Tag: digital government

AWS today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Thailand’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research, and Innovation (MHESI) to boost innovation using cloud technology. Through this collaboration, AWS will support MHESI to identify pilot workloads for the ministry to start migrating to the AWS Cloud. MHESI will also use AWS training programs to upskill employees on AWS Cloud skills across over 200 education institutions and over 20 MHESI-managed research and education agencies across Thailand by early 2026.

Singapore’s National University Health System (NUHS) collaborated with Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS), Singapore’s technology agency for the public sector, to develop the OneNUHS App. The mobile healthcare application extends healthcare services beyond the hospital, providing telehealth services like video consultations with doctors and more. To accelerate time-to-launch, save costs, and support reliable access for Singaporeans, the OneNUHS app uses AWS.

According to the United States Constitution, public access to judicial proceedings is a right covered by the First and Sixth Amendments. To make hearings visible to the public, even when in-person attendance is limited, state and local governments are beginning to mandate many court proceedings be live streamed, often with a very short window to do so. The cloud-native media and asset management platform Nomad, which is built on AWS, helps governments implement scalable live streaming capabilities quickly and simply.

In mid-February of 2022, the US federal government began planning the return-to-office after the COVID-19 pandemic. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Tax Division needed to quickly build and launch a telework authorization application by April 1, which would help their more than 500 attorneys, paralegals, and administrative personnel request a hybrid work arrangement—all while keeping sensitive information compliant and secure. To do this, the DOJ Tax Division worked with AWS to build an enterprise-level telework approval application in less than two months, before the Division’s re-entry in mid-April of 2022.

Governments across Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) are taking bold steps to accelerate and simplify the process for public sector agencies to migrate to the cloud and leverage its benefits. Many are prioritizing digital transformation, putting in place cloud-first policies directing government agencies to use commercial cloud services, or defining national roadmaps to enable modernization of their IT services and systems.

Nominations are now open for the Future of Government Awards, a new global awards program to recognize the people and projects leading the digital transformation of governments around the world. The Future of Government Awards program seeks to celebrate the hidden public sector heroes who work tirelessly to modernize their governments to improve citizen services. The awards champion innovative technology solutions that the public sector has created and shared—as well as the stories of government organizations that have successfully adapted and reused them. Nominate a public sector digital transformation hero today.

In 2020, the City of Fort St. John in British Columbia began searching for innovative solutions to make life more simple for its young population. City staff wanted to better serve residents in ways that would suit their busy, digitally connected lifestyles. So the city worked with Cocoflo, a smart cities technology company, to implement a digital solution that could make municipal information and services more accessible through their SmartLiving portal—powered by AWS.

When I worked in the UK government, I led the Government Digital Transformation Service (GDS) Transformation Program, where we used an Agile approach to modernize a range of services, from social care benefits to prison visit booking. Now, I work with the AWS Institute executive education program to teach public sector leaders how to accelerate and expand their impact for citizens with digital transformation. In this blog post, I share my experience using the Agile approach to transform government services, and offer some best practices for organizations who want to adopt a bias for Agile action to deliver successful modernization faster and at scale.

The AWS Startup Ramp is a program for early-stage startups building solutions in health, digital government, smart cities, agriculture, and space technology, and is dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs as they build, launch, and grow. AWS Startup Ramp works to remove barriers for entrepreneurs who want to make an impact in the public sector by providing technical design and architecture reviews, mentorship, credits, and support with go-to-market plans to help navigate the complex regulatory and security requirements in the public sector.

Information technology and cloud services can be enablers for modernization of these business processes and tax systems, and improved constituent experience. For public administrators, these tools can also shorten the window between the enactment of a new law and its timely and successful implementation. Here’s how governments are addressing some major challenges using the AWS Cloud.