AI for government finance & accounting: Understanding value & overcoming human barriers

Klaus Schwab, the Founder and Chairman of the World Economic Forum, shares in his book, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution,” that artificial intelligence (AI) will perform 30% of corporate audits by 2025. While any estimate of change is just that, an estimate, the pace of change is governed by the benefits that result from the application of any given technology, weighed against the forces opposing it. In the case of government finance and accounting, AI is being embraced at an astounding rate, and may even accelerate if we are able to overcome some of the forces opposing the change.

Spotlight

New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is committed to increasing opportunities for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers by providing safe, affordable housing and facilitating access to social and community services. More than 400,000 New Yorkers reside in NYCHA’s 328 public housing developments around the five boroughs, and another 235,000 receive subsidized rental assistance in private homes through the NYCHA-administered Section 8 Leased Housing Program.

OTHER ARTICLES
Government Business

The Essential Role of Government During COVID-19

Article | July 14, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic touches every aspect of business, technology, and society. And stable and effective government is at the heart of managing through this crisis. What we do now will have longer-term implications for the health and safety of our families, our citizens, the economy, and even global stability. In the past few weeks, IBM has collaborated with many of our government clients and is driving action across three critical phases of response.

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Emerging Technology

Why Active-Active Data Centers Fit the Bill for Local Governments

Article | July 16, 2022

In Michigan’s Muskegon County, some departments need 24/7 access to computers, applications and the IP-based phone system, including the Muskegon County Sheriff's Office, the Muskegon County Juvenile Transition Center and the Muskegon County Wastewater Management System. To improve uptime, the county recently upgraded its IT infrastructure and turned its primary and secondary data centers into an active-active environment. Now, if one data center goes down, the second site automatically continues IT operations. “We are a 24-hour operation. Downtime is not an option,” says Ivan Phillips, information systems director for the county

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Designing a Consistent and Accessible Digital Government

Article | May 27, 2021

It can be challenging to connect government services to Californians who need them most. With a population of nearly 40 million people, the state’s residents have a wide range of experiences, abilities, education, and technical literacy. The California Design System is a collaborative effort between the California Department of Technology and the Office of Digital Innovation to help web developers and designers address common needs to make digital information and services easier to use. The Design System is an open source project and is in early beta status. Currently in use on websites for the Department of Cannabis Control, California Drought Action, California’s COVID-19 website, and the Broadband for All portal, we invite collaboration and feedback so we can incorporate new design system components into the existing state template. The California Design System will help build websites and products that put people first and also look great. Whether you’re an individual developer, product owner, web designer or a public employee, we invite you to get involved and help us make improvements. Reach out to the Design System team through our contact form on the home page, or work through the GitHub repository. This collaborative effort is another example of how state government is innovating to improve state websites and better serve the people of California.

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The State of Federal Thinking on Zero Trust

Article | June 11, 2020

As federal agencies continue to support large numbers of remote workers, IT leaders have started to evolve their thinking on zero-trust security architectures. Increasingly, they are becoming more comfortable with the concept and are seeking to lay the foundation for deployments. Zero trust represents a mindset shift in cybersecurity in which every transaction is verified before access is granted to users and devices. In the federal government, it is still a relatively nascent approach, with some pilot programs here and there. However, IT leaders seem to recognize that cybersecurity models are increasingly going to be defined by a zero-trust architecture.

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Spotlight

New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is committed to increasing opportunities for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers by providing safe, affordable housing and facilitating access to social and community services. More than 400,000 New Yorkers reside in NYCHA’s 328 public housing developments around the five boroughs, and another 235,000 receive subsidized rental assistance in private homes through the NYCHA-administered Section 8 Leased Housing Program.

