Building Momentum for Open Innovation

TOM KALIL AND JENN GUSTETIC | 131 views

Looking back on the past few weeks of celebrating open innovation across the Federal government.President Obama issued an updated version of the Strategy for American Innovation. A key element of this strategy is a using open innovation and public participation to improve America’s economic growth and international competitiveness.

Spotlight

State of Missouri- Office of Administration

The Office of Administration combines and coordinates the central management functions of state government. OA provides services for state agencies and serves as the state’s administrative office. The Commissioner serves as Chief Executive with oversight of the seven divisions: Accounting; Budget and Planning; Facilities Management, Design and Construction; General Services; Information Technology Services; Personnel; and Purchasing. As of July 1, 2014, programs assigned to the Commissioner’s Office include the Office of Equal Opportunity, Children’s Trust Fund, Governor’s Council on Disability, Human Resources, and the Administrative Hearing Commission.

OTHER ARTICLES

How Can State and Local Agencies Better Collaborate on Cybersecurity?

Article | May 27, 2021

Some state governments, such as Massachusetts, have established formal plans to work with localities within their states on cybersecurity. However, as ransomware attacks proliferate across the country and strike big cities and small towns alike, state-level organizations say there needs to be greater IT security coordination between states and municipalities. Last month, the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Chief Information Officers released a report, “Stronger Together: State and Local Cybersecurity Collaboration,” designed to showcase best practices for such collaboration.

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GOVERNMENT BUSINESS, GOVERNMENT FINANCE

Bill Offers $400M for State, Local Government Cybersecurity

Article | July 12, 2022

With state and local governments beset by a precipitous rise in cyberattacks, new federal legislation might provide some necessary cover where needed. The State and Local Cybersecurity Improvement Act would create a grant program worth $400 million to finance cybersecurity efforts in communities across the country, according to a release. Eligible communities would be able to apply for funds, provided through the Department of Homeland Security, which would be allocated to assist in areas like vulnerability scanning and testing, cyberworkforce development and intelligence sharing, according to the bill text.

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GOVERNMENT BUSINESS

U.S. Air Force and Microsoft partner to empower airmen with modern IT

Article | July 11, 2022

The U.S. Air Force is breaking the glass as a leader in harnessing the power of cloud, rapidly rolling out modern services to enable airmen to advance the mission through more effective collaboration. As part of their digital transformation journey to achieve global access, persistence, and awareness for the 21st century, the U.S. Air Force is deploying targeted workloads that allow airmen to focus on their missions rather than spending time managing IT infrastructure.

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How 3 U.S. government agencies use Smartsheet to achieve their missions

Article | February 10, 2020

Federal government agencies use Smartsheet Gov, a work execution platform designed especially for government agencies, to make work processes more speedy and effective, empower their workers to have higher visibility into information and metrics, and ultimately achieve more. Federal agencies are looking for ways to drive efficiencies, break down silos, reduce costs, and ultimately to achieve their missions. Read on to learn from three organizations about how the Smartsheet Gov platform helps them manage information, projects, programs, and processes.

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Spotlight

State of Missouri- Office of Administration

The Office of Administration combines and coordinates the central management functions of state government. OA provides services for state agencies and serves as the state’s administrative office. The Commissioner serves as Chief Executive with oversight of the seven divisions: Accounting; Budget and Planning; Facilities Management, Design and Construction; General Services; Information Technology Services; Personnel; and Purchasing. As of July 1, 2014, programs assigned to the Commissioner’s Office include the Office of Equal Opportunity, Children’s Trust Fund, Governor’s Council on Disability, Human Resources, and the Administrative Hearing Commission.

