Propelling Innovations in Public Sector

It seems like every time I pick up a government trade magazine or jump online, the public sector is getting bashed for its lack of innovation, customer service and agility in some way, shape or form.  But you wouldn’t think that if you attended our packed public sector roundtable at PegaWORLD 2011 in Orlando, last week.

There, we heard one remarkable story after another from government leaders who are leveraging Pega technology to innovate and provide improved citizen service.  It was gratifying to see the level of enthusiasm generated from the panel around how Pega has enabled their organizations to take a more pragmatic approach.  Gone are the days where it’s acceptable to thumb your noses at technology.  Fed CIO Vivek Kundra has made that much clear. And those agencies implementing Pega technology can attest to that.  While there are many successes to speak of, here’s a few that were highlighted:

• A major government tax collection agency has implemented Pega BPM, wherein 25,000-plus employees are part of an intense effort to improve citizen satisfaction and significantly improve tax yield.
• A brand new, multi-billion dollar entitlement program successfully leveraged Pega technology to launch a program from the signing of the law to benefits processing in 14 weeks.  You can hear more about this remarkable success story in a webinar taking place June 23.
• A large government agency focused on agriculture used Pega technology, including our rich case management capabilities, to significantly improve its ability to curb livestock disease outbreaks. This also has improved satisfaction among citizens. This organization received a prestigious PegaWORLD award for this, standing out among an impressive field of approximately 1,600 attendees.

At PegaWORLD, I had the privilege of moderating the panel session with several seasoned government IT leaders.  Pegasystems is focused on creating more agile government organizations by partnering with innovative government leaders from US federal, state/local and international agencies.  It was remarkable how similar the challenges were across each of the organizations and the high level of innovation that exists today in government. One point mentioned consistently throughout the session was that keeping up with accelerated legislative and policy changes is critically important for agencies to effectively deliver the intended programs and policies.

Adding to the success of the event, twice the amount of Public Sector attendees came to this year’s PegaWORLD, versus last year. I’m confident next PegaWORLD’s event will see even more growth - and more success stories will undoubtedly be on display.  It’s only a matter of time until some government agencies break free from the stereotypes.