One of the best ways to reduce your IT costs and increase efficiency across the board at your agency is to standardize your IT systems and processes. Essentially, this means that your hardware and software will be uniform across the board. This process can involve centralization, replacing haphazard and inconsistent tech with new models that are all the same brand, and even creating standard processes for use of this new tech. No matter what size your agency is, these steps can help you improve the quality of service you can provide to your constituents.
Here’s how:
Ease of Use
With the rapid advance of technology, your agency may have fallen behind in some areas, while moving forward in others. While updating your tech whenever you can is great, with the current rate of growth in technology some of your systems may be far ahead of others. This can lead to some programs that may not work easily together, hardware from one decade running programs from the next—or vice versa—and other technological setups that may be difficult and slow to use. With standardization, you’ll consolidate all those different systems and programs into a format that’s user friendly and cuts down the time your staff have to spend finding creative workarounds for disparate tech.
Improve Communication
If a third of your tech doesn’t talk to the rest of your systems, and another third is still operating entirely on paper, you have a problem. It can be nearly impossible for your staff to operate if they’re working with different types of technology, or a lack thereof. When you standardize your IT systems, however, you’ll find that your team is able to communicate far more easily with one another, as information will be passed back and forth in the same way for everyone. Plus, your team won’t have to spend time hunting down mystery malfunctions caused by having incompatible technology—and that’s more time they can spend serving your community.
Increase Stability
By building the fundamental structure of your agency’s tech on up-to-date hardware and software that’s standardized across the board, you’ll ensure that your staff has reliable tools and resources all the time. Especially during emergencies, it is imperative that your team is able to work quickly and process information without worrying about important information falling through the cracks. When you have systems that aren’t compatible struggling to work together, the chance of information loss is high, and you can’t afford that. When you standardize your systems so that your technology is uniform across the board, you mitigate the chances of something going wrong—and increase the stability of your agency’s internal processes.
At ISF, we understand the unique challenges that state and local government agencies face when it comes to IT modernization. Even when you focus on standardization, it can be difficult to find the resources and strategies necessary to make it happen. That’s where we come in. Our team partners with yours to find solutions and make your big dreams come true. Ready to solve the future together? Contact us today.