Related News

CYBERSECURITY

MSPAlliance Launches Initiative to Solve MSP Cybersecurity Talent Crisis

MSPAlliance | March 23, 2022

In conjunction with MSPWorld 2022, the International Association of Cloud & Managed Service Providers (MSPAlliance) announced a new program designed to address the cybersecurity talent shortage facing the managed services profession. Featuring a partnership with Boise State University and Stellar Cyber, the program has an overall goal of creating Managed Service Provider (MSP)-specific business, technical, and cybersecurity training, along with job placement tools. The program will be launched in the coming months and will begin producing viable MSP security candidates for hire within the year. This program will leverage existing cyber and general educational capabilities of organizations such as Boise State, combined with cybersecurity-specific training of students on actual technology tools used by MSPs, such as Stellar Cyber's Open XDR platform. Further, MSPAlliance will be contributing MSP-specific business and operational content to make the students highly attractive to MSPs looking to fill positions. We have known for a long time that MSPs were facing difficulty in identifying, hiring, and training employees who had necessary skills. Through this partnership with Stellar Cyber and Boise State, we are taking the first steps to solving this problem and bringing much-needed help to the MSP profession." Celia Weaver, president and co-founder of MSPAlliance While many cybersecurity training programs do exist, they fall short of the specific needs of the global MSP profession in several areas. First, the candidates graduating from a vast number of traditional computer science programs are not being trained on current technologies used by MSPs. Second, the graduates do not possess the specific knowledge necessary to make them relevant to MSPs. Third, the graduates do not have relevant work experience, also needed to improve their utility to the MSP profession. This program will address all three of these issues. Boise State, a leader in cybersecurity education, will accelerate real-world training for new students as well as MSP analysts who want to upgrade their skillsets to offer Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) services. Boise State's new Cyberdome leverages Stellar Cyber's Open XDR platform in the University's in-house MSSP service, which provides enterprise-class security to rural schools and communities throughout Idaho while significantly enhancing students' cybersecurity skills in a real-world environment. "At Boise State, we built this program to become a competency hub for new students as well as working analysts looking to broaden their skills to work effectively in a cybersecurity provider environment," said Edward Vasko, CISSP and director of the Boise State Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity. "With this announcement, the MSP industry now has a partner inside the education community that believes in the mission we're trying to accomplish." "We are excited to help solve one of cybersecurity's biggest business problems—talent shortage," said Mark Porter, President and CEO at High Wire Networks, a Stellar Cyber Master MSSP Partner. "With our human capital management expertise and SOC services, we can help build a pipeline of security analysts who will help the MSP community reach their customers more effectively and efficiently." Stellar Cyber's Open XDR platform provides the cybersecurity technology that underpins the Cyberdome program. Thanks to its ease-of-use and comprehensive, "everything detection and response" functionality and AI-driven analytics, the platform quickly prepares Boise State students for careers in cybersecurity. "This is great news for MSPs who want to add security services to their offerings but can't find any analysts to deliver it," said Brian Stoner, vice president of MSSP at Stellar Cyber. "Our Open XDR platform is ideal for MSPs who want to capitalize on the hot market for cybersecurity services, and Boise State's Cyberdome program has the potential of enabling security analysts to meet our industry partner demand." About MSPAlliance MSPAlliance is a global industry association and accrediting body for the Cyber Security, Cloud Computing, and Managed Services Provider (MSP) industry. Established in 2000 to help MSPs become better MSPs. Today, MSPAlliance works with cloud computing and managed service provider corporate members worldwide in a collaborative effort to assist its members, along with foreign and domestic governments, on creating standards, setting policies, and establishing best practices. About Boise State University's Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity Boise State University's Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity is a leader of innovative cybersecurity research and advancement in Idaho and the region. The Institute welcomes and facilitates strategic partnerships with industry, higher education, business, and government to improve cybersecurity for Idaho and the nation. The Institute also works to commercialize ground-breaking research and tools, and educate graduates to become the change-makers and forward-thinkers of the 21st century. About Stellar Cyber The Stellar Cyber Open XDR platform delivers Everything Detection and Response by ingesting data from all tools, automatically correlating alerts into incidents across the entire attack surface, delivering fewer and higher-fidelity incidents, and responding to threats automatically through AI and machine learning. The Stellar Cyber XDR Kill Chain, fully compatible with the MITRE ATT&CK framework, is designed to characterize every aspect of modern attacks while remaining intuitive to understand. This reduces enterprise risk through early and precise identification and remediation of all attack activities while slashing costs, retaining investments in existing tools and accelerating analyst productivity. Typically, Stellar Cyber delivers an 8x improvement in MTTD and a 20x improvement in MTTR. The company is based in Silicon Valley.

