Collaboration is fundamentally changing the business of government. Collaboration applications are enabling programs like telework, connected justice and telemedicine to make resources more accessible and enhance the citizen experience. Tools such as video conferencing, telepresence and unified communications are also enabling government employees to connect with constituents, colleagues and vendors more efficiently and with greater clarity to streamline operations, reduce costs and increase performance. The more pervasive these applications become, the greater the value they hold to the agency and the people they serve.
Cloud computing is critical in supporting and accelerating this kind of hosted collaboration. Cloud technologies enable the delivery of collaboration services in an “as-a-service” model, making advanced collaboration capabilities accessible to government agencies while minimizing the need for upfront investment and building deep expertise in these technologies. Organizations are now able to take advantage of voice, video and mobility applications, which can provide new learning opportunities.
Cloud collaboration with a hosted collaboration solution (HCS) delivers the advantages of collaboration technology, with the financial, operational and strategic benefits associated with cloud services. Agencies can benefit from the enhanced collaboration tools without the investment in infrastructure.
By accessing collaboration services through the cloud, government organizations can provide collaboration solutions to entire workforces, regardless of their physical location. HCS provides cloud-based unified communications and collaboration applications within a highly secure, cloud-ready, virtualized platform under a centralized management system. This model of delivering collaboration services enables government IT organizations to mitigate technology risk while reducing the upfront investment, in turn allowing for a fixed monthly cost, shifting from a capital expenses (CapEx) to an operating expenses (OpEx) funding model. The result is that government organizations at all levels can reap the benefits of new collaboration technology while maintaining fiscal responsibility.
Collaboration benefits government organizations across all levels of the workforce, from employees to leadership to IT. Cloud-based collaboration tools empower government employees to access applications securely from virtually any location, making bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework a more viable option for employees, as these tools provide users secure access to people, data and applications from the device of their choice. For government leadership, collaboration technology helps attract and retain talent and increase job satisfaction by providing collaboration tools that create flexible work environments, maximizes operational effectiveness by delivering the best results at the best cost and supports increased efficiency across teams. For government IT teams, cloud-hosted collaboration tools increase IT agility through standardized and consolidated services and management, optimize resources and capital for more efficient resource management and enable flexible deployment of collaboration tools.
By taking full advantage of the power of a hosted solution, government agencies can easily and cost effectively implement new technology while managing the costs with a fixed monthly fee.
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