EMERGING TECHNOLOGY
IBM | December 08, 2022
IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced an agreement to acquire Octo, a U.S.-based IT modernization and digital transformation services provider exclusively serving the U.S. federal government, including defense, health, and civilian agencies. IBM's acquisition of Octo establishes one of the largest digital transformation partners to the federal government. Upon the close of the acquisition, Octo's approximately 1,500 employees will join IBM Consulting's U.S. public and federal market organization.
Octo will be IBM's eighth acquisition of 2022. Since Arvind Krishna became CEO of IBM in April 2020, IBM has acquired more than 25 companies, bolstering its hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Today's news builds on prior IBM Consulting acquisitions, including Dialexa, Neudesic, and Taos.
Federal government agencies face significant challenges including technology skills shortages, rebuilding of U.S. domestic supply chains and more demand for citizen services. To address these complex challenges, agencies need an industry partner to help them navigate a scalable path to IT modernization with the power to leverage emerging technologies and applications, optimize costs and operational efficiencies, and improve security. The convergence of new hybrid cloud and AI technologies enables government to deliver rapid improvements and adapt to unprecedented challenges.
The acquisition of Reston, Va.-based Octo will complement IBM's existing strengths in IT modernization and digital transformation, enhancing its ability to support federal agencies with a flexible, modern approach to digital transformation and growing IBM Consulting's public and federal market organization to 4,200 highly-skilled employees. With a proven track record of enabling rapid IT modernization and seamless citizen engagement, Octo also brings deep federal mission experience, as well as certifications in the technologies most used across the federal government.
"Governments require agility and resiliency to meet the evolving needs of citizens directly and in real time," said John Granger, Senior Vice President of IBM Consulting. "The combination of Octo's highly qualified and respected team with IBM's consulting expertise, technical capabilities and strategic partner ecosystem will enable federal clients to transform faster and better serve citizens."
Building on a shared commitment to co-creation, oLabs, Octo's 14,000 square foot innovation center with in-house computing capability, expands IBM's ability to work collaboratively with federal agencies to rapidly prototype emerging technology solutions – enabling greater impact for federal agencies and the people they serve.
"Octo was founded on the belief that digital transformation could be delivered at scale to modernize the federal government's approach to today's most pressing challenges – from public healthcare to national security, to defense and intelligence," said Mehul Sanghani, Chief Executive Officer of Octo. "Today, we are excited to join forces with IBM to continue to deliver these digital transformation capabilities with greater reach and scale."
IBM's acquisition of Octo from Arlington Capital Partners is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year and is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory clearances. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.
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EMERGING TECHNOLOGY
Healthy Together | December 14, 2022
On December 6th, the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC) awarded Healthy Together and the State of Florida's Department of Health (FDOH) with a Digital Experience Award at their 2022 GITEC Emerging Technology Award Ceremony in Washington, D.C.
The annual ceremony recognizes government initiatives that have made significant contributions in the advancement and implementation of technology innovations.
The Digital Experience Award spotlights government projects that promote exceptional citizen service experiences through the use of technology. ATARC nominates organizations that have radically improved the experience of government and pushed the boundaries to build customer-centric human connections in our digital world.
"We are incredibly proud to have our partnership with FDOH recognized by ATARC. The Digital Experience Award is a powerful validation of the impact we were able to have and our mission to improve collective health and make government more efficient. We are excited to continue to innovate and modernize resident access to government services with our technology."
-Jared Allgood, President of Healthy Together.
While awardees typically come from federal agencies, FDOH was selected because of the widespread success of its roll-out of the Healthy Together mobile platform in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other 2022 winners include NASA, the Department of Veterans Affairs, ATF, GSA, the U.S. Army and the Marine Forces Cyber Command.
About the Project:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Florida Department of Health, Division of Disease Control engaged Healthy Together and its cloud-based SaaS Disease Management Platform to support case investigators, deliver timely test results to residents, and automate case investigation processes. With a population of over 21M residents, manual processes at labs and testing providers coupled with heavy demand for testing created significant delays in the time to deliver diagnostic results. Due to the rising number of cases, FDOH sought solutions to scale the response to resident and departmental needs.
