology, applications and multimedia capabilities, the Orleans Parish Communication District transformed its emergency services to shorten response times, improve safety and eliminate manual processes that were prone to error.
• At Carnegie Mellon University, researchers are using Microsoft Azure and the PI System from Microsoft Global Independent Software Vendor partner OSIsoft to reduce building maintenance and energy costs by up to 20 percent. Now CMU has added Azure Machine Learning, a platform-as-a-service offering, to achieve better fault detection, diagnosis, and more efficient operations. Discussions are underway to implement the solution campus-wide, and cities including Pittsburg and San Diego already are looking to this important work as they undergo their own transformations to smart building management.

The Internet of Things (IOT) is here today in the devices, sensors, cloud services, and data you already are using. Working with Big Data and IOT is nothing new for Microsoft, and our solutions can help you by beginning with what matters most to your organization—the Internet of Your Things—to gain efficiencies in managing your resources and providing services to citizens.

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