Highlights from the IBM Center Blog -- Year in Review 2023
Transforming the Business of Government – Reflections on a Quarter Century’s Work
This week, the IBM Center for The Business of Government was honored to host many leaders to commemorate the Center’s 25th anniversary. With this post, we share some observations and images about the event and a first view of the book.
How Can AI Improve The Regulatory Process?
This is the seventh in a series of articles stemming from the National Academy of Public Administration’s Standing Panel on Technology Leadership as part of its Call to Action on Responsibly Using AI to Benefit Public Service at all Levels of Government. Significant attention has been paid of late on how best to approach potential regulation of artificial intelligence (AI). But what about the converse of this proposition – how can AI help governments become more efficient in issuing and analyzing regulations?
Three Ways AI-Powered Digital Twins Can Improve Government Services
"A digital twin is a virtual representation of an object or system that spans its lifecycle, is updated from real-time data, and uses simulation, machine learning and reasoning to help decision making." The following are three ways digital twin technology can aid governments in delivering better outcomes.
Making Government AI-Ready Begins with an AI-Ready Workforce
This is the third in a series of articles stemming from the National Academy of Public Administration’s Standing Panel on Technology Leadership as part of its Call to Action on Responsibly Using AI to Benefit Public Service at all Levels of Government. Please see our first blog, "A Call to Action: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and Public Service" and second blog, "Artificial Intelligence and Public Service: Key New Challenges."
Digitalization and Sustainability - Advancing Digital Value
Addressing the key research question of how organizations transform to generate new forms of public and shareholder value by leveraging digital technology. Honored to share a chapter I authored for the book, Digitalization and Sustainability - Advancing Digital Value.
Artificial Intelligence and Public Service: Key New Challenges
Recently they have gained MUCH more attention. For example, since last fall, ChatGPT has thrilled many with its potential as a powerful, low-cost personal assistant. We find that, after more than 50 years of computing, we are suddenly working with explosively new capabilities and impacts on public services and society. But what capabilities are truly “new”? How should we use them to create value? How should we prepare for the future?
Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better
The famous slowness of bureaucracy is a key reason but all too frequently what now widens the gap between policy intentions and actual outcomes is the messy task of implementation through digital technology, and the ways government makes working with that technology uniquely complex. Recently, Jen Pahlka joined The Business of Government to discuss her new book and the many insights she outlines in the book.
Opening the Aperture and Leveraging New and Emerging Shared Services
The American Council of Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) and the Shared Leadership Coalition (SSLC) recently collaborated on a series of roundtable discussions on key topics related to Shared Services. The Center hosted a session on how best to advance new shared services or new elements of existing services. A summary of this roundtable session reflects insights of government representatives from DHS, OPM, GSA, NASA, USDA, DEA, and VA who addressed issues related to this question, with key points and a set of overarching success factors.
What if we transformed Citizen Services with Intelligent Automation?
While governments are moving quickly to leverage automation, artificial intelligence, and emerging technology, many of these efforts are taking place in decentralized silos instead in coordinated programs. It is imperative for agencies to take a strategy that focuses on the end-to-end workflow to allow for the coordination, scaling, and continuous improvement of modernized submission processing.
Measuring Organizational Health: The Backstory
A recent story in Government Executive summarizes a newly-released guidance memo to federal agencies from the Office of Management and Budget. But the guidance actually has an interesting backstory that stretches back 20 years.
Five recommendations for federal agencies to use the cloud to accelerate modernization
The U.S. government’s IT modernization efforts are still lagging, especially when considering the improved productivity, speed and lowered risk that cloud computing offers to help address the security and citizen service challenges impacting trust in government today. Last year’s Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act (P.L. 117-260), the recently released National Cybersecurity Strategy and the federal zero trust mandate require agencies to prioritize system and data security. Here are five recommendations for federal agencies to use the cloud to accelerate modernization.
Rear Admiral Lorin Selby, chief of Naval Research joined me on The Business of Government Hour for a timely and insightful conversation on the critical mission he leads, his efforts in advance unmanned systems and develop a strategic hedge based on “the small, the agile and the many”.
