Enabling the future of cities: four examples of cloud computing
Last week, over 3,000 state and local government officials converged on Austin, Texas, for the National League of Cities 90th Congress of Cities and Exposition. This year’s theme, “The Future of Cities,” showcased the innovative ways cities across the United States, regardless of size, are embracing technology to accelerate innovation. Some of the biggest trends in government today, including mobile workforces, social technologies to better serve citizens, and the use of advanced analytics to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of government programs, are all made possible by an important technology – cloud computing.
With hundreds of partners in the U.S. developing city-focused solutions ranging from human services to public safety and all forms of government administration, our Microsoft CityNext customers are changing the way they serve citizens and businesses and manage their operations and infrastructure.
Earlier this summer, Microsoft announced an expanded preview of the Microsoft Azure Government cloud, a government-only cloud computing platform for customer and partner solutions. We created this cloud in part because of our commitment to support the specific security and privacy controls and documentation requirements of our government customers. Notable partner examples shared during the National League of Cities congress include:
Health Exposure Assessment Tracking Solution by ADX Studios and Simi Group
The Health Exposure Assessment Tracking (H.E.A.T) Solution assists in the management of potential Ebola exposures with tools for quarantine monitoring. The solution is based on CDC compliant forms for the collection and tracking of travel history, related exposure, healthcare worker specific questions, and related daily health reporting. The solution is flexible to adjust workflows and notifications, and allows for self-reporting of symptoms and temperature. Notifications are configurable and can include non-compliance by exposed persons with daily health reporting, or reminders to check on a person’s status for follow-up assessments. The solution, designed by partners ADX Studios and Simi Group, can be extended to support all Influenza-Like Illness, MERS, Avian Flu, Enterovirus D86, and other Public Health Surveillance, Field Monitoring, Assessments, and Contact Tracing.
SmartCity Solution by Adventos™
SmartCity by Adventos™ is a cloud-based intranet software solution designed specifically for cities and government municipalities to drive greater employee productivity, decrease information technology operation and storage costs, improve collaboration, and provide mobility. SmartCity helps employees find and manage information and provides a dashboard of analytics to keep them informed and working more efficiently. Company research has shown an additional 2 hours of productive work-time per employee per week. Since many cities are faced with increasing workloads without the budget to increase headcount, as well as escalating IT storage costs, SmartCity with its cloud-based platform is a great solution for City Managers and City CIO’s.
Town Hall by AvePoint
Innovative city leaders are finding new ways to communicate and interact with citizens, moving away for typically one-sided conversations to more dynamic interactions that embrace new media and social networking capabilities. With AvePoint Town Hall, local governments can provide consistent engagement and communication with all constituents. The solution allows city leaders to: gain insight into citizen sentiment; broaden their reach and overcome traditional barriers such as time and location of meetings; and keep citizens informed by making recorded meetings, as well as actions and decisions, public. Visit the City of Newton website to see how Mayor Warren is leading innovation in his city.
Federal Transit Reporting by Transit Labs
A combination of economic and political factors has made the collection of accurate data an extremely important priority in the area of transportation. The deteriorating nature of the nation’s transportation infrastructure is a challenge in many cities. To begin addressing this need, Congress required that Federal Transit Agency start collecting transportation agency asset condition data as of FY 2014 – not an easy task for many city transit agencies.
Transit Labs is a data analytics company focused on public transportation. The organization’s TAP solution, which provides performance metrics, data visualization, and Federal reporting services, has been used by 15 urban transit systems and over 100 rural transit agencies to report to the Federal Transit Agency. The Software as a Service (SAAS) model allows transit agencies to meet their federal reporting requirements in a cost-efficient and effective manner, ensuring compliance.
These are just a few of the innovative solutions being developed by our Microsoft CityNext partners. To learn more about how Microsoft and our partners are helping cities accelerate innovation, please visit SLG.TV and Microsoft CityNext.
Jeff Friedman
Director of eGovernment Business Development, State and Local Government Solutions Group
