According to Gartner, “Government employees are too often battling with friction in antiquated citizen-facing and back-office systems and increasing cycle completion times, leaving them frustrated and sometimes cynical.”¹ The good news is that governments are actively seeking ways to mitigate this concern across multiple agencies.

Across industries, while end-to-end digital transformation initiatives are redefining how employees perform their roles and how services are delivered, governments need to take it a step further by investing in the necessary training and skills needed to recruit and retain a digitally-savvy workforce. Per IDC, “by 2025, 40 percent of national governments will adopt immersive learning technology in critical sectors to accelerate education, hone skills, and engage and retain employees”.² This is because government employees care about a variety of factors including improved well-being and the availability of technology that makes it easier to effectively do their job.

Microsoft for Government partners with governments around the world to help empower the government workforce and improve employee engagement, streamline workflows, and uncover actionable insights across agencies. We are committed to helping improve the lives of the people who keep our communities safe and operational using innovative technology. This commitment takes shape in different ways across the public sector. Showcased below are impactful examples of how Microsoft has helped accelerate digital transformation within government agencies and helped empower the workforce to achieve their mission.

1. Transforming internal operations to accelerate the delivery of services.

As the primary delivery arm for information and communications technology, the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) has been driving the government’s transformational policies for more than 20 years.

“MITA seeks out the most innovative initiatives to lead our country’s ambitious transformation toward a first-class digital society. As we deployed more and more programs, we needed a consolidated workplace to improve collaboration and accelerate service delivery, with security standards matching our government requirements.”—Mariano Debono, Manager of Software License Management, MITA.

MITA implemented Microsoft 365 productivity tools, such as Microsoft Teams and Microsoft SharePoint online to connect more than 23,000 public service employees across all ministries on a single platform.

“The single collaboration hub simplifies work and makes communication a lot quicker. For example, we sometimes had to spend half the day traveling to attend one meeting with our ministry colleagues on the Island of Gozo. These meetings can now be held remotely.”—Jonathan Cassar, CTO, MITA.

This is just one example of how government agencies, like MITA, are partnering with Microsoft for Critical Infrastructure to transform government operations and empower the workforce to be more productive, collaborative, and efficient.

2. Streamlining administrative processes to provide coordinated care for vulnerable populations.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program’s participation rates were declining rapidly nationwide leaving the most vulnerable people without service—even though they were eligible. This decline was due in large part to duplicative and cumbersome registration processes across adjunct programs like Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

New Mexico WIC saw an opportunity to reverse the downward trend using technology to streamline processes yet program staff members often spend their brief time with clients gathering basic information already provided to other state agencies, saddling state administrators with an additional burden of 10 to 15 minutes per applicant.

“WIC offers a holistic approach. We educate folks about nutrition and lifestyle and maximize their SNAP and WIC dollars.”—Gavino Archuleta, Program Analyst, New Mexico WIC.

Teaming up with the Human Services Department (HSD), they integrated the application process across state-administered programs. Using Microsoft Dynamics 365 and data analytics through Microsoft Power BI, the teams built a solution that notifies the New Mexico WIC program whenever an individual qualifies for a new program. Then, the program informs the individuals of their ability to receive benefits. This has increased access to key resources for vulnerable populations and minimized paperwork, freeing staff time, and letting nutritionists focus on nutrition.

New Mexico WIC is an inspiring example of how public health and social services agencies can partner with Microsoft to modernize processes and reduce the administrative burden on employees so that they can spend more time doing what they love—serving the community.

3. Upskilling the banking workforce to drive financial stability.

The Bank of Canada isn’t just your neighborhood bank. As its name suggests, it’s everyone’s bank—it’s Canada’s bank. As such, it has great responsibilities which include setting monetary policy, distributing currency, and maintaining the country’s financial stability. This is all captured in its public mission “to regulate credit and currency in the best interests of the economic life of the nation.”

The pursuit of that goal requires significant computing resources, and the bank’s IT department is crucial in executing the day-to-day operations. The bank decided that it was important to develop and maintain the skills required to realize that mission. Using new technologies, adapting to new ways of working, and designing and operating new digital products and services all require new skills. An ongoing training initiative identified immediate and emerging skills and integrated associated upskilling courses into an online learning experience platform.

Claude Guimont, Senior Learning Specialist, and his team worked closely with Microsoft to find opportunities to incorporate an ideal mix of online on-demand and instructor-led content that would best fit the bank’s transformation effort. He says, “working with the Microsoft Learn team, we identified and refined that content to build self-paced modules starting with fundamentals all the way through to certification, if that’s what the learner wants.” It’s important to provide staff with the means to pursue both highly focused task-specific training and topics of less targeted, more general interest that may lead to future opportunities. 

Bank of Canada is a prime example of how public finance organizations can empower their workforce with the skills required to digitally transform the workforce in order to ultimately drive informed budgeting, provide financial stability, and serve the public today—and into the future.

