Resilient state and local governments: Improved worker productivity

Citizens looking for faster, more effective services from their state and local governments rarely think too closely about what it takes to deliver those services: They just want what they want when they want it. But as budgets tighten, and new citizen needs and expectations arise every day, public sector managers can’t afford not to cast a critical eye on their back-end infrastructure and consider how they can optimize it.

Too many governments still depend on aged technology platforms that hinder their relationships with citizens and businesses. How can a back-end focus on worker productivity help deliver the front-end performance that every public sector organization wants to achieve?

Download the eBook: Resiliency for state and local governments facing economic challenges

Our 5-week blog post series reviews key areas state and local organizations should consider in order to ensure uninterrupted services to constituents despite a future that’s difficult to predict. This week, we’ll look at improved worker productivity as a key piece of the puzzle for any department or agency that needs to do more with less.

Consideration #4: Improved worker productivity

So much of the drive for better on-the-job productivity is about numbers, and when it comes to cloud computing, the numbers are mind-boggling. Compared to legacy applications, the eBook reports that cloud computing can reduce customer inquiries by 50 to 80%, the time required to manage grants by 30 to 36%, equipment downtime by 20 to 30%, and “maverick spend” by up to 10.8%, while boosting productivity by up to 16% for the maintenance workforce and 25% for service teams.

The difference is in the way in-house systems function, with tighter security, more pro-active maintenance and asset management, and more effective, data-driven business decisions. Workforce morale is another big winner when employees get to use the same modern IT tools they would expect in the private sector—or, for that matter, when they log on to consumer sites as private citizens.

In an e-book published last year, GovLoop identifies human resources and financial management as areas that are particularly ripe for productivity improvements. “For employees in state and local government, IT modernization means more efficiently performing the functions that support agency missions, such as workflows, human resources, expenses, and more,” the public sector resource site writes. That means state and local IT leaders must “harness cloud and IT modernization strategies that continuously evolve, and align IT with ever-shifting strategies and missions.”

If you’d like to learn more about automating business processes to sustain constituent services, we invite you to:

• download the eBook: “Resiliency for state and local governments facing economic challenges”
• view the webinar featuring the State of Idaho discussing their selection process for a FedRAMP®-certified, cloud-based ERP solution.