Even before the pandemic, U.S. K-12 school districts were undergoing a digital transformation - digitizing paper-based processes and adopting ‘smart’ technologies for core services, including facilities management, transportation, HR and staffing, business services, and teaching and learning. The pandemic accelerated those trends, in support of providing online learning to children sheltering at home. But this also means that schoo...

The Department of Defense can only transform itself as fast as its slowest workflow. At the foundation of DoD’s various warfare capabilities – including cyber, electronic, and information – is the push to transform its administrative advantage in “Workflow Warfare.” These elements of warfare are the backend processes that make a large agency run effectively and connect IT, HR, finance, procurement, workplace, and...

The worst of the pandemic may be past, but after two years of employees having to work remotely, many state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies find their workers want to continue working from home. Given that agencies were able to seamlessly transition to digital delivery of services, hybrid work continues to play a role in the government workforce. But many state and local agencies are strapped for funding and need to find ways to lower...

According to the National Association of State CIOs, the top two enterprise risks faced by state governments in 2022 are cybersecurity and technology. Cybersecurity includes everything from data protection and ransomware to identity theft and stolen network credentials. Technology risks include aging or obsolete systems, data management, and handling cloud portfolios, to name a few. Addressing these risks is part of modernizing and transformin...

The U.S. military is focused on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into its strategic decision-making, from analyzing intelligence, to enhancing weapon systems platforms such as aircraft and ships that do not require human operators, to providing recommendations on the battlefield. But the United States is not alone in seeking to harness AI for military purposes. Other nations, such as China, are seeking to do the same – a 21st cen...

For states and localities looking to automate repetitious work, reduce paper-based tasks and streamline processes, artificial intelligence (AI) holds a lot of promise. The National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) in their recent report on AI and machine learning drew upon a Deloitte assessment that categorized the benefits of automation into four groups: relieve, split up, replace, and augment. The challenge for state and local agencies is...

It is an unfortunate fact of life that the cyber threat landscape is constantly adapting, evolving, and expanding. There are more devices looking to connect to government systems, especially as workers seek to keep working from home or transition to splitting their time between remote and office sites. This has created a new vulnerability – the burnout of cybersecurity professionals. They are getting stretched thin, keeping up with new m...

“Infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars.” That quote by Army General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, summarizes why logistics is so important to the military. Today the U.S. military faces even greater logistics challenges, as technology amplifies warfighters’ force execution but adds complications to the vast array of supplies needed to support them.The modern warfighter m...

The use of operational technology (OT) is spreading rapidly across government agencies at all levels as they use sensors and remotely-controlled devices for many different applications. But agencies working in such blended IT/OT environments are now facing increased risk of cyber attacks targeting the OT side of the equation, and most of the sectors classified as critical infrastructure make extensive use of OT. The Department of Defense in 20...

When the FBI released its 2021 Internet Crime Report, one statistic showed that ransomware attacks increased about 50% from 2020 levels, targeting everything from healthcare and education to law enforcement and municipalities. The rapid growth of ransomware attacks can damage your agency beyond its impact on downtime and the financial burden of recovery. Your agency’s reputation with its customers can be damaged. Taking steps in advance...