4. Enhancing collaboration across the public safety and justice ecosystem.

As criminal activities are on the rise, public safety and justice agencies are increasingly gravitating towards digital tools—tools that help address situational boundaries that bad actors have long exploited. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) conducts criminal investigations across the state and supports agencies within the state when needed.

North Carolina SBI chose Microsoft 365 as their secure communication platform to help accelerate collaboration and secure data sharing. This has helped inform positive outcomes for their employees and the communities they serve. The integration of these collaborative applications has contributed to heightened effectiveness in combating crime in this day and age.

Ease of use and versatility is key in ensuring the adoption of any new technology in a work environment. Since Microsoft Teams can be installed on many mobile devices, it goes along with the employees on missions and lends a hand towards real-time collaboration, data sharing, and virtual work while in the field.

“Microsoft Teams integrates with other Microsoft 365 apps, it’s familiar and it’s easy to use. Our agents are busy people who really appreciate tools that just work”.—Mike Denning, IT Director, North Carolina SBI.

Microsoft also helps investigators manage the large quantities of digital evidence involved in modern investigations. While only 20 years ago it was unusual to have digital evidence at the center of a case, today digital evidence is involved in nearly 90 percent of all crimes committed. It’s now a significant part of the evidence that determines a defendant’s outcome. Without the help of innovative technology such as Azure Cognitive Services, analyzing all that data would be a massive undertaking for investigators.

This is one of the many great examples of how Microsoft for Public Safety and Justice helps to be more efficient and effective.

When the government workforce thrives, we all thrive

Microsoft is continuously inspired by our government customers around the world and their commitment to serving their communities and employees. We proactively play a key role in their digital transformation initiatives and provide innovative technology solutions that empower their hybrid workforce.

To explore more workforce transformation stories across government, visit our Microsoft for Government webpage and follow us on LinkedIn at Microsoft in Government.

Intelligent government solutions

Inclusive government technology that seamlessly blends into everyday life.

Learn more

¹Gartner, Top Trends in Government for 2022: Total Experience, Apeksha Kaushik, Arthur Mickoleit, Daniel Snyder, 18 January 2022.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

²IDC, IDC FutureScape: Worldwide National Government 2023 Predictions, 27 October 2022.

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Governments want strong partnerships that are wide in their view and deep in their commitment. Brief partnerships can be a nice set-up for quick wins, but the ones that last build on those wins for lasting impact.

One of the things that excites me about my work is the consistent focus on the importance of building strong partnerships to solve problems for customers. Coming from a background in public sector roles in which partnerships played such a significant role, it has been exciting to see those partnerships on two fronts:

• First, partnerships with governments themselves.
• Second, partnerships with other companies to use our combined expertise and technologies to bring innovative solutions to government-specific problems.

Both are crucial to long-term success and equally important to helping our customers achieve their missions.

With that in mind, I’m looking forward to heading to Los Angeles for the ITS World Congress, set for September 18 to 22, 2022. This year’s theme is “Transformation by Transportation,” which will see world leaders and policymakers explore the growing intelligent transportation systems (ITS) industry.

Microsoft will be there with a booth on the main expo floor, and we’re bringing partners into our booth to share how they can advance transit and transportation. This has me thinking more about how to make sure government partnerships work.

Why partnerships work (and how you can make sure they work for you)

Public sector organizations are filled with public servants who bring years of expertise to their agencies’ missions, such as building and maintaining transportation infrastructure or city planning. Strong partnerships help bring outside industry knowledge and experience to augment that subject matter expertise. It’s all about using collaboration as a lever to achieve greater outcomes.

When engaging in this kind of partnership, it’s important to think not just about what each organization brings to the table, but how those skill sets can best work together. When we bring together Microsoft, our partners, and the public sector organizations, we see impressive results.

Within government, and particularly when it comes to infrastructure, I’ve seen increasing complexity over the past 5 to 10 years. That’s a good thing! It means that governments are thinking across traditional boundaries and silos with their projects, something that is sorely needed to ensure that we are meeting peoples’ needs. Along with that complexity comes the need for teams and technologies that can work in complex environments.

A well-constructed partnership will bring together the right combination of people and technology to match the complexity of the project. We recently worked with Transport for Greater Manchester and HPE to create a modern technology ecosystem that helps them manage their data now while providing flexibility to solve future problems.

Partnerships share the work

Implementing infrastructure projects can take years. That’s why the investments we have seen being made globally are projected to be spent over the next decade. But even after they are complete, plans need to be made to maintain the infrastructure and good partners should be committed to supporting over the long haul.

As I recently discussed with the CEO of Infrastructure Western Australia, Philip Helberg, that means long-term planning and outcome measurement must be part of even near-term infrastructure projects. In this environment, bringing in experienced partners helps distribute the workload across the organizations involved in the work to help ensure the critical work gets done and disruptions have less impact.

