Q: How do you see the IoE evolving in government over the next 5 to 10 years?
Hardik Bhatt: In the next 5 to 10 years cloud and mobility won’t even be a question anymore. They will be part of the day-to-day government IT of the future. The big spotlight will be on data analytics – it is emerging as one of the most impactful trends in the IoE public sector space. This goes beyond current trends such as open data and big data and will focus on the actual effective use of data.
Most state and local governments are just starting to scratch the surface of their data. They are opening up their data; citizens are using the data to build apps; and they are saving development costs by building apps in house. These apps are consolidating city data – whether it be about what time the next bus is coming or which areas have the highest crime rates – and making it accessible to all citizens with a smartphone. These are all good things, but they are just the beginning.
The next evolution will be in how governments analyze that data to improve their processes and planning, become more proactive and efficient, and better citizens’ lives. Government will increasingly rely on key performance indicators (KPIs). We have seen many cities pursue performance management, but metrics often come from databases – or the “data at rest” kind of data. In the future, analytics will be based on real-time data coming from sensors placed everywhere so governments can react to information they are gathering on the spot. These real-time analytics and sensors will create a connectedness and interdependency among the various systems of a city, including health care, corrections, utilities, public safety and transportation. They will begin to learn from and depend on the information they receive from each other, ultimately optimizing the performance of the city as a whole.
Q: What challenges should governments be preparing for in an uber-connected society?
Hardik Bhatt: As technology evolves, the IoE will continue to create a platform of connected solutions, sensors and networks built off of sometimes sensitive data and personal information. This platform is something that will always need to be secured – in fact, the security challenges that come with the IoE will only increase down the road. Security should be thought of as a process, not a tool or a solution. It is something that will need to be tackled by both government and industry working together.
Another common concern has to do with open standards. The reason the Internet is so successful is because the whole world adapted to IT and the Internet protocol, and it’s very easy to connect to any server across the globe the get the information you want. As we transition to a more IoE-centric society, open standards are going to be critical – if the various agencies and providers keep using different protocols, it’s going to be hard to create a unified system that government can easily manage and operate.
Q: How will the connectedness of the IoE continue to transform government’s ability to deliver services and interact with the public?
Hardik Bhatt: I can provide a couple examples where it will make a meaningful difference in the everyday life of a community. Take an accident between two cars on the road. In the future, with the IoE, there would be a connected vehicle and connected infrastructure. The people involved in the crash may also be wearing some kind of wearable device. On impact, the connected car can send a signal to the nearest health care provider for an ambulance in the area. It can also send information to the nearest police station and insurance provider so the insurance companies know what happened. The car, through the connected infrastructure, will make all of these calls automatically, creating a more timely emergency response to the accident and a safer environment for those involved in the crash. As the ambulance is transporting anyone with injuries, because it’s connected, it can send information to the hospital so the hospital is prepared. The EMTs may even be able to know what medications the person is allergic to due to the wearable device. It creates a connected end-to-end health care environment.
The second example is making government accessible to the public 24/7. This is already happening in certain places around the world, and parts of it have built out in a growing number of places, but imagine it fully built out on a global scale – small kiosks with video conferencing units, a document-reading camera, printers, scanners, etc., that can be found anywhere, including a shopping mall, bank, library, that let citizens access a multitude of government services or speak directly with a government official. Innovations such as these will help distribute government services across a city, removing the common government service bottleneck.
Q: What needs to change within government for communities to truly enjoy the advantages of the IoE?
Hardik Bhatt: It will be a slow transition and may take the next 5 to 10 years, but I think it would benefit governments to see themselves as part of a “global open services industry” and move in that direction. What I mean by this is, say Chicago has perfected surveillance, why would it not provide surveillance for other cities across the country or even across the globe? As Chicago keeps perfecting surveillance, why would it not become the service provider for all municipal and state governments in Illinois? It could then outsource, insource or multisource the service depending on what is needed. This automatically saves governments personnel costs, because they don’t need as many personnel overseeing different areas of IT. These employees can then be retrained in the area the municipality or state has perfected, and become the workforce for providing the services beyond the jurisdiction. If IT can become a global industry, if health care can become a global industry, then maybe governance can become a global industry. A move in this direction will make a huge impact on the efficiencies of governments.