SPADE 2023: Deploying the Data Fabric for Multi-Domain Command
IBM and AFCEA host the SPADE Defense Conference bringing together members of the armed forces, intelligence agencies, industry, and academia from the U.S. and around the world. The 2023 conference examined today’s defense technology and progress toward achieving “decision advantage” and “decision superiority” across domains by deploying technology, including data fabric, in support of multi domain command and control
How Emerging Technologies Can Transform Law Enforcement and Public Safety
Law enforcement is changing more rapidly than ever before. New forms of crime, advanced technologies, and evolving relationships with citizens and communities are challenging and shifting the very foundations and scope of law enforcement and public safety and how organizations and the officials perform their critical mission. As a result, new processes, new tools and new strategies are urgently needed to equip law enforcement and public safety personnel with the resources and capabilities required to focus on core, value-added mission functions.
The Federal Workplace Is Changing Rapidly, But Merit Principles Must Remain Untouched
The merit system should be at the core of any reforms agencies make to adapt to fast-changing workplace dynamics. This is the second in a five-part series from the National Academy of Public Administration looking at the challenges and urgency of modernizing the civil service. Find the Academy’s full essay on the merit system here.
Insights for Thriving in Disruption
In our increasingly uncertain, complex, and transforming world,” says Roger Spitz, “the sooner we begin to embrace change and educate ourselves to take action, the better. Disruption is already transforming every aspect of our personal and professional lives and permeates every institution and sector of society. It’s not enough to be aware of the accelerating speed and scope of this change - we must prepare for it.” Recently, Roger joined The Business of Government Hour for a very timely and insightful conversation on how best to thrive in disruption.
Teaching Technology & Public Management – The Need Has Never Been Greater
With this update to a premier text for public administration in the 21st century, Dr. Shark provides a roadmap for leaders at all levels of government and in the nonprofit sector - and teachers of future leaders in this space - regarding how technology drives public sector missions and outcomes.
Pursuing IT Modernization at OPM
“Given I am the tenth CIO in the last 12 years at OPM,” explains Guy Cavallo, “I am focused on bringing stability and I can do that by setting a clear IT vision and strategy.” Recently, Guy Cavallo joined The Business of Government Hour for a timely and insightful discussion on OPM’s cloud-first IT modernization program, increasing OPM’s technology workforce, replacing its legacy contact center for retirement services, and work to accelerate the adoption of a zero-trust cybersecurity architecture.
How federal agencies embrace flexibility and bring visibility to the cloud
This blog draws from an Oct. 13 webinar, the third in a series hosted by the Partnership for Public Service and the IBM Center for The Business of Government, that featured two federal IT leaders: Andrea Norris, then chief information officer of the National Institutes of Health and Brock Webb from the Office of the Chief Information Officer at the U.S. Census Bureau. Read our blog posts, “The 3 stages of cloud adoption” and “Providing a secure cloud for agency applications,” for recaps of the first two webinars in the series.
On Leading GSA's Federal Acquisition Service
The U.S. General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) uses the collective buying power of the federal government to acquire goods and services to support its agency customers. According to the recent GSA Strategic Plan, FAS offers agencies more than 31 million different products and services and in fiscal year (FY) 2021 it delivered over $84 billion in various products, services, and solutions. Recently, the FAS Commissioner Sonny Hashmi joined The Business of Government Hour to discuss its mission and explore his vision for delivering on that mission. The following is excerpt of our discussion.
How Should Tax Agencies Engage?
Engaging with tax agencies is hard: our digital experiences with other industries lead us to expect more. In our first blog of the series, we discussed the future of tax as it relates to tax agencies. In our second, we wrote about the future of tax and the taxpayer. This third blog post discusses simplifying the tax process and reducing risk. In many cases the rules are complicated, difficult to follow, and assistance is scarce and slow. Taxpaying individuals and organizations should experience superior, highly personalized, and effortless digital interactions simplified by artificial intelligence and underpinned by automated integration.
What's Next for Evidence-Based Policy Making?
The crises of the past few years have brought with them a rallying cry for more evidence in government; a call to “follow the science” and “lead with data.” Public sector leaders from local governments all the way to the White House have celebrated the use of evidence in practice, and many are building the infrastructure to infuse data into day-to-day operations. But as researchers and practitioners continue to collaborate to produce evidence on the most critical public sector challenges, it’s time to ask: What happens next? How do we go from documenting “best practice” to adoption of evidence?