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GOVERNMENT BUSINESS

OpenGov Launches "OpenGov Across America" Campaign In Support of Local Government Leaders and Public Service

OpenGov | August 25, 2021

OpenGov has launched the "OpenGov Across America" campaign in support of local government leaders to thank them for shouldering the burden of keeping their communities safe and governments open for business throughout the pandemic. As part of this campaign, OpenGov CEO Zac Bookman has set out on a nearly 4,000-mile cross-country bike tour to meet with and hear directly from town, city, and county leaders about how their governments have evolved to address the urgent needs of their communities in the pandemic. In conjunction with this ride, OpenGov has committed to supporting the mission of the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute For American Democracy to increase awareness of the importance of civic engagement, civics education, and civil discourse. Together, they will raise funds to help educate future civic leaders and enable a more informed and engaged citizenry. "I'm excited to embark on this amazing adventure to highlight the local government visionaries who have devoted their lives to serving American communities," said OpenGov CEO Zac Bookman. "In support of that mission, OpenGov is proud to team up with the O'Connor Institute to champion the next generation of public servants and educate residents about the importance of civic engagement." "The Institute is gratified that OpenGov recognizes the importance of public service and leadership," said Institute CEO Sarah Suggs. "We appreciate this tremendous effort by Zac Bookman in civic engagement and philanthropy." As OpenGov looks to shed light on the importance of local leadership, government leaders and public-sector allies are encouraged to post photos and videos of themselves thanking someone in the public sector or sharing how they got into public service on LinkedIn or Twitter with #OpenGovAcrossAmerica and #GovLove, for an opportunity to be featured on OpenGov's social channels. About OpenGov OpenGov is the leader in modern cloud ERP software for our nation's cities, counties and state agencies. On a mission to power more effective and accountable government, OpenGov serves more than 1,000 agencies across the U.S. Built exclusively for the unique budgeting, financial management and citizen services needs of the public sector, the OpenGov ERP Cloud makes organizations more collaborative, digitizes mission-critical processes and enables best-in-class communication with stakeholders. About the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute For American Democracy Founded by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the O'Connor Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3), continues her distinguished legacy and lifetime work to advance American democracy through multigenerational civics education, civil discourse and civic engagement.

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GOVERNMENT BUSINESS

OpenGov Acquires ProcureNow the Leading Government Procurement Software

OpenGov | June 24, 2021

OpenGov, the market leader in modern cloud ERP software for our nation's cities, counties, and state agencies, today announced the acquisition of ProcureNow, the industry's fastest-growing, top multi-tenant SaaS software provider for government procurement and contract management. ProcureNow, like OpenGov, allows government leaders to serve stakeholders with the most effective solutions intended to simplify critical processes, enable data-driven choices, and openly communicate outcomes. OpenGov, in collaboration with ProcureNow's full lifecycle procurement management software, which includes powerful solicitation and contract development automation, continues to power governments' most strategic processes: budgeting and planning, citizen services, financial management, reporting and transparency, and, now, procurement – all in the cloud. Procurement significantly impacts a government's ability to meet strategic objectives such as budget accountability, spend control, supplier diversity, economic growth, and citizen experience. It is becoming more critical in allowing remote work and investments related to the American Rescue Plan Act and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. By incorporating this necessary solution into the OpenGov ERP Cloud, the merged company is better positioned to fulfill the modernization requirements of the nation's most forward-thinking administrators, finance, and community development professionals. About OpenGov OpenGov is the market leader in delivering modern cloud software to our nation's state and local governments to enable more effective and accountable governance. OpenGov solutions, designed specifically for the public sector's unique budgeting, financial, and community development requirements, assist our more than 1,000 clients in planning effectively, increasing efficiency, and improving participation through better collaboration and transparency. About ProcureNow ProcureNow, based in San Francisco, is a recognized small business to transform efficiency and innovation in local government by providing a complete toolkit for creating and sourcing government RFPs and bids. ProcureNow's Government Procurement Automation Cloud connects governments and local businesses through technology that enables more suppliers to confidently read, understand, and react to complicated government bids.