Related News

Emerging Technology, Cybersecurity

Four Inc. Announces Partnership with MixMode to Offer Advanced AI Cybersecurity Solutions to Government Agencies

MixMode | March 31, 2023

Four Inc., a federal aggregator, has partnered with MixMode, a leading provider of next-generation Cybersecurity solutions, to provide MixMode's Advanced Threat Detection Platform to government agencies through Four Inc.'s boutique aggregation program. Under the agreement, Four Inc. will offer MixMode's Third Wave AI solution to the public sector through Four Inc.'s NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWPV) contract and its network of channel partners. "Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of legacy Cybersecurity solutions are not well-suited for real-time risk detection at massive scale," said John Keister, MixMode CEO. "MixMode's platform is able to detect risks from both known and novel attacks in large data environments, making Cybersecurity programs 20x more efficient and effective. We are pleased to partner with Four Inc. to deliver our platform to government agencies to defend against sophisticated attacks." The MixMode platform utilizes self-supervised and generative AI-driven analysis and predictive threat detection to identify and respond to threats in real-time, making it an ideal solution for organizations looking to enhance their Cybersecurity posture. With MixMode's precise, efficient alerting, government agencies can analyze vast amounts of data from various sources, such as network traffic, logs, and cloud environments. The MixMode solution is a lightweight, efficient AI that requires no rules, historical training data or ongoing tuning, and can be integrated into existing security systems, making it easy for government agencies to enhance their Cybersecurity capabilities without disrupting their operations. Since MixMode does not require historical training data, it is up and running very quickly and is not susceptible to biases and blind spots that plague most AI systems. "We are excited to partner with MixMode to provide our customers access to a Third Wave AI and Negative-Time-to-Detection℠ cybersecurity solution," said Chris Wilkinson, EVP of Sales of Four Inc. "MixMode's self-learning platform enables our partners and government customers to protect their assets, detecting both known and unknown attacks designed to bypass legacy defenses." Four Inc. and MixMode will work together to integrate MixMode's AI technology into existing security systems and provide ongoing support to ensure the success of the partnership. MixMode's Cybersecurity platform is available immediately via Four Inc.'s SEWPV Contract Vehicle. About MixMode MixMode is a no-rules-required Cybersecurity platform, serving both the US government and large enterprises with big data environments across a variety of industries. MixMode delivers a patented, self-learning platform that acts as the Cybersecurity Intelligence Layer℠ to detect both known and unknown attacks, including novel attacks designed to bypass legacy cyber defenses. This is accomplished in real-time, across any cloud or on-premise data stream. Trusted by global entities in banking, public utilities and government sectors, industry cyber leaders rely on MixMode to protect their most critical assets. The platform dramatically improves the efficiency of SOC teams previously burdened with writing and tuning rules and manually searching for attacks. The MixMode platform can be deployed remotely, with no appliances, in under an hour with business outcomes evident within days. Backed by PSG and Entrada Ventures, the company is headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA. About Four Inc. Four Inc. is a Small Business boutique aggregator and has been recognized as a Top 100 government contractor on Washington Technology's Top 100 Report consecutively for the last seven years. Four Inc.'s expertise of the federal IT contracting process and their carefully crafted ecosystem of manufacturers and partners has enabled them to expertly deliver the right technology solutions and services to their customers. Through their proven experience and dedication to their core values, they have earned the IT community's respect and trust.

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Emerging Technology, Cybersecurity

Striveworks Partners With Carahsoft to Provide AI and Machine Learning to Government Agencies

