Microsoft’s Jeremy Goldberg: Building Digital Government Requires Long-Term Sustained Investments

Jeremy Goldberg, a member of the worldwide public sector organization at Microsoft, wrote in a guest piece published Tuesday on Nextgov that government agencies looking to build a resilient technology infrastructure in support of digital government initiatives should push for long-term, sustained investments.

“To succeed, governments must create long-term integrated plans that encompass enterprise architecture, funding and policy support for scaling infrastructure, shared services, automation and workforce development/skills building,” Goldberg suggested.

He called on agencies to implement cloud-based platform that scales. According to him, agencies, in the meantime, should operate in a hybrid cloud environment while “planning for the future with supportive funding and policies that promote best practices in technology procurement and development.”

Goldberg cited the advantages of adopting automated platforms to agencies, such as streamlining processes and delivering better data, and encouraged agencies to use the Federal RPA Playbook as they advance automation.

Agencies should develop workforce development plans with technology plans in order to prepare personnel to carry out the organization’s priorites.

"New approaches, such as The Digital Corps, to hiring can help get tech talent in the door quickly. Training and support for professional development ensure IT organizations have the skills they need and employees who buy-in to the long term vision for the organization,” Goldberg added.

Goldberg is former interim chief information officer and deputy secretary for technology and innovation for the state of New York.