Startups: The forgotten infrastructure partners

Governments have long struggled with the desire to embrace more flexible and responsive ways of working, while also balancing the need to remain transparent, compliant, and accountable to constituents.

Major infrastructure companies are champing at the bit to get started on projects around the globe spurred by recovery spending, but startups have an important and overlooked role in this moment. Now, governments can leverage the flexibility and speed of startups to build a parallel track for infrastructure modernization that leverages the power of startup challenge programs in three ways:  

• Ability to move quickly and try multiple ways to solve concrete problems, such as building more electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. 
• Get results quickly to help build momentum for positive infrastructure changes. 
• Generate economic growth as we recover from COVID-19 by supporting the startup ecosystem. 

How do we get started?

Partnerships come down to relationships, and there isn’t any shortcut I know to build them. You’ve got to show up, earn the trust of your partners and shared customers, and really show how the value you’re bringing to the field is higher together than it would be apart.

Building partnerships is an interpersonal endeavor. But it’s also a strategic decision that private sector organizations must make and a commitment that public sector organizations must also make to build the systems they need to support creative, collaborative work.

I’m always energized by meeting our partners in person and getting down to the business of figuring out how best to help our customers. That’s what we’ll be doing in Los Angeles for the ITS World Congress.

Find out how Microsoft and our partners can help empower your infrastructure projects today by visiting our Microsoft for Critical Infrastructure web page.

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Of course, cities look different based on when they were built, along with the cultural and architectural differences they reflect. There’s no mistaking Rome for Tokyo, for instance.

And yet, all over the world, the people who govern these cities have the same challenge: how to better serve residents and visitors. Whether it’s improving quality of life, the future of work, accessibility, or sustainability, city leaders and planners are thinking deeply about what the future holds and how to best prepare.

I wrote earlier in the year that we cannot miss the current chance to rebuild our infrastructure for accessibility. The same imperative applies to the buildings where we live, work, learn, and play.

Above all, our buildings don’t exist in isolation. I use the term “built environment” as a catchall to describe the various structures that distinguish cities from the natural environment. Looking ahead, the biggest benefits will be realized when buildings operate as a seamless part of the larger system of infrastructure.

Better accessible experiences

For anyone working in or visiting a place, the behind-the-scenes operations should remain invisible. What matters is the experience: how easy and accessible it is getting in and out of a space or building, how comfortable it is to accomplish work, and how seamless it is to visit. Reducing barriers and enabling a positive experience is what people want, and technology gives us much better ways of doing that.

But how does that happen? Let’s take a fun example—going to a sporting event. What makes it work?

• An arena, like Madison Square Garden in New York, that’s connected to several major transit systems so people can use the mode of transportation that best fits their needs.
• Ticketing that is easy to scan and keeps people moving through lines quickly. This is better for fans and workers.
• A fully accessible space that helps everyone get to where they are going, easily and comfortably.
• Contactless payment to keep concessions lines fast and short.
• Strong connectivity that lets thousands of people use their devices.

Boosting operations with data

Heathrow airport is using data-driven insights to improve airport passenger flow, which helps deliver greater efficiency and cost savings for the airport and its carriers through more streamlined turnaround times for planes. This directly and positively impacts both the passengers and the staff working at the airport.

Daily operations—from security to air conditioning to lighting—come at a considerable cost. The fastest way to efficiency and cost reduction is by using data to make rapid, informed decisions. This is particularly important for older buildings that were not made for today’s technology and construction standards. As a result, the first rule for improving operations is that any changes or upgrades must apply to prioritized use cases. 

Creating a safer workplace

Our buildings also have a major impact on the way people work. For example, the physical workspace has an influence on employees’ ability to collaborate—it needs to accommodate employees’ needs throughout the day, and it needs to be intentional in facilitating movements in, out of, or around the space.

Government adoption of remote and hybrid work has varied widely since the start of COVID-19. But as governments invest in new buildings, it only makes sense to design them for safer working conditions—whether for hybrid or in-person workforces. It’s not only about productivity but also about creating a better employee experience. 

For example, Italy’s National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work launched a new badge system to solve building access issues. This resulted in a streamlined process for visitor access while ensuring that employees could easily move around the workplace. The new badge system made it easy to enable limited access to its physical spaces and data center only to authorized personnel.

Building sustainably  

Whether it’s a new building or the renovation of an old one, construction projects are a major opportunity to ensure focus on sustainability as a strategic priority. Energy efficiency across operations is a high priority in helping organizations achieve their sustainability goals while reducing costs of lighting and running heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. The automation of these systems to respond when buildings, floors, or even individual rooms are occupied can result in significant efficiencies. 

In a great example of how this works, MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions helps customers build energy-efficient buildings and keep them operating at peak efficiency. MacDonald-Miller has gone all in with the Microsoft Cloud to design cutting-edge smart-building systems that save customers money.

But sustainability isn’t only about energy or carbon emissions. Technology can also help during construction to ensure building placement has a minimal environmental impact, enables more sustainable water use practices, and minimizes waste.

