Looking Back at 2021

All right, TGIF everyone!

Welcome to In Case You Missed It, GovTech's weekly government technology news roundup where we take a look at some of the biggest GovTech news from the past week and break it down for you here live. This week, however, we're going to go big because this is the last In Case You Missed It of 2021. It's hard to believe that 2022 is just around the corner, which means we're going to be taking a look back at the entire year of government technology news. And to do that, we needed some extra help, so today we have a special guest Noelle Nell, the editor extraordinaire of Government Technology Magazine. But before we bring Noelle in, we have some quick housekeeping notes. Like I said, this is the last show of the year, which means you won't see us again until January 4th with another special episode dedicated to the unveiling of the 2022 GovTech 100. Some big announcements are happening that day, so make sure that you tune in. Without further ado, she's the editor of Government Technology Magazine and a friend of the show. Let's welcome to the show Noelle Nell.

Hi, Dustin.

Hey, thanks for joining.

Thank you, appreciate the invitation. Glad to be with all you guys.

Well, glad, glad to have your commentary at the table as we kind of break down some of the top stories. Let's dive right in and let's start first with— this has been a wild year of market activity, tons of mergers and acquisitions, and one of the most notable ones was a $2.3 billion deal. Joe, this one was on your list for the year. Tell us a little bit about, about it.

Yeah, I mean, it's the holiday season. No better place to start than Tyler's shopping spree this year. And probably the biggest deal in the GovTech market was this over $2 billion deal where Tyler acquired NIC. 2 of the largest, you know, providers of services in the state and local government market have now come together and they're working through that. But Tyler didn't stop there. Throughout the year, they've acquired a number of companies. They acquired a company working in the veteran space as well as the K-12 market in April. of this year. They acquired another company this summer around, uh, in the corrections environment around video visitation as well. And then one more around transparency in the law enforcement area around improving access through the cloud through, through public safety video and enforcement data. So a very active year for, for Tyler Technologies and the GovTech market. So to me, it was the combination of stories and Tyler's activity that was noteworthy, and it can kind of get lost outside of the But they've been very active across both the state market and e-government, but even deepening their offerings at the vertical level.

Yeah, I think it's a great point. It also shows, you know, we hear about a lot of the new startups that are emerging and all the market activity that's happening there, but then you have the platform companies, the incumbents, that are also finding ways to continue to innovate, to continue to expand their reach. And I think this Tyler story is a great representation of a lot of the news, as you mentioned, that we heard from them. Noelle, what are you, you know, kind of seeing in, in, uh, in the space regarding all this M&A craziness? Any thoughts on this?

Yeah, gosh, this deal was just massive for the GovTech market and, um, was really fascinating to see all of the movement around it. And, you know, numbers in the billions always catch our attention, to be sure. But yeah, that definitely reverberated across the marketplace and brought some really big numbers overall for 2021 and really told a story about GovTech in 2021 and where it's going from here.

And Jed, what do you make of all this as well?

Honestly, I mean, I don't have much insight for it. I'm not, I'm not a business expert, but I do think mainly what it shows is that, you know, this is, this is something that we're going to see more and more of in the future. You know, the, the market is Really, I mean, it almost feels like this is just the beginning of something, you know. Obviously this is a lot of big news, but it just, it feels like there's going to be bigger things coming in the next year or two. And so I'll be very interested to see what's going on there.

Yeah, no slowing down. And it was great to see a billion-dollar exit for NIC. Now we also know at the center of a lot of the news has been broadband, and, you know, broadband was a top issue before the pandemic, but it was also something that really became a focus area for federal funding and a variety of other initiatives. Jed, this one caught your attention for the year. Break down, uh, why this is such a hot topic right now.

