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The Government of the District of Columbia provides civil, criminal and protective services for the citizens of our nation’s capitol. The government employs close to 20,000 people who work for more than 80 separate agencies including Child and Family Services, Department of Corrections, Emergency Management Agency, Department of Motor Vehicles, Metropolitan Police Department and many others.
THE CHALLENGE
Under the direction of Chief Technology Officer Mrs. Suzanne Peck, the Government of the District of Columbia has undergone a significant technological transformation. While the previous administration supported a decentralized IT model, the new Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) has mandated that the district modernize, consolidate and unify disparate technologies across all of the district’s mayoral agencies.
To ensure the success of the new mandate, the OCTO focused its efforts on two areas—e-mail and Web services. To realize quick gains, these areas were well funded and staffed with the right people to get the job done.
A key component of this mandate was unifying and modernizing the district’s wireless messaging capabilities for close to 80 district agencies including Child and Family Services, Department of Corrections, Emergency Management Agency, Department of Motor Vehicles, Metropolitan Police Department and many others.
To select the best-of-breed technology provider that could help the district make huge strides in providing a unified and modern wireless messaging system, the citywide messaging group completed a thorough evaluation of potential vendors. The group’s philosophy was to only evaluate vendors with recently emerging, yet proven and stable technologies. This made it easy to narrow the field to a few key vendors. After further testing, the citywide messaging group selected Good Mobile Messaging from Good Technology because the product represented best-of-breed technology. The citywide messaging group was also impressed with the product’s functionality, ease of use, reliability, security and support for multiple operating systems and carriers. In addition, Good Mobile Messaging was cost effective—an important consideration as the city strives to make the best use of taxpayer dollars.
THE RESULTS
In just three years, the number of Good Mobile Messaging users has grown from 300 to over 1,300—an increase of more than 300 percent. And although this growth is impressive, it still represents just six to seven percent of the government’s total workforce of approximately 20,000 people—a trend the citywide messaging group sees continuing.
Agency and Citizen Benefits
The citywide messaging group supports multiple handheld types and carriers because the needs of users vary so widely from agency to agency. By supporting any handheld on any carrier, agencies are free to choose the package that works best for them. This is one of the main reasons the group selected Good Mobile Messaging, since the product works on multiple operating systems and with virtually every carrier. Supporting multiple carriers is also important from a disaster readiness perspective. In the event of a major catastrophe, having multiple carriers eliminates a single point of failure. In addition, the Government of the District of Columbia was able to secure Homeland Security funding to help with its messaging efforts largely based on Good Mobile Messaging’s ability to support multiple carriers.
One of the biggest benefits Good Mobile Messaging provides to workers at the district’s agencies is increased productivity and efficiency by having real-time, synchronized access to e-mail messages, calendars and contacts. With Good Mobile Messaging, users can see the whole picture when they are away from their desks. Intuitive enterprise messaging-like user interface is very familiar to users and makes it easy for them to communicate with their coworkers, constituents and the citizens of the District of Columbia. By being more productive and efficient, agencies can do more with less, which saves money, keeps headcounts down and provides better value for citizens. In addition, the citizens of the District of Columbia are benefiting from Good Mobile Messaging. Citizens know and take pride that their government is working smarter and more efficiently by adopting the best technology available. They are also comforted knowing that their government has the ability to respond in the event of a major crisis.
Security and Administrative Benefits
From an administrative standpoint, two capabilities stand out—security and management. According to the citywide messaging group, Good Mobile Messaging was the only vendor that provided the level of comfort needed with regards to security. Good Mobile Messaging’s encryption ensures that information sent over the public airwaves cannot be intercepted and deciphered. The ability to “wipe” a handheld over the air is also critical in case a handheld is lost or stolen.
Good Mobile Messaging also provides the tools that make managing the growing number of handhelds easy, including rules-based administration, password control, secure OTA (Over-the-Air) provisioning and a management console to monitor handhelds and coverage. These tools make the citywide messaging group’s job much easier and prove that Good Mobile Messaging is the right technology for the district’s needs. Good Mobile Messaging has become a critical piece of the citywide messaging program for the Government of the District of Columbia. As the district continues to look for new ways to modernize, consolidate and unify all of the technologies across agencies, it will continue to work with Good as the company makes Good Mobile Messaging an even better product.
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