PRNewswire | March 24, 2023

Striveworks, a pioneer in responsible MLOps, today announced a partnership with Carahsoft Technology Corp., The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®. Under the agreement, Carahsoft will serve as Striveworks' public sector distributor, making the company's Chariot platform and other software solutions available to government agencies through Carahsoft's reseller partners, NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V, Information Technology Enterprise Solutions – Software 2 (ITES-SW2), OMNIA Partners, and National Cooperative Purchasing Alliance (NCPA) contracts. "We are excited to partner with Carahsoft and its reseller partners to leverage their public sector expertise and expand access to our products and solutions," said Quay Barnett, Executive Vice President at Striveworks. "Striveworks' inclusion on Carahsoft's contracts enables U.S. Federal, State, and Local Governments to make better models, faster." Decision making in near-peer and contested environments requires end-to-end dynamic data capabilities that are rapidly deployed. Current solutions remain isolated, not scalable, and not integrated from enterprise to edge. The Striveworks and Carahsoft partnership helps simplify the procurement of Striveworks' AI and machine learning solutions. Striveworks' Chariot provides a no-code/low-code solution that supports all phases of mission-relevant analytics including: developing, deploying, monitoring, and remediating models. Also available through the partnership is Ark, Striveworks' edge model deployment software for the rapid and custom integration of computer vision, sensors, and telemetry data collection. "We are pleased to add Striveworks' solutions to our AI and machine learning portfolio," said Michael Adams, Director of Carahsoft's AI/ML Solutions Portfolio. "Striveworks' data science solutions and products allow government agencies to simplify their machine learning operations. We look forward to working with Striveworks and our reseller partners to help the public sector drive better outcomes in operationally relevant timelines." Striveworks' offerings are available through Carahsoft's SEWP V contracts NNG15SC03B and NNG15SC27B, ITES-SW2 contract W52P1J-20-D-0042, NCPA contract NCPA001-86, and OMNIA Partners contract R191902. About Carahsoft Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®, supporting Public Sector organizations across Federal, State and Local Government agencies and Education and Healthcare markets. As the Master Government Aggregator® for our vendor partners, we deliver solutions for Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Cybersecurity, MultiCloud, DevSecOps, Big Data, Open Source, Customer Experience and more. Working with resellers, systems integrators and consultants, our sales and marketing teams provide industry leading IT products, services and training through hundreds of contract vehicles. About Striveworks Striveworks is a pioneer in responsible MLOps for national security and other highly regulated spaces. Striveworks' MLOps platform, Chariot, enables organizations to deploy AI/ML models at scale while maintaining full audit and remediation capabilities. Founded in 2018, Striveworks was highlighted as an exemplar in the National Security Commission for AI 2020 Final Report.

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Cybersecurity

Linux Foundation and Rancher Government Solutions Partner to Support U.S. Government & Military Mission to Securely Modernize Tech

Rancher Government Solutions | November 23, 2022

Today, the Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, announced it has partnered with Rancher Government Solutions https://www.ranchergovernment.com/, which is specifically designed to address the unique security and operational needs of the U.S. Government and military as it relates to application modernization, containers and Kubernetes. The partnership combines the expertise of the Linux Foundation, the world's leading resource for open source training and certifications, with the breadth and depth of RGS which is dedicated to helping the U.S. Government and military achieve its missions to securely modernize via the cloud using containers and Kubernetes all with a focus on DevSecOps. "Partnering with RGS to support the United States government in their adoption of open source through secure tools and training is critically important in these uncertain times, We could not be more proud to be working with RGS, whose focus on secure, open source tools and code – particularly Kubernetes and cloud-enabled DevSecOps – for the U.S. Government is mission critical." -Clyde Seepersad, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Training & Certification, the Linux Foundation. The partnership will enable U.S. Government personnel, through their relation with RGS, to easily access the Linux Foundation's full catalog of nearly 100 training courses including courses focused on: Kubernetes DevSecOps/DevOps Cloud & Containers Personnel will also be able to easily enroll in certification exams for any of the standard setting cloud and open source certifications built by the Linux Foundation. The certifications cover a range of mission critical cloud and container exams, including: Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Certified Security Specialist (CKS) Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) "The Linux Foundation's training and certification offerings are perfectly aligned to our core product and service offerings, Together we will be able to offer a single source for support, tools, training and certifications essential to the U.S. Government mission to securely modernize its tech infrastructure." -Don Poole, Vice President of Corporate Communications & Marketing, Rancher Government Solutions. About The Linux Foundation: Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 1,000 members and is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation's projects are critical to the world's infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation's methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. About Rancher Government Solutions: Rancher Government Solutions, a SUSE company, is specifically designed to address the unique security and operational needs of the U.S. Government and military as it relates to application modernization, containers and Kubernetes. Rancher allows Government customers to deploy containerized applications on multiple Kubernetes clusters from the data center to the cloud to the edge and unites them with centralized authentication, access control and advanced observability. RGS supports all Rancher open source products with U.S. based American citizens with the highest security clearances who are currently working on programs across the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and civilian agencies.