Yeah, well, so I wrote this particular piece right here, and essentially the point that I drive home with this article is that, you know, we really are playing a game of catch-up right now. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of people before the pandemic that considered broadband an important issue And, you know, writers like me and others, we covered it. But it wasn't until the pandemic where people really started to see, hey, this isn't just going to be something that's just like you might could have it and be fine. Now you kind of need to have it, especially if there are social distancing rules in place, especially if government services are changing, which, which they very much are now that, you know, government services are going more and more online. And so that makes broadband even more essential. But the issue is, is that, yeah, so we have all these billions of dollars going toward it, but how much of a dent is it really going to put into the digital divide? And, you know, it will put a pretty big dent into it. I think that just listening to experts, it seems that if the money is spent wisely, that the majority of people in the country would have some access to a broadband network. But then you have all these other questions, though. First of all, will they all be able to afford it? And some experts frankly say no, they won't be able to afford it. Then also, will everyone be able to utilize it to its full capacity? And so you get into things like digital skills training and things like that. Now, of course, in the, in the federal infrastructure bill, there is money for that too, for digital inclusion and that sort of thing. But again, as great as all this money is, I still get this sinking feeling that, you know, there's going to be a lot more work that needs to be done. And then you get into the whole mapping issue. You know, you need to know like where the availability is in the first place, where it isn't in the first place, in order to know where to build. And so I think that's what's going to be the big thing this next year is like, where is mapping going to be? Because the Federal Communications Commission They're still not— they still don't have updated maps, you know, they still don't have the granular data needed. And when will that happen next year? So that's the question that's on my mind right now.

Yeah, I think it's a good point. And I also think this kind of reminds me back to the stimulus funding where we started to see, you know, a lot of capital being invested in fiber in the ground. And part of the challenge there was they didn't focus on how to get people to use the fiber that was being put in the ground. So I think we can learn a lot from some of the previous federal funds that have kind of emerged here and really look at making sure that we light those pipelines up with, you know, potential use cases to educate people in rural areas, you know, to look at unlocking telehealth and other types of use cases that we talked about, you know, a decade ago. Let's actually make sure that we don't just invest in the infrastructure, but we invest in the use cases on top of it and kind of, you know, find ways to extract value out of that. Noelle, you've seen a lot in the broadband space, you know, over the years. I mean, this has been the number one policy priority for governors. You know, every time GovTech's done their state State of the State address. Any thoughts on what we can expect to see maybe in 2022 on this?

Yeah, exactly, Dustin. Over the past few years, the mentions of broadband by governors in their State of the States have just kept going up, and I expect them to explode in 2022 with all of these new resources heading in this direction. $69 billion for broadband and really a realization broadly about the important— broadly, excuse me, about the importance of connectivity and all the things that surround that. And one thing that I think is particularly interesting about broadband is, you know, we try to write these stories that paint a national picture, but this is such an individual picture by state and even by community based on the various, you know, technologies that are available, the resources, the makeup of the communities themselves. It's very much a, you know, community-driven solution here. So it'll be really interesting to look at some of the creative ways that people are attacking this. As Jed mentioned, so much going on in the way of mapping, given the sort of notorious nature of FCC maps and how those don't really tell the full picture of what's going on in communities. But I'm excited to dig into some of those community mapping stories and those, you know, stories about folks that are really finding creative solutions to not only bridge the connectivity gap but get into some of this digital skills training that you mentioned.

All right, moving on to our next story, governments considering ethics transparency and cutting-edge tech. You know, as we look at all the new technologies that are out there, you know, there's a lot of new kind of use cases that have ethical dilemmas that we're kind of caught in. And I know, Joe, you know, you were a part of a big AI report that was done at NASIO this year in partnership with IBM. You know, what are you seeing in regards to this kind of, you know, dilemma that we face and how agencies are responding to it?

Well, absolutely. I mean, we've been tracking the legislative activity around things like facial recognition for quite some time, ethics, but when you look at the AI report over the last 3 years, it's absolutely there in terms of trying to control for all of the bias that can play itself out, but that is really in these key verticals: public safety, areas where bias can really play a significant role and be a significant challenge. The areas where government's deploying it today largely aren't those big areas like public safety. A lot of it's in the backend operations of, you know, and automation of government workflow and services. As you look at transparency, that's key. I mean, whether you've just heard from Jed or Noel today, that the federal funds that are flowing across this landscape, making sure that everything's transparent and accountable and these dollars have been used in an effective manner will be key over the next 4 to 5 years as we see this federal funding continue to flow.

Yeah, and I know Jed, you know, this was one on your radar too. There's so many emerging techs that are out there that government agencies are kind of grappling with. You've covered drones, you've covered all kinds of different pieces of this. You know, what are you seeing in regards to kind of this cutting-edge tech environment of GovTech?

