Quisitive and Microsoft hosted Driving Digital Transformation in State & Local Government, a virtual event highlighting the unique business problems and opportunities that the public sector faces as the digital world continues to expand. Opportunities such as streamlining processes and adapting to a hybrid workplace are just some of the topics that were covered during the event.

We had the honor to feature Hollis Williams, Chief Operating Officer for Microsoft’s State and Local Government business as our keynote. Williams discussed how the increase of digital transformation in the public sector can better serve employees and constituents as their needs change.

Williams reported that at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the agencies with digital processes already in place – including those with no-code and low-code solutions that use Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform – were more successful at adapting and sharing the rapidly changing information and statistics with employees and constituents than those using legacy systems.  

Public and Private Sector Partnership

Williams added that it is crucial for the public sector to partner with the private sector in order to successfully meet the growing digital demands and replace these legacy systems.

Quisitive can help agencies with digitalizing government processes, population forecasting, and creating a resilient cybersecurity strategy, which, according to Williams, should be at the cornerstone of an organization’s digital transformation journey.

Microsoft recommends that agencies lean on a partner to help provide their constituents with best practices, fast-paced solutions and data-driven insights on how to better serve their communities. 

“Ultimately, we hope to digitize government services for impact at scale for generations to come,” said Williams.

Panel Discussion Recap

The panel discussion that followed, moderated by Christina Boe, VP of Sales, featured a lively panel of leaders in the public sector faced with improving digital efficiency in state and local government. The panelists shared the good, the bad and the ugly of their digital transformation journey.

Our panelists:

• Mazen Chilet, CIO for Maryland National Parks 
• Barry Condry, CIO for Chesterfield County , VA 
• Holly Gillam, Director, Enterprise Applications for the State of South Carolina 
• David Herlihy, Division Chief, Digital Experience and Technology Innovation, Arlington County, VA 
• Jimmy Thomas, SVP Information Technology, Housing Authority of Baltimore 

Panelists shared how their departments are adapting to the demand for efficiency and digital solutions in government. They agreed that providing constituents with a digitalized version of government processes, papers and forms is the first step to increasing government efficiency. 

“If you don’t put the information at [the user’s] fingertips, they’re not going to be able to find the information,” Mazen Chilet said.  

Panelist Barry Condrey mentioned that in the age of speedy delivery services like Amazon and Doordash, consumers expect efficiency. David Herlihy and Holly Gillam shared that the use of the Cloud and Power Platform have been crucial to streamlining their departments’ digital transformation:

“We’ve been able to market to our departments better, cheaper, and faster during some crazy times over the last two years – and that’s all because of the Cloud,” Herlihy said.  

“It would’ve been way more complicated if we didn’t have these frameworks and tools,” Gillam added.

Digital Transformation in the Public Sector

With the help of Quisitive, Condrey reported how Chesterfield County, Virginia uses population projections built by Microsoft Azure and advanced analytics to plan all aspects of civic infrastructure. This includes location planning of schools, libraries, and fire stations. 

“We’ve brought a lot of objectivity and insight to this process using this data approach,” Condrey said.  

Jimmy Thomas of the Housing Authority of Baltimore also shared his department’s initiative to completely digitalize the work-order experience. Using kiosks and a low-code mobile app, they have streamlined employee-resident communication and digitalized all paper processes.  

“This is a real major step for us going forward to provide better services to our residents and to the citizens of Baltimore,” Thomas said.  

Digital Transformation in SLG

Listening to these innovation-driven leaders was an inspiration to many. It is no surprise that state and local government agencies need to concentrate in modernizing and innovating through a digital transformation to better serve their employees, constituents, and communities.

If you are one of those agencies and don’t know where to start, feel free to connect here and we will guide you through that journey. 

The webinar concluded with the launch of the Driving Digital Transformation in SLG On-Demand Learning Hub, 20+ videos covering the topics such as:

• Simplifying the Government Cloud 
• Solving the IT hiring gap in SLG
• Securing a remote workforce in SLG
• Using data analytics to improve operations in SLG

If you’d like to access these learning videos and more, click here.

You don’t have to go through digital transformation alone. Connect with us today!