As we implement these solutions at scale, people will benefit from government and other publicly owned spaces and buildings—such as parks, arenas, or stadiums—to help them get the most out of their experience. Better operations help governments save money, and a focus on sustainability will ensure these spaces contribute to a healthier, cleaner future.

Transforming the built environment

By making bold investments in solutions that deliver on efficiency, safety, and sustainability goals, governments can make an outsized impact because of their vast real estate holdings. They also are major employers, and employees stand to realize significant benefits when improvements are made to government buildings. Our buildings were created to serve the public—and now we have the opportunity to make informed choices that will transform our built environment for the better.

Stay up to date on Microsoft’s global approach to government infrastructure by visiting the Microsoft for Critical Infrastructure website.

The post Why the future of buildings is efficient, safe, and sustainable appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Technology advances that have improved the interoperability of forces in a conflict will be the focus of several upcoming discussions. We hope you will join us for the webinar, Enabling Interoperability in the Future Operating Environment. Set for April 28, 2022, at 4:00 PM Pacic Time, the event will show organizations that are interoperable can respond with agility, leveraging technology to collect, analyze, and disseminate massive amounts of data.  

Following that, our Defense and Intelligence team will be at June’s Eurosatory 2022 event to discuss ways in which we are working with militaries and other security forces to improve operations and protect national security. Since 1967, Eurosatory has brought together exhibitors and visitors from around the world and is a major forum for discussions about the evolution of defense and security issues. We encourage you to register now for this important and strikingly relevant event. Our commitment to this is based on five principles:

1. Delivering a trusted and secure digital backbone built on secure cloud-enabled capabilities.
2. Empower personnel and modernize facilities to better meet the needs of warfighters and their families.
3. Transform the capability lifecycle to support the defense industrial base.
4. Optimize decision advantages with data and AI that support readiness and mission effectiveness.
5. Enhance interoperability to ensure secure data-sharing with partners and allies.

Enhance interoperability with collaboration

The key context is that today’s defense challenges exist at a scale, scope, and complexity that no military can meet alone. In addition, the pace of change is such that defense organizations—particularly those of the middle powers—are having to decide how they balance their investment in mass against the need to modernize.

This is driving closer ties and new relationships, such as the Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) partnership of 2021, designed to strengthen credible deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and to assist in that mass versus modernization issue, through sharing of innovation and technology.

And it’s important to note that this alliance adds to, rather than sidelines, other agreements with a regional focus, such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue involving India, the United States, Japan, and Australia. These new alliances drive a need for improved interoperability so that alliance members can respond quickly and effectively to regional instabilities, traditional warfare, cyber warfare, or warfare in space. Meanwhile older associations, such as the Five Eyes intelligence partnership involving the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia are being reinvigorated with additional requirements for interoperability at scale.

For instance, Australia’s 2020 Defence Strategic Update and Force Structure Plan dramatically shifts the focus of the Australian defense forces from largely defensive operations to one that is capable of deterrent, offensive operations. The revised plan acknowledges that regional coalitions will play an important role in any future conflicts, meaning that Australian forces will need to be ready to quickly share data and planning to better coordinate responses.

Similarly, the United States military is taking a fresh look at its strategic thinking, with a new commitment to empowering allies, integrating supply chains, and planning across military commands.

Our own contribution to this shift will be to leverage our heavy investment across multiple nations, as well as our team’s deep experience within defense and intelligence organizations. This gives us great insight into the benefits of interoperability, as well as how data can improve mission planning, logistical structures, and military training.

Technology for space

We’re also taking a hard look at the role space will play. Microsoft Azure Space was created to be the space-based platform of choice for the growing needs of the space community. We’re using it to give new power to cloud computing, create a thriving ecosystem of satellite providers, and discover new technologies to help the space community create new capabilities.

The creation of powerful space-based 5G networks will allow us to distribute data securely across a battlefield and link force headquarters to the combat edge via satellite. Tools such as the Microsoft Azure Stack Edge can analyze that data, then use today’s interoperability standards to knit together the space-based assets of allies.

Our upcoming webinar, Enabling Interoperability in the Future Operating Environment, and Eurosatory 2022 could not be more relevant or important. We’re looking forward to connecting with existing partners—and making new ones—during these valuable activities.

The post Discover how interoperability enables cooperation at Eurosatory 2022 appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

As technologies evolve, people expect more from their governments—including secure, innovative, and easily accessible services. This is an area where Microsoft has strong expertise and therefore can support by building trust with secure services while ensuring the integrity of government data and the information shared by citizens and residents alike. Read further to discover how to accelerate digital transformation and build trust through empowered people, enhanced governments, and enabled societies.