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CYBERSECURITY

MSPAlliance Launches Initiative to Solve MSP Cybersecurity Talent Crisis

MSPAlliance | March 23, 2022

In conjunction with MSPWorld 2022, the International Association of Cloud & Managed Service Providers (MSPAlliance) announced a new program designed to address the cybersecurity talent shortage facing the managed services profession. Featuring a partnership with Boise State University and Stellar Cyber, the program has an overall goal of creating Managed Service Provider (MSP)-specific business, technical, and cybersecurity training, along with job placement tools. The program will be launched in the coming months and will begin producing viable MSP security candidates for hire within the year. This program will leverage existing cyber and general educational capabilities of organizations such as Boise State, combined with cybersecurity-specific training of students on actual technology tools used by MSPs, such as Stellar Cyber's Open XDR platform. Further, MSPAlliance will be contributing MSP-specific business and operational content to make the students highly attractive to MSPs looking to fill positions. We have known for a long time that MSPs were facing difficulty in identifying, hiring, and training employees who had necessary skills. Through this partnership with Stellar Cyber and Boise State, we are taking the first steps to solving this problem and bringing much-needed help to the MSP profession." Celia Weaver, president and co-founder of MSPAlliance While many cybersecurity training programs do exist, they fall short of the specific needs of the global MSP profession in several areas. First, the candidates graduating from a vast number of traditional computer science programs are not being trained on current technologies used by MSPs. Second, the graduates do not possess the specific knowledge necessary to make them relevant to MSPs. Third, the graduates do not have relevant work experience, also needed to improve their utility to the MSP profession. This program will address all three of these issues. Boise State, a leader in cybersecurity education, will accelerate real-world training for new students as well as MSP analysts who want to upgrade their skillsets to offer Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) services. Boise State's new Cyberdome leverages Stellar Cyber's Open XDR platform in the University's in-house MSSP service, which provides enterprise-class security to rural schools and communities throughout Idaho while significantly enhancing students' cybersecurity skills in a real-world environment. "At Boise State, we built this program to become a competency hub for new students as well as working analysts looking to broaden their skills to work effectively in a cybersecurity provider environment," said Edward Vasko, CISSP and director of the Boise State Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity. "With this announcement, the MSP industry now has a partner inside the education community that believes in the mission we're trying to accomplish." "We are excited to help solve one of cybersecurity's biggest business problems—talent shortage," said Mark Porter, President and CEO at High Wire Networks, a Stellar Cyber Master MSSP Partner. "With our human capital management expertise and SOC services, we can help build a pipeline of security analysts who will help the MSP community reach their customers more effectively and efficiently." Stellar Cyber's Open XDR platform provides the cybersecurity technology that underpins the Cyberdome program. Thanks to its ease-of-use and comprehensive, "everything detection and response" functionality and AI-driven analytics, the platform quickly prepares Boise State students for careers in cybersecurity. "This is great news for MSPs who want to add security services to their offerings but can't find any analysts to deliver it," said Brian Stoner, vice president of MSSP at Stellar Cyber. "Our Open XDR platform is ideal for MSPs who want to capitalize on the hot market for cybersecurity services, and Boise State's Cyberdome program has the potential of enabling security analysts to meet our industry partner demand." About MSPAlliance MSPAlliance is a global industry association and accrediting body for the Cyber Security, Cloud Computing, and Managed Services Provider (MSP) industry. Established in 2000 to help MSPs become better MSPs. Today, MSPAlliance works with cloud computing and managed service provider corporate members worldwide in a collaborative effort to assist its members, along with foreign and domestic governments, on creating standards, setting policies, and establishing best practices. About Boise State University's Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity Boise State University's Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity is a leader of innovative cybersecurity research and advancement in Idaho and the region. The Institute welcomes and facilitates strategic partnerships with industry, higher education, business, and government to improve cybersecurity for Idaho and the nation. The Institute also works to commercialize ground-breaking research and tools, and educate graduates to become the change-makers and forward-thinkers of the 21st century. About Stellar Cyber The Stellar Cyber Open XDR platform delivers Everything Detection and Response by ingesting data from all tools, automatically correlating alerts into incidents across the entire attack surface, delivering fewer and higher-fidelity incidents, and responding to threats automatically through AI and machine learning. The Stellar Cyber XDR Kill Chain, fully compatible with the MITRE ATT&CK framework, is designed to characterize every aspect of modern attacks while remaining intuitive to understand. This reduces enterprise risk through early and precise identification and remediation of all attack activities while slashing costs, retaining investments in existing tools and accelerating analyst productivity. Typically, Stellar Cyber delivers an 8x improvement in MTTD and a 20x improvement in MTTR. The company is based in Silicon Valley.