Dustin, since you mentioned drones specifically, I, I do think that's one of the most fascinating things because drones are just— they're everywhere and they do so many different things now. You know, when the pandemic started, Drones got big news, big headlines, mainly because of their involvement in public safety, because police officers were using them in different ways. Some were using them to give, you know, basically orders to people to stop gathering in big groups or to go home or something like that. There were also— but then we also saw them show up more and more in things like search and rescue missions and things like that, you know, providing situational awareness to the police. But then they also showed up in the, the protests that we saw last year. And so then that, that made everyone's antennas go up about surveillance and everything. So with, with public safety, drones can often be, uh, an object of criticism. Of course, in that same realm with public safety, a drone can be a fireman's best friend, basically. You know, a drone can tell a fireman the area on a roof that might be too hot that, you know, if you stepped on it, it might collapse, you might fall into a building. So there's that level of complexity to it within public safety alone. But then, you know, as you and Joe— you, you, you, me, and Joe— we saw earlier this year with Flytrex, now the, the drone delivery programs are taking off, uh, especially in North Carolina with Flytrex. And so, and then we also get into these things like robots, you know, robots delivering things. And so this raises all types of questions about, well, what should be the regulatory framework? And then of course the industry, you know, the industry would just prefer one regulatory framework to work by. You know, it makes it very simple. But then, you know, local context, they all have their differences. And, you know, some legal experts feel that states and localities should start getting ahead on this stuff, start passing laws, because you never know when someone might just see a drone and automatically assume that Well, this is a nuisance to me, or then it also raises the noise question. So there's just so many different aspects to just the drones that I find fascinating.

Now, I know at the forefront of a lot of the response to the pandemic has been digital services. And, you know, we're kind of in this interesting era now. We call it the Great Reconciliation, where IT leaders are looking at what did we do and what should we do kind of going forward. Noelle, I'd love to get your thoughts just as you kind of look at the changes to digital services and, you know, how they've evolved since the pandemic, how they've evolved just in the last year alone. You know, what are some notable things that you've seen here?

Yeah, well, in 2020, it was basically, you know, panic mode and let's go ahead and slap everything online that we possibly can in order to make sure that there's some continuity of government services. But 2021 really saw some maturity develop there where people realized that, okay, no matter what happens with the pandemic, and we all know we're still in kind of a question mark phase there, we need to provide additional services to people and they need to work well. You know, everyone always talks about trying to match that Amazon experience or at least striving to do so. And that's maybe a good spot where government should live. And we've seen so much evidence of that across the board. And it's not just, you know, the technology folks that are advocating for more digital services. Now the policymakers see it too. They see that this is necessary to get through the pandemic. but to sustain us as a modern government organization. So a real settling into the importance of making digital services widely available and usable. And another sort of interesting side component to this has been the rise of sort of user experience offices and staff in government. And folks that are really, you know, not just contemplating, I wonder how people will use this, let me use what I've learned and go ahead and design the service that way. But let's really talk to people. Let's do focus groups. Let's do beta testing. Let's really get some actual user data here. One particular example that I'm recalling from NASIO a couple of months ago was— and it demonstrates how, you know, that user experience testing is so important. And also just kind of— this sounds harsher than I maybe want it to, but getting over ourselves in terms of assuming that we know what folks want and just putting a service out there was Mark Raymond from who he had a team of folks that were working on the licensing of vessels in Connecticut. And people said, no, we don't need to put that online. Nobody is using their boats this time of year. And then they decided, well, let's go ahead and do it and see. I'm sure nobody will use it. And what happened is a lot of people used it. So sometimes even our well-earned knowledge, you know, it can't be beat by actual customer experience, actually, you know, just opening the digital door and letting people walk in. So I think that's where government is kind of Yeah, Joe, any thoughts on the digital services side?

100%. We covered this throughout our episodes throughout the year, right? Whether it was the Deloitte survey that looked at trust in government and found that having a safe, easy-to-use digital experience was key to high-quality government service, but also encouraging trust in government, to what we saw with our user experience interview. I forget our interviewee's name at the top of my head, but it was key to the experience, just as Noelle Identified. So to me, I think that's a trend that's not going to go anywhere. We'll still see at the top of our digital states, cities, and counties priority lists.

Yeah, and I think the old ways of doing things are no longer acceptable. You know, there's a new expectation when it comes to the way that services are expected to be delivered, both in the private sector but also the public sector. And I think the one thing that was very clear is people don't make a distinction between the two anymore. They want the same experience wherever they go with whatever the organization is, regardless of if it's a public sector agency or a private sector agency. So, you know, so much that agencies have to focus on. And now with all this funding, there's a once-in-a-generation opportunity to really put that in place. And now, Noelle, you had an article that kind of caught your attention from our year-end review around On a Mission from a Dog: Staffer Dog Map, the Pittsburgh Park Story. Tell us a little bit about why this one caught your attention.