Read More

Emerging Technology, Cybersecurity

Four Inc. Announces Partnership with MixMode to Offer Advanced AI Cybersecurity Solutions to Government Agencies

MixMode | March 31, 2023

Four Inc., a federal aggregator, has partnered with MixMode, a leading provider of next-generation Cybersecurity solutions, to provide MixMode's Advanced Threat Detection Platform to government agencies through Four Inc.'s boutique aggregation program. Under the agreement, Four Inc. will offer MixMode's Third Wave AI solution to the public sector through Four Inc.'s NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWPV) contract and its network of channel partners. "Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of legacy Cybersecurity solutions are not well-suited for real-time risk detection at massive scale," said John Keister, MixMode CEO. "MixMode's platform is able to detect risks from both known and novel attacks in large data environments, making Cybersecurity programs 20x more efficient and effective. We are pleased to partner with Four Inc. to deliver our platform to government agencies to defend against sophisticated attacks." The MixMode platform utilizes self-supervised and generative AI-driven analysis and predictive threat detection to identify and respond to threats in real-time, making it an ideal solution for organizations looking to enhance their Cybersecurity posture. With MixMode's precise, efficient alerting, government agencies can analyze vast amounts of data from various sources, such as network traffic, logs, and cloud environments. The MixMode solution is a lightweight, efficient AI that requires no rules, historical training data or ongoing tuning, and can be integrated into existing security systems, making it easy for government agencies to enhance their Cybersecurity capabilities without disrupting their operations. Since MixMode does not require historical training data, it is up and running very quickly and is not susceptible to biases and blind spots that plague most AI systems. "We are excited to partner with MixMode to provide our customers access to a Third Wave AI and Negative-Time-to-Detection℠ cybersecurity solution," said Chris Wilkinson, EVP of Sales of Four Inc. "MixMode's self-learning platform enables our partners and government customers to protect their assets, detecting both known and unknown attacks designed to bypass legacy defenses." Four Inc. and MixMode will work together to integrate MixMode's AI technology into existing security systems and provide ongoing support to ensure the success of the partnership. MixMode's Cybersecurity platform is available immediately via Four Inc.'s SEWPV Contract Vehicle. About MixMode MixMode is a no-rules-required Cybersecurity platform, serving both the US government and large enterprises with big data environments across a variety of industries. MixMode delivers a patented, self-learning platform that acts as the Cybersecurity Intelligence Layer℠ to detect both known and unknown attacks, including novel attacks designed to bypass legacy cyber defenses. This is accomplished in real-time, across any cloud or on-premise data stream. Trusted by global entities in banking, public utilities and government sectors, industry cyber leaders rely on MixMode to protect their most critical assets. The platform dramatically improves the efficiency of SOC teams previously burdened with writing and tuning rules and manually searching for attacks. The MixMode platform can be deployed remotely, with no appliances, in under an hour with business outcomes evident within days. Backed by PSG and Entrada Ventures, the company is headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA. About Four Inc. Four Inc. is a Small Business boutique aggregator and has been recognized as a Top 100 government contractor on Washington Technology's Top 100 Report consecutively for the last seven years. Four Inc.'s expertise of the federal IT contracting process and their carefully crafted ecosystem of manufacturers and partners has enabled them to expertly deliver the right technology solutions and services to their customers. Through their proven experience and dedication to their core values, they have earned the IT community's respect and trust.

Read More

Emerging Technology, Cybersecurity

Striveworks Partners With Carahsoft to Provide AI and Machine Learning to Government Agencies

