EMERGING TECHNOLOGY
NOAA | October 27, 2020
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Google linked up to cooperatively steer artificial intelligence and machine learning-driven pilot projects that could advance the agency’s environmental monitoring, weather predicting, and climate research capabilities.
Through a three-year deal unveiled Tuesday, the two will collectively study and develop small-scale AI systems and eventually wider-ranging prototypes that might be infused across NOAA’s broader enterprise. Such resources would be of good use to the water and climate-focused agency, which is responsible for providing raw data for weather forecasts nationwide, including those used to predict hurricanes and other natural disasters.
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GOVERNMENT BUSINESS
BCS | April 21, 2021
BCS Data Center Operations (BCS) announces the addition of a new BCS Government Programs branch to its solution portfolio, committed to supporting the mandate of federal, state, and local governments, as well as their partners. The expansion enables BCS to adapt rapidly to vital infrastructure needs triggered by recent government reforms.
Craig Harris, a veteran of the business and government initiatives, has been elected senior vice president and chief federal programs officer, in charge of directing BCS Government Programs activities. He joins BCS with two decades of operations experience, including overseeing colocation operations for a top data center provider, leading the Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure team responsible for U.S. government contracts, leading IT process-design projects for the federal government, and launching state-of-the-art fulfillment centers for Amazon.
Harris worked as a lead associate for Booz Allen Hamilton, where he headed projects for the United States Department of Homeland Security, the Office of Naval Research, the United States Navy, the United States Army Materiel Command, and the United States Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory. He was in the Marine Corps for 14 years.
BCS currently manages over 6 million square feet and 350 MW of critical power under contract, with a considerable portion of it handling highly supervised, compliant, uptime-dependent environments for three of the world's leading financial service firms. BCS reported earlier this year that they had earned the Uptime Institute's M&O Stamp of Approval, as well as a good Service Operation Control (SOC) 2 Type II survey and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) evaluation for the Phoenix data center campus.
BCS utilizes a complete lifecycle of solutions delivered by trained and accredited people, best-in-class processes, and cutting-edge technology through a single integrated delivery system, allowing agencies and their clients to concentrate on their primary tasks. Because of BCS's single-source, self-performance model, BCS staff provide at least 80% of all services.
About BCS
BCS is an enterprise-level essential facility operations company that focuses solely on data centers. Via a single completely developed self-performance model, the BCS strategies portfolio includes facility management, IT services, physical security, and a variety of value-added professional services. To achieve improved efficiency, reliability, and scale, BCS employs sophisticated technologies and centralized services such as BCS CriticalWorksTM, BCS CriticalCareTM, and the BCS Tactical Operations Center. With over 6 million total square feet and more than 350 MW of data center critical power under contract, BCS meets the demands of Fortune 500 companies.
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GOVERNMENT FINANCE
GovOS | December 23, 2021
GovOS, a leading provider of digital transformation solutions for local governments, today announced the launch of its full-featured, end-to-end solutions for business licensing and tax filing. Built on the MUNIRevs | LODGINGRevs technology acquired earlier this year, GovOS Business Licensing and GovOS Tax Filing underscore the company's commitment to providing local governments with the tools they need to accelerate digitization efforts in their communities.
Designed to enhance revenue collection and reduce the amount of valuable staff time spent processing paperwork, both GovOS Business Licensing and GovOS Tax Filing apply automation and intelligence features to improve the accuracy of these vital government processes. Local governments can now look to GovOS to help streamline administration of tax remittance and renewals of business licenses to better enable local business growth.
"On a local government's journey to digital transformation, the collection of taxes and the issuance of business licenses are vital functions that bridge online civic services and community engagement. Together with our Application Studio platform and Short-Term Rental solution, local governments have the ways and means to keep business running as usual, no matter what curveballs get thrown at them."
Kevin Lafeber, President, GovOS
Business Licensing
With the GovOS Business Licensing solution, local business owners can complete the entire licensing process online. The system ensures ease of use for every size business and helps business owners register and remain in compliance with local government regulations.
Key features include:
Data-driven insights to better understand market demographics
Dynamic workflows allowing for customized registration requirements and the creation and adjustment of workflows as needed
An intuitive online portal that guides business owners through the permitting process and informs them of any status changes or notifications
Best-in-class customer success team to monitor and respond to all product questions/concerns
Tax Filing
Built by tax professionals who worked in the government space, the GovOS Tax Filing solution provides intuitive forms and auto-calculations. These core design elements eliminate staff time wasted on checking for math errors or calculating missed revenue due to penalties or interest. The system automatically collects every dollar in real time.
Key features include:
Auto calculations to prevent incorrect forms from being submitted
A single digital cart that can process multiple tax forms
Automatic tax deposits each day to any account
Tax form customization to tailor any form as needed
Fee adjustments on forms to provide a discount or apply a penalty
Solution Adoption Within Local Jurisdictions
To date, more than 30 jurisdictions have started using one or both GovOS solutions.
For the Little Rock, AR Convention & Visitors Bureau, GovOS Business Licensing gives new and existing local businesses a quick and easy way to register, apply for and receive permits, and pay taxes.
"With GovOS, our local business owners simply use our online portal to register and apply for a wide range of permits that we have available," said Kasey L. Summerville, Senior Director of Tax Revenue, Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau. "We then use GovOS Business Licensing to automatically calculate estimated and final tax assessments based on data in our jurisdiction and create custom workflows to send vendors notifications of payment, and even allow them to pay those final assessments online. We now have over 89% of businesses in our jurisdiction registered in Business Licensing, and the feedback from both citizens and staff has been very positive."
Mark Colvin, Finance Manager for the City of Wheat Ridge, CO says that the GovOS Business Licensing and Tax Filing products have streamlined their process for working with short-term rentals in their jurisdiction.
"Wheat Ridge is west of Denver and like many others, we've seen the number of short-term rentals in our municipality increase exponentially over the last few years," said Mark. "Thus, when the city adopted a short-term rental ordinance in early 2021 with a rollout in May 2021, we knew we needed a platform that we could implement and use with relative ease. The GovOS Business Licensing platform is user-friendly and straightforward to apply for licenses and remit taxes, and it has allowed our team to streamline workflows for approving and issuing licenses. Implementation was smooth and easy, and so far the response has been positive."
About GovOS
GovOS is the leading digital transformation platform for local governments. Headquartered in Austin, TX, GovOS serves government agencies of all sizes across the United States. Through its secure and integrated suite of cloud-based solutions, governments can automate and streamline operations, provide seamless access to resources and information, and deliver cutting-edge digital services to businesses, residents and agencies.
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