“Technology is transforming the government, and new industries are changing the government, resident expectations are reshaping the government. These requirements are given in 2019 as officials work tirelessly to keep citizens happy and services running.”
Yet with these shifts, Accela CEO Gary Kovacs views a game-changing opportunity for governments to accomplish what previous leaders could envisage about: a complete and lasting digital transformation. Gary supervises the company’s mission-driven growth, strategic management, and long-term value for its stakeholders and customers globally. Gary has close to three decades of enterprise software and mobile technology, business leadership and executive management expertise. Before Accela, Gary worked as CEO of AVG Technologies, a global leader in consumer and enterprise security software. Ere this, he was CEO of Mozilla, where he led the complete direction of the organization and the development and distribution of the Firefox browser and cloud services utilized by over 500 million people worldwide. Gary has held senior executive posts at SAP (Sybase), Zi, Adobe (Macromedia), and IBM.
“Mayors and local administrators have a chance to rethink how governments can serve residents thoroughly,” says Gary, in an open letter to the mayors and local leaders. “In this development, there is an unprecedented possibility to realize new outcomes that elevate our communities, and this will come by taming transformation via technology, focusing technology on delivering outcomes, and leveraging a powerful ecosystem of private sector partners.”
Gary urged administrators to seek government software that isn’t just “new,” but presents features that are fundamental components of modern services. These innovations include solutions that can be expanded quickly out of the box, tools that adapt to user requests through the cloud, and platforms that provide a clear understanding of department data for decision making.
“The right technology lets smart governments endeavor scalable, yet cost-effective, services for residents,” Gary states. “It assists governments to see their operations precisely and make policy determinations based on data. The world of order-anything-online services, Software-as-a-Service, 24/7 mobile apps, customer analytics, and instantaneous response, is now table stakes in the private area and will become the norm in the public sector much quicker than expected.”
The Inflection Point for Government
Technological evolution and its impact on the world’s services and customer expectations have resulted in what Gary pictures as a significant “inflection point” for government, one that has the potential to enable state and local leaders if they allow it. The benefits come through services that produce turnaround times on tasks like authorizing and licensing, department administrative duties that are automated, and via SaaS solutions that are more affordable, have predictable recurring charges, and redirect the risks of maintenance and maintenance back to IT vendors.
“When implemented correctly, these technologies empower governments to take an evolutionary step forward,” Gary says. “They can reshape service standards, unlock cost savings, and open undiscovered territories for new services.”
For close to two decades, Accela has been an industry leader in designing and dispensing government software to improve efficiency, increase resident engagement, and enable the development of flourishing communities. Today, citizens are savvy about how services should be extended and expect a consistently convenient, openly transparent view of their local government. While government agencies strive to do more with less, our mission has never been more important.
Accela produces a robust, cloud-based platform of government software solutions that stimulate growth, efficiency, and transparency in associations of all sizes. From planning to building to service request administration and more, Accela’s SaaS offerings level the playing field for small and medium governments.
They enable smaller agencies to leverage more substantial city technologies. Their open and extensible technology helps agencies address particular needs today while ensuring they are well prepared for the emerging difficulties of the future.
It takes a complicated ecosystem of government leaders, citizens, local businesses, and technology associates to create smart cities. Our platform of government software presents solutions for out-of-the-box implementation and is flexible to accommodate future innovation and development.
Get Technology That Drives Results
Innovative government institutions like the federal government’s 18F and the U.S. Digital Service have demonstrated how the right goals — service outcomes that are fathomable and tangible — drive the proper choice of technology. The two groups have used this type of approach to successfully fix the Obama era national health insurance exchange, and Healthcare.gov. Presently they continue to drive digital transformation for bureaus like the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, the Department of Commerce, and several more.
“With various solutions and technologies, governments can benefit when they “start with the end in mind,” Gary adds. “When acquiring IT, there is a new opportunity to concentrate on procurement decisions that necessitate solid results for communities — as opposed to purchasing based on product specs alone.”
As the base of Silicon Valley, California is making considerable strides in results-driven technological development. Gary pointed to the innovative effort of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who shortly after taking office, issued an Executive Order to rethink the conventional procurement process that depends heavily on prescriptive solution requirements. Alternatively, in his order, Newsom created a new Office of Digital Innovation that will oversee the state’s departments to purchase and develop technology suited to department objectives and occupant needs.
“Anchored in a “sprints-based approach,” the approach incentivizes the private sector to present targeted solutions through an iterative, agile, outcome-oriented manner,” Gary states. “California points to save crucial time, resources, and tax dollars while creating and performing much-needed solutions for a better tomorrow.”
Harness Resources of Private Sector
In his last advice for digital transformation, Gary invited the public sector to leverage the private sector’s support and expertise. With its extensive and continuous investments in research and development, data centers, cybersecurity, and other high-impact IT services, Gary states there are significant winnings as both sectors work together on common objectives.
“Too many times, we believe we have to go it alone, but there are great companies that desire to be your partner, and we strive to be one of these partners,” Gary says. “Agencies and departments don’t have to be the provider of each service. With new business models and technologies similar to the cloud, governments can be service brokers — managing assistance instead of supplying them.”
This idea of government displaying service brokers is backed by an investigation from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO). In a study of state CIOs, the organization discovered that the purpose of future IT departments and CIOs would be geared toward service curation alternatively of acting as direct service providers. The accelerated advance in technology fuels this trend, a pace will likely grow, and make it necessary for governments to form more stimulating strategic service partnerships with IT vendors.
“Governments have gained the right to be seen as partners, co-creating solutions, and presenting services alongside the private sector,” Gary adds. “With the cloud, municipalities have an incredible capacity to deploy a comprehensive variety of solutions. This alleviates both the risk and hardships of maintenance while enhancing service delivery.”
Maximizing Opportunity to Govern a Better Future
The various patterns of innovation serve as a roadmap for others to follow. But as we look to make a permanent and scalable change, the focus should be on strategies and reforms at the state level to maximize impact. The development necessitates working at the state level to promote technological innovation and implementation, streamline allowing processes, and to speed up evolution to create more healthy communities across the nation.
Advancing comprehensive reform and making meaningful change is not straightforward, but can be done through collaboration and leveraging technology solutions accessible. While there is no doubt that the government can perform a catalytic role in addressing the housing shortage, no one can do it solely in this era of unprecedented citizen demand and technological revolution. Asking for cooperation and bringing technology partners into the fold is not a sign of vulnerability, but rather an admirable commitment to solving one of today’s most notable challenges. Bringing forth the right approaches, policies, people, and technologies together beyond the private and public sectors is the answer to creating a better tomorrow.