Empowering people and enabling societies

People are vital to the growth of society. When they are enabled to access a wide variety of government services in a secure manner, society moves forward and businesses flourish. This is because digital identity forms the cornerstone of everything that people do in today’s world. Unlike physical identification, such as driver’s licenses or passports, digital IDs can be authenticated through technologies such as biometrics, passwords, PIN numbers, and so much more. As a result, digital identity can be the foundation of trusted and secure services, assuring people that their privacy is protected while enabling governments to deliver better experiences to constituents.

This is clearly demonstrated by the Flanders Government of Belgium where city officials recognized the need for technology that provides users with control over their data while allowing trusted interactions that help people start new businesses and conduct daily operations. In response, the government partnered with Microsoft to ensure trusted data-verification processes while protecting user privacy. “With this new approach, citizens can easily keep track of what information is shared with whom,” says Raf Buyle, digital architect for the Flanders Government Belgium. “We are especially excited to see that such an easy-to-use interaction still ensures a high level of verification across regulatory agencies.”

Enhancing governments

One of the many roles for government institutions around the world is to provide basic public services to their citizens in a secure manner. In today’s environment, especially given the global pandemic, most governments have approached this need through a digital transformation lens that enables them to support constituents securely and efficiently.

A great example of this is found in New Zealand. There, the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) created a centralized online platform that empowered its 4.9 million residents to affirm their legal identities and easily access desired services. Called RealMe, this digital service leverages a single username and password to access 163 government services across 56 public agencies while protecting user identities and minimizing downtime. Tim Waldron, Business and Market Development Manager for RealMe Services, New Zealand DIA, says, “we needed to create authentication and identity verification services that could be used by both our private and public sector agencies and be easily scaled up as needed.” DIA chose to partner with UNIFY Solutions to map its entire RealMe interface to Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory B2C, launching the new cloud-based system in July 2021.

By using this technology, DIA migrated millions of user authentications in 48 hours, all while reducing the total cost of ownership and delivering a more flexible, feature-rich experience. “Microsoft issued features and functional enhancements to help us,” says Peter Tiernan, Chief Customer Success Officer at UNIFY Solutions. “Our three teams made up three legs of the stool. Along with building trust with your stakeholders, that kind of partnership and collaboration are vital elements of success.”

Yet another powerful instance of where Microsoft has stepped in to support the security of public data is in the case of the Government of Nunavut, Canada’s largest territory. Home to citizens and residents across 25 communities and three different time zones, Nunavut experienced a ransomware attack in late 2019 that resulted in the shutdown of 5,500 computer systems.

By partnering closely with Microsoft, the Government of Nunavut not only recovered from the attack within six weeks, but it also went through a digital transformation that enhanced digital security across the 25 communities they serve. Microsoft solutions, such as Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, and Azure Active Directory, made it easier for the Government of Nunavut security teams to protect IT systems comprised of 800 servers across their 2-million-square kilometers of territory. “With the new Microsoft security tools, we have end-to-end visibility and the data we need to make the best decisions at the right time. It’s been transformative,” says Martin Joy, Director of Information and Communications Technology for the Government of Nunavut.

Strengthening trust and security within government agencies

As demonstrated by the real-world examples above, the provision of secure government services is imperative to the digital health and safety of the societies we live in. Register today to learn more about cyber security and how to safeguard your agencies from common threats.

You are also welcome to listen to our recent on-demand webinar where trusted and secure government practices across various applicable segments, including public safety and justice, public finance, public health and social services, and critical infrastructure are discussed in detail.

Stay up to date on Microsoft’s global approach to Government by visiting our website at Microsoft for Government.

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Earlier this year, I wrote that The future of “smart” cities start with people, not technology and I was thrilled to see so many people at the conference with a people-centered vision. Now is the time to turn that vision into action and meet the increased demand for public infrastructure, along with government services that meet the needs of everyone. From roads and bridges, to utilities, transit systems, and digital infrastructure, this is our once-in-a-generation moment.

The energy I saw in Barcelona tells me we will rise to the occasion. Public sector leaders and their private sector partners at the Smart Cities Expo were focused on inclusion and accessibility, security, sustainability, and mobility.

In short, we are stepping into a key moment for infrastructure. What we do in this moment will define our infrastructure for the next generation. It’s time for proactive, strategic investments in critical infrastructure that will stand the test of time and bridge the gap. That starts with a commitment to digital tools that transform our ability to understand and manage our infrastructure.

What does it mean to be proactive?

According to Brookings, in the 1950s, nearly 60 percent of infrastructure spending was capital investment, with about 40 percent spent on maintenance. By 2017, those numbers had reversed, with only 40 percent going to capital investment. In short, we’ve steadily moved from spending more on building new things to spending more on maintaining what we already have. The ramifications of that trend for accessibility are significant. Because so much of our infrastructure was built without inclusion and accessibility in mind, much of the accessibility work that has been done is to retrofit existing structures.

The historic investments in infrastructure happening around the globe are a rare opportunity to reverse the trend of the past 70 years and improve the accessibility of our built environment. A generation from now, we can’t find ourselves in the position of retrofitting the infrastructure we build today.

