Texas Digital Summit Moderators Offer Insight into Sessions

Moderators from last week's Texas Digital Government Summit in Austin offered Industry Insider — Texas some key takeaways from breakout sessions. Hundreds from the technology community attended the annual event.

Their impressions are compiled below.

Bits and Bytes (Texas by Texas app)

• Texas is working hard to collaborate across agencies to make services more available. The Department of Motor Vehicles is an early adopter that worked closely with DIR.
• Collaboration is not easy but provides incredible benefits. DIR continually works to build relationships to make collaborations easier. These relationships require work to ensure positive outcomes.
• People do not always accept change. When change is packaged up to show that everyone wins, it becomes dynamic. Collaborating feeds on itself, and the wins bring more to the table.
• The future of Texas by Texas (TxT) is bright and expandable to local governments as well. Collaborations of this type are unique in government and definitely make a difference.

The Evolving Cyber Threat Landscape

• The cyber threat landscape is continuously evolving, and no government agency in Texas, regardless of size or focus, is immune from these new threats.
• The Texas Legislature and DIR will continue to establish and put in place new safeguards and regulations to secure state, local and special district agencies. As Texas goes back into session in 2023, this will be something to watch. Previous example.
• Agencies need to focus on putting the right underlying structure in place and regularly testing their disaster recovery and business continuity plans.
• Agencies need to focus on risk mitigation through regular training and good communication practices with staff, customers and agencies they support (or partner with).

Automation Is Changing the Game

• One of the first automation projects that agencies are undertaking is using robotic process automation technology to automate mundane, repetitive tasks such as providing constituent services or analyzing data and creating reports.
• To manage concerns from the workforce regarding AI and automation, it is important to be transparent about the project benefits and goals.  Many current AI and automation projects focus on freeing up workers to do more valuable, analytical and interesting work.
• It is recommended to start small with a lower-risk, well-defined use case, but then once it is proven, focus on scaling it up to provide major benefits.  In other words, the use case should, at scale, be important to automate.  Summary: Start small, prove it out and then scale the solution.

Data Is the New Bacon

• You can’t realize the actual value (or potential) of data without the right foundation and governance, meaning bad data on-premise is the same as bad data in the cloud.
• Leverage adaptive governance models and proofs of concepts to get buy-in and a better understanding of data projects.
• Data science is not just for the data nerds; it’s about making data consumable and usable for everyone.
• The right data usage can abstract complexity from any experience.
• Operationalizing data doesn’t mean you need to migrate all your data into one place before you can extract value; it means intelligently connecting your data where it’s at and continuing to build the right foundation as you navigate your technical debt.
• There are many new ways to collect customer feedback in a structured format, including through active collection loops (i.e., survey) or passive data collection (i.e., behavior, usage, FAQs).

Keeping Our Head in the Clouds

• Leveraging cloud services is a reality that agencies need to embrace.  IT leaders should look for opportunities to evaluate cloud services — such as a legacy on-premise solution needing to be replaced, or a need to bolster key IT skills that were diminished by resignations or retirements. Select initial cloud projects that have definable business value but are not too complex. 
• There is a steep learning curve initially for the IT staff, but once they make the transition, the benefits will become obvious and future cloud adoption will be accelerated. IT leaders should help the IT team through the transition by providing cloud training early and throughout the process.
• One of the benefits of the cloud is getting access to the enterprise architecture and security experts of the cloud vendor community. These premium resources bring deep skills in these areas and have solved problems similar to what an agency is facing.

Digital Access for All

• “Access for All” used to be primarily about devices and connections, as in: Do we have enough of both?
• Now it encompasses other barriers to access such as language, physical disabilities, cultural or demographic barriers or age barriers.
• Can you craft services/sites/apps that are accessible to all your constituencies? Why is it important that public agencies work toward this goal?

The Building Blocks of App Development

• Application development has changed over the years. The use of no code/low code is becoming more possible for governments. The concepts can be difficult to grasp, but this type of development can be a game-changer.
• It is difficult for governments to recruit and retain the best technology talent. Involving the end users in the development process helps get technology done. Users building their own apps with reusable code, low code or no code is beginning to gain ground.
• There is a need for tight processes and policies that still give central IT the ability to manage user-built technologies. Providing standards here will help make sure that the technologies are supportable longer term.

Got Customer Service?

• Customer service expectations are higher than ever for employees, businesses and citizens, but they are constantly shifting.
• There is no silver bullet to reimagining customer service; it will require being in a state of continuous improvement.
• A healthy culture is the key ingredient to delivering expectational customer service. Government agencies must focus on culture to maintain organizational progress and innovation.
• Agencies need to focus on building new services around customer needs without leaving anyone behind.

*e.Republic is the parent company of Industry Insider — Texas and the Center for Digital Government.