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GOVERNMENT BUSINESS

OpenGov Launches "OpenGov Across America" Campaign In Support of Local Government Leaders and Public Service

OpenGov | August 25, 2021

OpenGov has launched the "OpenGov Across America" campaign in support of local government leaders to thank them for shouldering the burden of keeping their communities safe and governments open for business throughout the pandemic. As part of this campaign, OpenGov CEO Zac Bookman has set out on a nearly 4,000-mile cross-country bike tour to meet with and hear directly from town, city, and county leaders about how their governments have evolved to address the urgent needs of their communities in the pandemic. In conjunction with this ride, OpenGov has committed to supporting the mission of the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute For American Democracy to increase awareness of the importance of civic engagement, civics education, and civil discourse. Together, they will raise funds to help educate future civic leaders and enable a more informed and engaged citizenry. "I'm excited to embark on this amazing adventure to highlight the local government visionaries who have devoted their lives to serving American communities," said OpenGov CEO Zac Bookman. "In support of that mission, OpenGov is proud to team up with the O'Connor Institute to champion the next generation of public servants and educate residents about the importance of civic engagement." "The Institute is gratified that OpenGov recognizes the importance of public service and leadership," said Institute CEO Sarah Suggs. "We appreciate this tremendous effort by Zac Bookman in civic engagement and philanthropy." As OpenGov looks to shed light on the importance of local leadership, government leaders and public-sector allies are encouraged to post photos and videos of themselves thanking someone in the public sector or sharing how they got into public service on LinkedIn or Twitter with #OpenGovAcrossAmerica and #GovLove, for an opportunity to be featured on OpenGov's social channels. About OpenGov OpenGov is the leader in modern cloud ERP software for our nation's cities, counties and state agencies. On a mission to power more effective and accountable government, OpenGov serves more than 1,000 agencies across the U.S. Built exclusively for the unique budgeting, financial management and citizen services needs of the public sector, the OpenGov ERP Cloud makes organizations more collaborative, digitizes mission-critical processes and enables best-in-class communication with stakeholders. About the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute For American Democracy Founded by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the O'Connor Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3), continues her distinguished legacy and lifetime work to advance American democracy through multigenerational civics education, civil discourse and civic engagement.

Read More

GOVERNMENT BUSINESS

OpenGov Acquires ProcureNow the Leading Government Procurement Software

OpenGov | June 24, 2021

OpenGov, the market leader in modern cloud ERP software for our nation's cities, counties, and state agencies, today announced the acquisition of ProcureNow, the industry's fastest-growing, top multi-tenant SaaS software provider for government procurement and contract management. ProcureNow, like OpenGov, allows government leaders to serve stakeholders with the most effective solutions intended to simplify critical processes, enable data-driven choices, and openly communicate outcomes. OpenGov, in collaboration with ProcureNow's full lifecycle procurement management software, which includes powerful solicitation and contract development automation, continues to power governments' most strategic processes: budgeting and planning, citizen services, financial management, reporting and transparency, and, now, procurement – all in the cloud. Procurement significantly impacts a government's ability to meet strategic objectives such as budget accountability, spend control, supplier diversity, economic growth, and citizen experience. It is becoming more critical in allowing remote work and investments related to the American Rescue Plan Act and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. By incorporating this necessary solution into the OpenGov ERP Cloud, the merged company is better positioned to fulfill the modernization requirements of the nation's most forward-thinking administrators, finance, and community development professionals. About OpenGov OpenGov is the market leader in delivering modern cloud software to our nation's state and local governments to enable more effective and accountable governance. OpenGov solutions, designed specifically for the public sector's unique budgeting, financial, and community development requirements, assist our more than 1,000 clients in planning effectively, increasing efficiency, and improving participation through better collaboration and transparency. About ProcureNow ProcureNow, based in San Francisco, is a recognized small business to transform efficiency and innovation in local government by providing a complete toolkit for creating and sourcing government RFPs and bids. ProcureNow's Government Procurement Automation Cloud connects governments and local businesses through technology that enables more suppliers to confidently read, understand, and react to complicated government bids.

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