As I pointed out at the Smart Cities Expo Plenary session on Inclusion, Rights, and Ethics at the Core of the Digital Transformation, we need to take a broad view of accessibility and inclusion. It needs to span everything, from design and training to procurement and the future of work.

Committing to that means understanding in detail how our infrastructure is used. It also means listening to our communities about their needs. Technology—deployed safely and securely—can amplify the voices and experiences that have been left out in the past. But crucially, technology can’t do that on its own. It must be used alongside public commitment, funding, and expertise. And it requires private-sector partners who are fully committed to offering comprehensive accessibility support.

In 2019, Microsoft engaged a cohort of 11 companies to help develop AI-driven solutions to help people with accessibility needs and benefit the environment. Microsoft also partnered with the City of Brampton to build an app to help visually impaired people navigate the town more easily. Microsoft had 25 partners with us in Barcelona, and our partners are central players in delivering high-impact solutions for our customers. Now is the time to build on successes like these, by making smart, sound, forward-thinking investments.

Strategic investments in critical infrastructure

Earlier this year, I wrote about the importance of strategic investment for the future of government technology. The same strategic investments in scalable infrastructure, automation, shared services, and workforce transformation apply across critical infrastructure.

For my year at Microsoft, I’ve focused on three crucial elements of critical Infrastructure that I believe speaks to this moment and its needs:

1. Accelerate the deployment of secure, reliable, efficient, and compliant infrastructure for state-owned public utilities.
2. Enable digital transportation systems that are connected, accessible, efficient, and sustainable.
3. Provide trusted, digital experiences and easy to use capabilities that enhance resident services in cities.

Combined with a focus on accessibility, these priorities will help public sector customers build critical infrastructure that better serves its communities and establishes a strong technological base for long-term sustainable success. Now it’s time to do the work.

For more information, check out our just-launched page Microsoft for Critical Infrastructure for the public sector and learn more about trends in public sector critical infrastructure, get access to our latest white papers, and find out more about our valuable partners.

The post Don’t miss this moment to build infrastructure that works for all appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Here at Microsoft, we’ve made a big commitment to help cities and governments become “smart.” What does that mean? It means we believe there is a huge opportunity for technology to help cities become more responsive to their residents, reduce the environmental impact of transportation and utilities, improve public safety, enhance communication and citizen engagement, and much more.

In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an inflection point, as the need for effective hybrid work and improved urban resilience has driven a dramatic increase in how city governments view and use technology. We’re now seeing digital infrastructure integrate with the build environment in ways we didn’t think possible just a few years ago. The pandemic has accelerated the use of technology and has put it on value. It has also changed our habits regarding work, social behaviors, and consumption. Read more about the 10 keys to understanding the post COVID-19 city.

With that in mind, we’re pleased to be taking part in the 2021 Smart City Expo & World Congress, the premier event focusing on urban innovation. After missing 2020, the event is back—albeit in hybrid form. While many participants will visit Barcelona, the physical site of the expo, there also will be a parallel digital program broadcast by Tomorrow.City. Learn how to register here.

This year’s expo will explore topics ranging from urban mobility, to improved governance, to driving more efficient economies, to safety and security.

We’ll be represented by a range of Microsoft experts and partners. Jeremy Goldberg, Microsoft’s Director of Critical Infrastructure, will appear November 16, 2021, in a plenary session titled “Inclusion, Right, and Ethics at the Core of Digital Transformation.”

Over the last several months, Microsoft and Accenture have been teaming up to help solve transportation challenges and we are excited to have Accenture presenting a live demo at the Microsoft Booth during Smart Cities Expo. This new platform will provide cities, departments, and transportation agencies with the ability to use data more effectively for more efficient operations, enhanced safety, and better day-to-day experiences for city residents.

Another partner of ours, Swedish ClimateView provides ClimateOS platform, a collaborative decision-making SaaS for local governments to plan, simulate and execute their climate transition. Pioneering cities across Europe and North America use the platform to reach their Paris Agreement targets and build zero carbon economies. Built on Azure, it enables faster delivery and financing of climate action by combining data, advanced modeling, and beautiful visualization in a single easy to use platform.

Our work with cities also will be a highlight of another November 16 session: “Cutting-Edge Urban Technologies.” We’ll be discussing the work of Microsoft Qatar on the TASMU Platform, which we think is a ground-breaking piece of work for smart cities. Built on our secure Azure cloud, TASMU works as a digital marketplace in Qatar that streamlines the delivery of public services and makes it easier to perform tasks ranging from pay bills to making healthcare appointment to managing home and office.

In addition, Microsoft program manager Sergio Gonzalez will be giving a “solution talk” on Azure Precept, an easy-to-use, secure platform for creating edge artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. Using Precept, IT administrators in city governments can develop new and innovative ways to perform tasks such as managing transit, detecting pollution sources, oversee emergency responses, or take on any other challenge they might face.

