A GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY THOUGHT LEADERSHIP PAPER

How Government Agencies Can Reduce Complexity and Risk

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Secure Workforce Modernization

Modern workforce solutions can also make it easier to introduce new capabilities and adapt as technology, workforce and constituent needs evolve.

Security and Compliance

Agencies manage sensitive employee information and critical workforce processes, making security an essential consideration throughout the technology lifecycle. They need secure solutions that can adapt as require- ments change.

“Some of the old platforms simply are not capable of high-grade security,” says Bob Benstead, director of public sector and utilities at Infor.1

Frameworks such as the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) and GovRAMP can help agencies assess the security of cloud solutions.

GovRAMP provides a framework designed for state and local governments to evaluate and continuously monitor the security posture of cloud providers and other third- party technologies. This helps establish more consistent criteria for assessing cloud solutions.

Solutions should support appropriate safeguards for work- force data, identity and access management, monitoring, and threat detection while helping agencies address relevant regulatory and compliance obligations.

State and local agencies can’t modernize workforce operations around disconnected

technology. Fragmented legacy systems make it difficult to manage critical functions such as HR, payroll, scheduling, time management and employee access.

With a unified cloud environment, agencies can move beyond antiquated processes and give employees more secure, efficient and consistent access to the tools and information they need.

Fragmented Workforce Environments

Legacy workforce systems are often decentralized, disconnected and difficult to integrate, leaving agencies without a unified view of workforce-related data.

As a result, employees spend valuable time searching for information, reconciling conflicting records or moving between applications to complete routine tasks.

Administrators may also have difficulty maintaining a consistent view of employees, roles and access across the organization.

Siloed environments can create security challenges as well. Each may require separate monitoring tools, access controls, policies and response processes, increasing the potential for inconsistent configurations and gaps in visibility.

Creating a Unified View

To operate efficiently and provide consistent service, agencies need a consolidated workforce environment fueled by accurate information.

Modern cloud-based workforce solutions can provide a foundation for this connected approach. By bringing HR, payroll, scheduling, time management and related workflows together in a more integrated environment, agencies can improve information sharing across departments while establishing more standardized processes and controls.

A unified environment can also reduce the administrative burden associated with maintaining multiple systems and reconciling workforce information across them. With better visibility into employee and operational data, agencies can identify inefficiencies and better align limited resources with priorities.

“Cloud has made us more efficient and more effective because as there are more processing pressures on systems and more people using it, there is agile scalability to meet that demand.” — Scott Smith, Chief Deputy Controller, the state of Idaho

capitalizing on leading industry experts to protect our financials, budgets, HR and time management all in the same environment.”

Idaho replaced that fragmented environment with Infor’s enterprise resource planning solution deployed in AWS GovCloud. The FedRAMP-compliant solution supports financials, procurement, human capital management, payroll and workforce management in a unified environ- ment while meeting security requirements.

“Modernization enables us to move Idaho forward with clarity, stewardship and transparency,” Smith says.

By deploying the new system, Idaho reduced silos and strengthened security without interrupting service delivery or adding complexity. One unified system was able to replace more than 75 software programs used across different agencies, simplifying operations from supply management to payroll.

State employees now have a streamlined way to interact with workforce services. They can use a digital career center to access training and other information on their phones.

“Modernization for us is trying not to treat security and compliance and workforce modernization as competing priorities,” Smith says.

Conclusion

Workforce modernization enables agencies to rethink how employees interact with the systems that support them. Idaho’s experience shows what’s possible when agencies connect HR, payroll, time management and other critical operations while strengthening security and reducing silos.

With the right technology, data strategy, user support and security framework, agencies can build a workforce environment ready for future innovation.

Best Practices for Modernization

Start with the data. Before migrating workforce information, agencies should identify duplicate entries, incomplete records and outdated processes to avoid carrying existing problems into a new system. Clean, well-governed data creates a stronger foundation for analytics, automation and AI.

Prioritize user adoption. A thoughtful change manage- ment strategy can increase adoption and help employees take advantage of new capabilities and more efficient workflows.

Agencies should engage users throughout the modernization process and communicate how changes will affect everyday tasks. Giving employees opportunities to provide feedback can help identify challenges. Providing training and continuing learning opportunities is also important.

“You can do all this work to implement a system, and if it’s not something your end users can understand how to use, none of that work will bring value to the organization,” says Brianna Zink, senior director of product strategy, workforce management and services industry at Infor.

Find an experienced partner. Workforce modernization initiatives can involve complex decisions about migration, integration, security, data and change management. A partner with experience in public sector environments can help agencies anticipate potential obstacles, establish a realistic roadmap and apply lessons learned from similar projects.

Secure Transformation in Idaho

For the state of Idaho, moving to a unified cloud envi- ronment provided an opportunity to put many of these workforce modernization principles into practice.

Before modernizing, the state’s financial and HR systems were 30 years old and still being used by 20,000 employees and twice as many vendor users.² Its aging, unsupported systems created security risks, while dozens of siloed environments made it difficult to maintain consistent security practices across agencies.

“Eighty or more agencies were operating 40 to 50 different unique siloed structures, and each one was trying to maintain their own security standards,” says Scott Smith, chief deputy controller for the state of Idaho. “We realized we needed to transition to a cloud-based system

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Sponsored by Infor

Infor is a global leader in business cloud software products for companies in industry specific markets. Infor builds complete industry suites in the cloud and efficiently deploys technology that puts the user experience first, leverages data science, and integrates easily into existing systems. Over 67,000 organizations worldwide rely on Infor to help overcome market disruptions and achieve business-wide digital transformation.

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1. All direct quotes come from webinars.govtech.com/Advancing-Workforce-Management-and-Security-Resilience-with-FedRAMP-and-StateRAMP-144634.html 2. infor.com/customer-stories/state-of-idaho-deploys-first-erp-with-infor

This piece was written and produced by the Government Technology Content Studio, with information and input from Infor.

Produced by Government Technology

Government Technology is about solving problems in state and local government through the smart use of technology. Government Technology is a division of e.Republic, the nation’s only media and research company focused exclusively on state and local government and education.

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https://www.infor.com/ https://webinars.govtech.com/Advancing-Workforce-Management-and-Security-Resilience-with-FedRAMP-and-StateRAMP-144634.html https://www.infor.com/customer-stories/state-of-idaho-deploys-first-erp-with-infor