Well, talk about the epitome of digital services in this strange year that was 2021. You guys know I'm a dog lover. dog person, and I suspect I'm in good company. But this was a situation where, you know, the pandemic, of course, had everyone locked indoors and itching to get outdoors when the weather would permit. So I want to get this title right. This was Matt Jacobs, Senior Applications Administrator for the Pittsburgh Department of Performance and Innovation, recognized a lack of great mapping data for the many trails in the Pittsburgh area. And so he and a very important partner, his dog, that you'll see down further in the story, set out with a GPS device to map all of the trails in the Pittsburgh area. And then what they did is went ahead and turned that into a public-facing, public-facing portal, a map that people could access and really have a lot of good information when they were itching to get outside, you know, safely and at a distance from others. But I just, I love the dog aspect here. So it felt like a feel-good way to, to see off 2021.

Absolutely, and speaking of that, let's do our final thoughts on the year that was. I'll kind of go first. I mean, this was a wild year of lots of market activity, but I think it showed the maturity of GovTech as a market and as an industry to target, whether you're an existing company that may be playing in the space to a certain extent, or a new company, or an entrepreneur that's hungry for trying to tackle a social challenge. GovTech is a market that's really kind of having this app store moment, a perfect collision of activities that that have really led to so much innovation, new government thinking, new available funding. That's kind of led us to where we're at today. So I can't wait to see what happens as we kind of embrace that. And, and it's kind of like when Apple released their App Store, you know, once that happened, there was an explosion of creativity and innovation and a new market segment that was created. This market's not new, but this market's activity and energy and excitement is at a pace that's never before been seen. And so I'm so excited to see how that transitions into 2022. Joe, what about you? What's highlights from the year that was?

Very similar. I feel like we've been busier than we've ever been. I don't think that we understood that the magnitude of the amount of federal funding that was going to hit the market this year and the impact that would have in terms of IT investment. And I too, I feel like we're at the very beginning of reimagining government and the stories that we talked about here today, whether it's the activity that we're seeing on the business side, to the hopeful impact that $65 billion of broadband investment will have on our communities, that as Tara Tikalikis would say, it's time to be thinking about the art of the possible in government. And I'm excited about what could be ahead in 2022 and beyond.

Final words from you, Noelle.

Well, I think the word of the year for me was hybrid. Hybrid is a term that we've traditionally in our circles used when we talk about cloud, and that continues to be the case, but it also really came to light this year So, you know, everyone went remote with the pandemic, and then they came back sort of in various stages. But most realized that remote work was going to be some part of the future. So, I think that hybrid word sums up the fact that nothing is ever absolute or total, and everything is always completely evolving, whether it's workforce, whether it's your IT infrastructure, or what have you. Just, you just have to be flexible and be open and be willing to try new things. and experiment, and I think that's a great message going into 2022.

And Jed, what's on your recap list for 2021?

I think what's on my mind is basically the details matter. I think more and more we're seeing that the details matter on everything. You know, it's going back to broadband. It's not enough to throw money at broadband. What groups are you working with on broadband? What tech are you bringing into it, and is it going to serve the actual population that you're looking to connect? You know, that's a very basic example. There are many other things that I think that we're seeing. You know, remote work is taking off, but, you know, it's not just a matter of giving people the technology in order to do remote work. You have to be just as— you have to have as much attention on cybersecurity because there's so many more threats now. So that's what I'm talking about. Decisions matter. They have impact. And, you know, to go back to the mapping part, this feel-good story with the dog, hey, maybe dogs and other animals can help us map out broadband. You know, maybe that's what we need to see in 2022. I'm joking, of course, but, you know, at this point, we really need to get our feet on the ground and get this problem solved.

Well, my dog could probably help dig some holes, but that's about it. But that also brings us to the end of this week's episode. We wanted to wish you all a happy holidays and hope you enjoy the time with your friends and family. We're gonna be back with you in the new year. We've got, as Dustin mentioned, a special episode coming up on January 4th at 10:00 AM Pacific to unveil the 2022 GovTech 100 list. So we'll see you there, and until then, enjoy the time off.

Thank you.