At digital “side events,” several of our partners will discuss:

• Digitising Municipal Services and Operations in support of Government Recovery and Resilience Goals
• Enabling Urban and Rural Sustainability

One interesting project is the new Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), an European Union initiative designed to help member countries respond to economic and social disruptions caused by COVID-19. Projects such as the RFF show real promise in helping countries weather disruptive events, whether it’s a pandemic or related to climate change.

We’re excited about this opportunity to share our vision for smarter cities, while also learning from experts who will be attending from around the world. Cities do so much for people—they create jobs, create vibrant cultures, and lead to a myriad of social interactions not available elsewhere. Everything social happens at cities. It’s our hope that technology can make cities even more exciting and dynamic in the year to come.

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Among the challenges public sector agencies face, solving critical infrastructure problems are one of the most urgent. With cyberattacks, demands from citizens, and regulatory requirements growing in complexity, there is increasing pressure to deliver government services more effectively. In response to such pressure, countries across the globe are investing trillions of dollars to rebuild physical and digital infrastructure post-COVID-19 and invest in their economic futures.

The public sector needs trusted solutions that can help the public sector organizations secure, modernize, and manage critical infrastructure by providing the tools and services that enable digital transformation. Those who manage the critical infrastructure functions for their agency understand the potential to improve services, increase resilience, and cut costs.

Our recent whitepaper, Build the critical infrastructure services of the future with Microsoft Azure, further explores this idea by taking a closer look at some key challenges the public sector faces for critical infrastructure. This paper also examines how solutions available on Microsoft Azure can help solve them. This paper will help you learn how digital transformation can empower government agencies to meet their critical infrastructure challenges by providing insights from data to drive effective decisions, improve day-to-day operations, engage and empower citizens, and protect communities.

In the years I spent working with city and state governments, from San Francisco to New Orleans and New York, I learned there are many issues that need to be solved, but the two most urgent are regarding security and data. For example, as interim CIO of New York State in early 2020, I saw firsthand how incidents like a NetScaler vulnerability can cascade to cause major disruptions in state governments. Just as importantly, I also came to understand the effort and costs of responding to these disruptions in real time.

Security and data issues converge on compliance—an ever-present challenge for public sector technology. With regulatory standards continually adapting to new threats, remaining in compliance is crucial for organizations combatting attacks. While compliance audits can be a major source of stress for public sector agencies, the investment in security is well worth it.

To further emphasize the value of compliance, consider that in May 2021 President Biden issued a far-reaching Executive Order on cybersecurity, and in late July indicated that agencies should begin working on additional (though voluntary, for now) cybersecurity and resiliency efforts for critical infrastructure.

The writing is on the wall: if your agency can’t demonstrate high levels of both security and resilience in line with the new standards, you’re back to the drawing board.

In New York City, I spearheaded the NYCx program, featuring a challenge around cybersecurity and small business. This kind of proactive approach to building cybersecurity capacity is difficult, time-consuming, and absolutely necessary. It also has a high return on investment, particularly when compared to the ballooning costs of responding to incidents.

To avoid problems like these, public sector organizations can help themselves stay in compliance by adopting Zero Trust architecture—thereby improving supply chain security and accelerating their move to the cloud. Cloud adoption makes the deployment of foundational security controls that support Zero Trust, like identity management and data security, quick and easy. Together with gaining the ability to benchmark and visualize performance, compliance becomes more efficient and easier to maintain.

These problems are not abstract. They are specific, acute, and require solutions that respond not to a general concern but to the immediate, concrete needs of the public sector.

Cloud helps the public sector meet these challenges while enabling governments to create future-ready solutions that also integrate seamlessly with those that have already been implemented.

To learn more about how Azure solutions can help you solve your critical infrastructure challenges, read our new whitepaper: Build the critical infrastructure services of the future with Microsoft Azure.

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I love cities. I’ve been fortunate to live, learn, and work in some of the best in the world. Cities are hubs of cutting-edge technology and human productivity. But they also have rich histories, beautiful architecture, and complex cultures. Cities are places where the old constantly meets the new. For me, the creative energy that comes from cities is inspiring and exciting.

Still, over the past decade, we have seen some ambitious “smart cities” projects fail. Sometimes technology is treated like a science project, rather than being tied to a specific problem. And sometimes cities aren’t set up to support these projects because they do not have the right people or processes in place. In my experience, data must be at the center of the conversation. Too often it is a secondary consideration.

Technology as an enabler

What makes a city “smart”? It isn’t technology, as such. It’s the degree to which technology gives residents better lives, thriving businesses, and governments that provide great service. The success of smart cities rests on our foresight to build for accessibility, and solutions that can adapt as conditions and priorities change. Urban planners, politicians, civic-minded organizations, and scholars have been working on these solutions for decades. But the scale today is larger than ever.

In 2018, the United Nations Population Division reported that about 55 percent of the global population lived in cities. It projected that by 2050 the number will rise to 68 percent.¹ As city populations continue to grow, we must support increased demand.