PRNewswire | March 24, 2023

Striveworks, a pioneer in responsible MLOps, today announced a partnership with Carahsoft Technology Corp., The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®. Under the agreement, Carahsoft will serve as Striveworks' public sector distributor, making the company's Chariot platform and other software solutions available to government agencies through Carahsoft's reseller partners, NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V, Information Technology Enterprise Solutions – Software 2 (ITES-SW2), OMNIA Partners, and National Cooperative Purchasing Alliance (NCPA) contracts. "We are excited to partner with Carahsoft and its reseller partners to leverage their public sector expertise and expand access to our products and solutions," said Quay Barnett, Executive Vice President at Striveworks. "Striveworks' inclusion on Carahsoft's contracts enables U.S. Federal, State, and Local Governments to make better models, faster." Decision making in near-peer and contested environments requires end-to-end dynamic data capabilities that are rapidly deployed. Current solutions remain isolated, not scalable, and not integrated from enterprise to edge. The Striveworks and Carahsoft partnership helps simplify the procurement of Striveworks' AI and machine learning solutions. Striveworks' Chariot provides a no-code/low-code solution that supports all phases of mission-relevant analytics including: developing, deploying, monitoring, and remediating models. Also available through the partnership is Ark, Striveworks' edge model deployment software for the rapid and custom integration of computer vision, sensors, and telemetry data collection. "We are pleased to add Striveworks' solutions to our AI and machine learning portfolio," said Michael Adams, Director of Carahsoft's AI/ML Solutions Portfolio. "Striveworks' data science solutions and products allow government agencies to simplify their machine learning operations. We look forward to working with Striveworks and our reseller partners to help the public sector drive better outcomes in operationally relevant timelines." Striveworks' offerings are available through Carahsoft's SEWP V contracts NNG15SC03B and NNG15SC27B, ITES-SW2 contract W52P1J-20-D-0042, NCPA contract NCPA001-86, and OMNIA Partners contract R191902. About Carahsoft Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®, supporting Public Sector organizations across Federal, State and Local Government agencies and Education and Healthcare markets. As the Master Government Aggregator® for our vendor partners, we deliver solutions for Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Cybersecurity, MultiCloud, DevSecOps, Big Data, Open Source, Customer Experience and more. Working with resellers, systems integrators and consultants, our sales and marketing teams provide industry leading IT products, services and training through hundreds of contract vehicles. About Striveworks Striveworks is a pioneer in responsible MLOps for national security and other highly regulated spaces. Striveworks' MLOps platform, Chariot, enables organizations to deploy AI/ML models at scale while maintaining full audit and remediation capabilities. Founded in 2018, Striveworks was highlighted as an exemplar in the National Security Commission for AI 2020 Final Report.

Read More

Cybersecurity

Linux Foundation and Rancher Government Solutions Partner to Support U.S. Government & Military Mission to Securely Modernize Tech

Rancher Government Solutions | November 23, 2022

Today, the Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, announced it has partnered with Rancher Government Solutions https://www.ranchergovernment.com/, which is specifically designed to address the unique security and operational needs of the U.S. Government and military as it relates to application modernization, containers and Kubernetes. The partnership combines the expertise of the Linux Foundation, the world's leading resource for open source training and certifications, with the breadth and depth of RGS which is dedicated to helping the U.S. Government and military achieve its missions to securely modernize via the cloud using containers and Kubernetes all with a focus on DevSecOps. "Partnering with RGS to support the United States government in their adoption of open source through secure tools and training is critically important in these uncertain times, We could not be more proud to be working with RGS, whose focus on secure, open source tools and code – particularly Kubernetes and cloud-enabled DevSecOps – for the U.S. Government is mission critical." -Clyde Seepersad, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Training & Certification, the Linux Foundation. The partnership will enable U.S. Government personnel, through their relation with RGS, to easily access the Linux Foundation's full catalog of nearly 100 training courses including courses focused on: Kubernetes DevSecOps/DevOps Cloud & Containers Personnel will also be able to easily enroll in certification exams for any of the standard setting cloud and open source certifications built by the Linux Foundation. The certifications cover a range of mission critical cloud and container exams, including: Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Certified Security Specialist (CKS) Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) "The Linux Foundation's training and certification offerings are perfectly aligned to our core product and service offerings, Together we will be able to offer a single source for support, tools, training and certifications essential to the U.S. Government mission to securely modernize its tech infrastructure." -Don Poole, Vice President of Corporate Communications & Marketing, Rancher Government Solutions. About The Linux Foundation: Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 1,000 members and is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation's projects are critical to the world's infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation's methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. About Rancher Government Solutions: Rancher Government Solutions, a SUSE company, is specifically designed to address the unique security and operational needs of the U.S. Government and military as it relates to application modernization, containers and Kubernetes. Rancher allows Government customers to deploy containerized applications on multiple Kubernetes clusters from the data center to the cloud to the edge and unites them with centralized authentication, access control and advanced observability. RGS supports all Rancher open source products with U.S. based American citizens with the highest security clearances who are currently working on programs across the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and civilian agencies.

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Events