The Florida Department of Health partnered with Healthy Together to deploy a case management system and mobile application to deliver real-time test results to residents. Through the application, FDOH was able to successfully deliver over 30M diagnostic results to state residents. As part of the deployment, Healthy Together built and implemented a self-serve, digital case interview based on CDC guidelines and FDOH standards to assist in case investigation. Over 90% of self-serve case interviews were completed within 1 hour of receipt of a positive test result, a staggering 10x increase in speed to deliver services with more contacts elicited than traditional manual methods.
Data captured by the digital case interviews was fed to its auto-scaling AWS hosted case management software that automated data analysis, decreased manual processes and reduced the need for additional hiring. Over the course of the partnership, more than 50% of Florida households utilized Healthy Together's services. Healthy Together has since partnered to help additional states, counties, and tribes to scale and automate other government processes such as Medicaid, SNAP and TANF eligibility, enrollment, & renewal, WIC program management, and behavioral health systems.
About Healthy Together:
Healthy Together is a health technology company that builds SaaS technology for government, education and enterprise. Their technology aids in areas such as disease surveillance, behavioral health management and benefit enrollment for programs like Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and WIC. Healthy Together's mobile application has reached #1 in the App Store Health & Fitness category and has over 225k reviews on the App Store and Play Store with a 4.9/5 star rating.
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EMERGING TECHNOLOGY,GOVERNMENT BUSINESS
Haivision | January 24, 2023
Haivision Systems Inc., a leading global provider of video networking and visual collaboration solutions, announced today that Haivision Hub for Government has achieved Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) "In Process" designation and is currently available on FedRAMP Marketplace as the only video network service. Government agencies can securely stream live video via CDNs, OVPs, EVPs, and social media using the fully managed cloud solution. US Department of Veterans Affairs’ VA approved Haivision's FedRAMP (VA).
Live video helps governments succeed today. However, networking exposes agencies to cyberattacks. Even secure companies are vulnerable to cyberattacks. When streaming live video, Haivision Hub for Government protects public sector enterprises' largest risk of network exposure. CIOs can use Haivision Hub for Government to secure live video streaming in accordance with the rules from federal information assurance.
Mirko Wicha, President and CEO of Haivision, said, "Our FedRAMP milestone is a powerful example of Haivision's longstanding commitment to ensuring the security of our customer's deployments." He added, "In the FedRAMP process, we've worked rigorously to make Haivision Hub for Government an ideal solution to help government agencies stream securely via the cloud. We're very proud to be the first video network service to achieve this important FedRAMP milestone and to be among the few technology companies to achieve this authorization."
(Source- PRNewswire)
FedRAMP standardizes security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. The FY23 NDAA includes the FedRAMP Authorization Act (NDAA). All service models and executive agency cloud deployments require FedRAMP.
Haivision Hub for Government has many features that can help agencies share live video content quickly and safely with internal and external audiences. The key features include the following:-
Live visual content distribution in real time: Share live video in real-time, giving up-to-date information and events and letting people work together in real-time on mission-critical common operating pictures.
Secure: Designed to meet the strict security needs of government agencies (Achieved FedRAMP supporting Department of Defense Impact Level 2 (DoD IL2)).
Scalability: Ability to serve a wide range of internal and external audiences.
Flexibility: Use the cloud and direct high-performance connectivity options.
Simplification: When supporting digital transformation, easily overcome network issues and technological debt.
Haivision delivers high-performance, secure video network solutions for mission-critical applications. Getting through rigorous third-party assessments and implementing FedRAMP-compliant policies to protect federal customer data and systems shows that commitment.
About Haivision
A global pioneer in mission-critical, real-time video networking and visual communication. Our connected cloud and intelligent edge solutions enable global engagement, collaboration, and decision-making globally. We deliver secure, low-latency, high-quality live video worldwide. Haivision created the SRT Alliance to promote their SRT low-latency video streaming protocol. Haivision, which drives the IP video revolution, won four Emmys® for engineering and technology from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Haivision was founded in 2004 in Montreal and Chicago, with offices, sales, and support in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
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