But it is not just a matter of population growth. Sameh Wahba, global director for urban resilience and land practice at the World Bank, put it plainly: “COVID-19 has laid bare many of the problems and inequities in cities and amplified the devastating health and economic impacts of urban poverty around the world. Cities are also on the frontlines of the global fight against climate change, which means they also can be at the center of a green, resilient, and inclusive recovery. Cities provide an escalator out of poverty if they are planned, managed, and governed well. But this is easier said than done and will require sustained and concerted global effort.”

With hundreds of millions of people moving into cities in the coming decades, a failure to invest now in the next generation of digital infrastructure and government could mean those millions go underserved. The good news is that new technologies can meet the rising scale and levels of demand and in many cases, are already doing so. For example, the city of Stockholm quickly realized the value of using 3D visualization to engage inhabitants in the urban planning process.

Planning for the future

To succeed, we need to plan with our past and present cities in mind. The future of cities lies in blending new technologies with existing infrastructure to tackle tangible, pressing issues such as environmental sustainability and economic opportunities.

A recent ESI study found that sustainable cities are also leaders on data. After all, cities are complex places. Understanding them requires managing large volumes of data and harnessing the compute power necessary to deliver real-time insights. Decision-makers must be armed with accurate, consistent data and work closely with members of the community to understand the needs of residents and businesses. They also need to communicate the positive impacts of the work that might go unnoticed, such as increased energy efficiency.

Successful smart cities will build a strong, flexible, digital infrastructure that integrates new technology into existing structures. Successful plans rest on three principles:

• Building for people—the impact of the work on real people must be at the forefront of any decision-making.
• Enabling creativity—solutions should be a springboard to public and private sector creativity and productivity.
• Solving real problems—let real issues, not a desire to implement a particular technology, guide your priorities.

Making an impact

I vividly remember the first time I set foot on the New York City subway and the realization I had of just how important the system is to city life. Years later it became a central part of my daily routine.

Mobility is one of the most prominent urban issues in recent years. And for good reason—it touches all the important elements of urban living. Moving around the city easily is vital for the people who live there. Mobility generates tremendous amounts of data that can help cities manage themselves. As climate change looms, switching rapidly to efficient, sustainable solutions for mobility is imperative. When someone steps on the subway, they might not have all of that in mind. But it is up to governments to get them where they need to go while responsibly protecting our environment.

For me, there are three central ingredients that will ensure a successful practical implementation of technology in our cities:

• Truly representative data that enables better and more equitable decisions.
• Security first, to protect privacy and build trust.
• Sustainability in all things as a unifying goal across projects.

Building future cities

Our cities will thrive in the future by building and upgrading infrastructure that makes urban spaces work for everyone. Employing the right technology and tools will help us solve the problems right in front of us, as well as the ones coming down the road—and enable future generations to tackle the issues we have not even thought of yet. In the same way, our cities are a place where old meets new, they are a place where the present will meet the future and that means action cannot wait.

Learn how the cities of London, United Kingdom and Bogota, Colombia are building for the future, and visit our website to learn more about the way in which Microsoft is enabling governments and empowering citizens around the world.

References:

¹United Nations, 68% of the world population projected to live in urban areas by 2050, says UN, May 16, 2018.

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Technology is helping to rapidly change how you empower your law enforcement agency, improve operations, and protect communities. New solutions can help departments to gather, analyze, and share data rapidly to make better decisions faster, as well as help identify officers who might benefit from additional resources and services to support them. To help make better-informed decisions and deliver more impactful actions to increase the safety of people and the security of the communities you serve, law enforcement agencies need to:

• Ensure they can serve their communities while giving personnel the flexibility to work from anywhere and at any time.
• Empower cross-agency collaboration by sharing data, services, and innovation across jurisdictions and community groups.
• Build community trust and engagement by securing information, protecting infrastructure, and ensuring regulatory compliance.

During the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) 2020, Richard Zak, Director of Public Safety and Justice Solutions at Microsoft will host a session on how law enforcement leaders have addressed these critical challenges:

• From the Chicago Police Department, Sabih Khan, Deputy Chief for Strategic Initiatives, and Maggie Goodrich, Consultant at the University of Chicago Crime Lab and former Chief Information Officer at the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), will join Zak to discuss the launch of their new Officer Support System. The system was designed specifically to support officer health and wellness, a critical challenge facing law enforcement.
• Also joining the discussion will be Inspector Darren Henstock from the Digital Policing Division of the Western Australia Police Force. Over the past 18 months, the Western Australia Police Force has undergone a digital transformation, moving to secure cloud services and deploying BWC, alongside personally-issued mobile devices complete with a suite of apps and features supporting their Digital Policing Strategy to empower frontline officers and make their communities safer.

Watch the session to learn best practices and the right first steps from these law enforcement and technology leaders.

Learn more about how Microsoft empowers public safety and justice organizations.

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