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June 10, 2021

9 minutes read

Overcoming Modernization Challenges in State and Local Government with Enterprise Integration and Automation (iPaaS)

By

Andrew Graf

City and county governments are looking to modernize. What does this mean? For most governments, this means finding a way to sunset legacy systems in favor of more modern cloud offerings. But this can be a daunting task for governments that often struggle with limited budgets and resources. In fact, at the 2021 Digital Communities Large City/County CIP Summit, attendees said the number one impediment to modernization is staff capacity.

One way to make this digital modernization easier is to invest in Integration Platform as a Service – iPaaS. With iPaaS you can stand up new systems faster and take a more measured approached. In this scenario, having a legacy system that houses data for new systems doesn’t act as a blocker to process because iPaaS helps integrate and transform the data from disparate systems.

With iPaaS, sunsetting older legacy systems is easier – it supports the migration and required data transformation without losing any of the legacy data and processes.

Moving to the Cloud Enables Better Experience

Using iPaaS to modernize systems has a number of advantages. To start, iPaaS enables a hybrid cloud environment (meaning some is on prem and some in the cloud) that makes integrating systems and data secure. In addition, it’s often easier to use meaning you don’t need to rely on specialists to get started.

By modernizing legacy systems, you enable employees access to better tools (including automated workflows through iPaaS) that help facilitate collaboration, communication and transparency – allowing departments to work better together, cross-functionally.

And best of all, a modern digital experience means your citizens can take advantage of new tools like self-service portals, faster service (through automation), as well as omnichannel engagement options like phone, email, chatbots, etc. By allowing citizens access to easily find answers to questions they have, or to pay tickets, or submit paperwork online you can reduce the calls and emails coming in and free up staff to focus on other projects.

Addressing Limited Resources with iPaaS

The increase in modernization needs and diminished resources is driving a need for “hyper-efficiency” at all levels, and in all departments. Because staff capacity is low, many state and local governments don’t have the resources needed to take advantage of things like federal funding – they simply can’t move fast enough. So, making the resources available as productive as possible is key to many modernization efforts.

With tools like iPaaS and IT Service Management (ITSM) platforms, governments can better manage tickets and tasks; promote self-service of common requests through a service portal; expand service capacity without needing to add additional staff; and automate both simple and complex processes to free up resources.

Interested in learning more about how iPaaS can aid digital transformation and modernization projects? Check out our eBook: iPaaS Intrigue – A Faster Path to Digital Transformation.

Andrew Graf

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