Celebrating NASCIO’s 50th at 2019 Midyear Conference
Conduent took advantage of a ‘golden’ opportunity to help the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) celebrate its 50th anniversary in May at the Midyear Conference held at Maryland’s National Harbor.
With 14 new state government CIOs in attendance, Conduent Government Solutions joined everyone at the NASCIO Midyear Conference to share our solutions, connect with public and private sector IT professionals and collaborate with our partners. We learned, for example, that government agencies continue to embrace and are aggressively seeking new ideas and best practices to improve their operations.
Conduent has supported NASCIO as a corporate member for more than 20 years. NASCIO’s annual State CIO survey report, for example, is helpful for identifying and tracking key trends. As a proud Gold sponsor of this year’s Midyear conference, we hope to aid NASCIO’s mission to foster government excellence through quality business practices, information management and technology policy. NASCIO supports state government CIOs with offerings designed to help address the challenges they face every day. NASCIO also advocates on behalf of state government IT organizations for improvements in policies, processes and procedures.
Conduent Government Solutions and its partners work collaboratively to help state agencies gain greater efficiency and deliver more modern services to meet growing constituent demands. Our team enjoyed connecting with colleagues, clients and IT experts from across the nation, sharing ways we can work together to meet the needs of state agencies and the constituents they serve.
We also want to congratulate Utah Governor Gary Herbert for being selected NASCIO’s 2019 Technology Champion at NASCIO’s Midyear Conference. NASCIO’s Technology Champion Award recognizes outstanding individual contributions to the field of public sector IT. Herbert promoted improvements in aligning technology education with needs through his Governor’s Tech Pathways Program; expanded broadband services so that 96.6% of Utah households have access to broadband internet; championed digital government innovations which has led to greater savings and accessibility; and underscored the importance of cybersecurity by opening the Utah Cyber Center in 2018.
In terms of top priorities, this year’s Midyear Conference focused on ‘digital government’ in a variety of sessions and hallway discussions with state government CIOs. Innovation in the private sector has pressured government agencies to create better technology-enabled services for their customers, who include citizens, tourists, businesses, employees and other agencies. These audiences fully expect access to services in their moments of need, using the channels or devices of their choice. Coupled with budgetary pressures to improve efficiency and do more with less, state agencies continue to seek cost effective ways to transform data into actionable insights, as well as eliminating unnecessary processes, increasing engagement and improving the public trust among the audiences they serve.
To illustrate, effective digital government services can help increase opportunities. If a person logs into a ‘constituent-centered’ agency portal to sign up for heating assistance, for example, the system should recognize how individuals who have difficulty paying their heating bills may also need help buying food or finding transportation to medical appointments. Once a person signs up for heating assistance, the system may offer other opportunities and even pre-qualify them for some programs, based on the information previously entered.
Digital transformation can dramatically improve government efficiency, as well. Self-service digital tools enable agencies to devote fewer resources to call centers, field offices, and other labor-intensive constituent service operations. But this is only true if constituents can take advantage of the tools. In other words, digital tools must be easy to find and effective to use.
Conduent offers an array of advanced services and government expertise and can work collaboratively with state agencies to develop a framework for digital services, from portals to improving each citizen’s experience, to accessibility and other modern, digital platforms and service solutions. As we move forward together, public and private sector organizations must make sure they have the proper tools, solutions and partnerships in place to deliver on the full potential of digital transformation.
We look forward to our next opportunity to join everyone at NASCIO’s upcoming Annual Conference in Nashville next October.