Government
Federal, State, and Local Government are dealing with a confluence of emerging transforming technology at the same time archaic system that need changing are constrained by budgets. Straightforward’s Government team provides Federal, State, and local Government entities with RFP avoidance strategies that streamline the purchasing process. Straightforward’s certified minority status allows department heads to meet their Administration’s socio-economic diversity goals. Straightforward maintains partnerships with 150 different technology providers to ensure that supplier diversity is baked in!
What are Government’s dealing with today?
| Regulatory Statutes & Purchasing | State and federal suppliers must have a contract vehicle in order to do business or an RFP is released. Local governments may put out smaller bids for quotes and purchase in some circumstances, but usually look to leverage a purchasing vehicle. Compliancy with standards such as FERPA, HIPAA, FISMA and FEDRAMP; PCI and PHI; and many more. Budgets are controlled via the centralized Budget Management Office, not at an agency level. Administrations are increasingly requiring that purchases include socio-economic inclusions. |
| Built as a Service Provider | Most government networks are expensive mesh, Point-to-Point (P2P) Layer 2 or MPLS. Many agencies, counties and school districts leverage their services. Siloed operations creates many segmented groups that deploy non-standardized technology or “shadow IT”. |
| Technology Challenges | Office365 rates for government are typically low and many agencies receive Microsoft Government Rates. Deploying video conferencing, Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions is not easily achieved and not all solutions meet all of the business unit’s goals. |
| Security | Network edge points are often unsecured. Centralized practices may utilize older, outdated technology with holes. Managing mobile devices is challenging and their use is increasing. |
| Managed Infrastructure Services | Most government agencies manage their own data centers as many state, county and local employees are nearing retirement age, adding pressure on agencies to replace IT talent. Most government agencies back up data, but rarely have a true business continuity and disaster recovery plan due to the former or past impacts of budgeting and the costs associated with redundancy. |
| Storage | Long term archival services are a necessity to maintain regulatory requirements such as the policies around police video camera recordings. |
How do we help Government clients?
RFP Avoidance
Blub about it
Socio-Economic Certifications
Supplier Diversity
Ideal technology services discussions for Federal, State, and Local Government Entities
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Infrastructure (Copy)$0.00 - Infrastructure$0.00
Things to Consider for Government Clients
- How would a relationship with a managed service provider which maintains all infrastructure, operating systems, and patch management (along with anti-virus and full audits to help in the compliancy arena), change the way you operate today?
- Does your Budget Management Office prefer that purchases include a Socio-Economic inclusion, such as veterans, minorities, women, or persons with disabilities?
- Is your IT staff bogged down by the day-to-day management of your WANs?
- What would assistance with the day-to-day management of your WANs, lower latency, and alternative technologies such as SD-WAN to lower costs mean to you?
- The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the necessity for flexibility of mobile and remote work, it is also introducing big challenges around sharing files and collaborating on projects. Are you experiencing that?
- Are you running into issues with meeting security mandates or compliancy standards such as iTAR, FEDRAMP, FISMA, etc.?
- What security measures are in place to secure constituent and employee personal information?
- Are your applications and the management of those applications centralized and highly secure?
- What is your current strategy to have a true business continuity, disaster recovery, and redundancy?
- How are you currently archiving and retrieving data?
- Do you pay in and out fees for data retrieval?
- Would it be helpful to shed the retrieval fees?