Tag: digital transformation

The higher education we knew before the pandemic will not be the one that emerges post-pandemic. Leaders must meet this moment by redefining the constructs of higher education. The “Top 10 IT Issues, 2022: The Higher Education We Deserve” report released by EDUCAUSE groups the top 10 priorities into three imperatives: 1) shared vision, shared strategy; 2) student success as institutional success; and 3) sustainable business models.

In the Greater Stockholm Area, SL (Stockholm Public Transport) is responsible for public transport services for more than three million citizens. SL is transforming their ticketing system with a new, “future-proof” alternative built and managed in-house. This major digital transformation project, built on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud and using microservices, is currently being rolled out across the city. The new ticketing system is an integral part of SL’s commitment to make sure everyone who lives, works in, or visits Stockholm, “has access to well-developed, easily accessible and reliable public transport.”

While several public sector organizations launched new digital services during the pandemic, many still struggle with providing a high quality and equitable customer experience. To reduce the risk of a digital service not being received, or only being used by a limited portion of the intended population, government leaders should ask three customer experience questions before deploying new services — and consider how the cloud can help shape the answers.

Governments have similar problems and are not in competition, so using technology that others have developed and made freely available via open source to transform essential services makes sense. To make open source solutions easier to find for governments, AWS recently created an online repository: Open Government Solutions.

Recent events, from public sector cyberattacks and severe weather events to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, have revealed that many educational institutions, as well as regional and local governments, are not fully prepared to respond to these incidents. At the same time, large-scale disruptive events illustrate how important it is for public sector organizations to respond rapidly to keep essential services running as well as quickly pivot to offer new services. In an IDC survey of 2,000 U.S. residents in September 2020, 31% said they would like to continue virtual government services as a replacement for in-person interactions, while another IDC survey of U.S. teachers revealed that 38% expect a growth in hybrid or remote learning to be a lasting change.

Cities and towns are the original networks. For thousands of years, municipalities have linked to other nearby settlements and, through them, the rest of the world. Now, it’s time to use technology to transform our cities and improve standards of life in our communities. Learn how the cloud can help.

Looking at information security as an enabler for change, not a blocker, was the mind shift that contributed to digital transformation in UK government. The UK modernization of data classification concepts and processes enabled more responsive public services, as well as massive savings (£1.7bn in 2014 alone). From 2012 through 2015, the authors of this blog worked together in the Cabinet Office in the UK to reform a decades-old information security policy. This effort helped unlock widespread cloud adoption in the UK public sector and the advantages that come with it.

COVID-19 accelerated a number of rapid changes in higher education. Technology helped with continuity of education, and chief information officers (CIOs) had to overcome a number of challenges to achieve this. Amazon Web Services (AWS) and ucisa, the member-led professional body for digital practitioners in education in the United Kingdom (UK), brought together CIOs from across the UK and Europe to share and discuss their recent experiences and share lessons learned. Learn their recommendations.

With AWS Cloud-based solutions, Keele University in England is now able to meet students’ and prospective students’ admissions needs virtually. Prospective students from around the globe can now tour campus remotely, and students going through the confirmation and Clearing process (a period where UK universities accept students and fill remaining seats in their incoming class if a student has not matched with their preferred institution) have a more streamlined, efficient experience. To kick-start the university-wide digital transformation, the team decided to start with an immediate need: the admissions process.

Today, the government of Portugal and AWS announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The agreement will help accelerate adoption of cloud computing in the public sector and contribute to the national Digital Transition Strategy of Portugal. Driven by the signing of the agreement, AWS launched Mais Digital Powered by AWS, an initiative that aggregates all of the activities AWS is undertaking in Portugal, to support the country’s digital transition.