Management

Technology Creates New Efficiencies for Both Agencies and Citizens

Tools from microservices to MDM allow federal workers to make their own jobs simpler while delivering services better.

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Ryan Petersen has worked in publishing for more than two decades, most of it spent creating award-winning content and strategy for CDW’s family of tech magazine brands. As editor-in-chief, he works with his team to develop compelling and useful industry-focused stories to share with the technology world. Outside of work, Ryan enjoys spending time with his children, traveling, online gaming, and following Iowa Hawkeye sports and Cubs baseball.

From one-click “Buy Now” buttons on online retail sites to the mere wave of a smartphone at the checkout counter, consumers like their interactions fast.

The federal government has taken notice of this. For the past few years, even before the pandemic, it has been working to create an efficient environment for the citizens it serves.

To do this, however, agencies must first streamline their own workplaces and design methods for finding information more quickly, while ensuring that their own IT is up to handling increased citizen needs.

Tools both old and new are assisting agencies in their work. The Food and Drug Administration, for example, has begun to use automation and artificial intelligence to process forms associated with medical devices, relying on microservices to quickly deploy the technology.

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Agencies Turn to Flexible Tools in Uncertain Times

In “Microservices Help Agencies Streamline Management and Speed Product Delivery,” we learn that microservices — a new, cloud-native approach to designing an IT environment — allowed the FDA to automate many manual workflows in a standardized, flexible way, and prepare for a serverless future for its services.

The Department of Veterans Affairs relied on master data management as the COVID-19 pandemic ramped up and hospitals needed immediate information on medical supplies and staffing levels.

“Master Data Management Guides Agencies Through Supply Chain Difficulties” tells how the VA applied a method traditionally used to keep data in alignment to supply chain management. But even as the agency worked to streamline its internal resources, it remained conscious of the needs of its 19 million customers — the veterans looking for healthcare, disability benefits and more.

It’s one of the many federal agencies that decided to consolidate multiple websites into a one-stop shop for citizens, enabling them to go to one site to find information on any topic and get assistance with all their questions. “Federal Website Consolidation Eases the Online Journey for Citizens” demonstrates how the VA, as well as other agencies, made access simpler for citizens.

Efficiency is a goal that works in two directions. A streamlined enterprise first benefits those who work there, and they in turn are better able to serve their customers quickly and nimbly. The government is learning how to put technology, both new and familiar, to use in completing its mission.

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