This content is provided by MAXIMUS.

Shifting to the cloud is no longer an optional strategy, but an imperative to the success of a modernized contact center that delivers an enhanced citizen experience (CX) and satisfies federal mandates requiring agencies to do just that.

Yet for many agencies, the shift to a modernized approach to contact center operations is only just getting underway. A study conducted jointly by GovLoop and Genesys found that as many as 50% of government employees felt there is a gap between the customer service experience their agencies offer versus what is offered by the private sector.

While CX is rapidly becoming a top priority for government agencies, citizen expectations for a more intuitive and accessible experience are growing — creating even more urgency to modernize.

For some agencies, this can feel like a steep uphill battle. According to the most recent Forrester CX Index, 80% of federal agencies have CX scores that rate as “poor” or “very poor.” Slowly but surely, some agencies are turning to cloud-based solutions to help drive modernization and enhance their contact center operations – but for some, there’s still a resistance to change, despite the benefits of migration to the cloud, and the pressures to do so.

Aside from the commitment of time and resources, which is significant, what is holding IT decision makers back from making the shift to a cloud-based solution? After all, omnichannel cloud-based contact center solutions offer much greater functionality to both the contact center agent and the citizen: the ability to leverage voicebots and chatbots, for example, and the option to engage on any channel including SMS, web chat, email, mobile chat and more, respectively.

The first concern that I often hear is the lack of a clear roadmap and set of guidelines for migrating existing contact centers to the cloud. The goal of most migrations is to host applications and data in the most secure cloud-based environment possible, which also enables greater cost-savings, performance, and efficiency.

But without guidelines or the proper planning, a migration could worsen workload performance and lead to higher IT costs – negating some of the main benefits of switching to a cloud solution in the first place.

The second is a significant concern over security. When an agency switches from traditional servers, storage, and other onsite IT equipment to the cloud – with it comes different challenges in terms of protecting and securing PHI, PII, and other sensitive information.

As more and more agencies of all sizes begin to seriously consider or take steps to initiate cloud migrations, they face a delicate balancing act between prioritizing information security and enhancing and optimizing the citizen experience.  IT decision makers are seeking cloud-based solutions that help do both.

To address these concerns, consider solutions authorized by FedRAMP, the program that enables agencies to balance modernization and security by providing a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services.

The need for such a program is great. According to Dominic Sale, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Solutions, Technology Transformation Services of General Services Administration (GSA), “Authorized clouds make undergoing a remote transformation easy…[those] not on a secure cloud risk becoming stale, outdated and not easily trusted by the public.”

Here are several aspects of how FedRAMP authorization helps achieve all of the outcomes that agencies are seeking in their cloud-based contact center solution:

Enables a focus on the mission

Migrating to a FedRAMP authorized cloud solution platform, which has built-in, ongoing monitoring and reporting back to GSA, that can alleviate concerns about breaches and staying in compliance. Agencies can mitigate security risks, reduce operational costs, and stay on top of their missions and ever-changing citizen needs. This will enable the ability to dedicate even more focus on delivering world-class services to citizens.

Provides an optimized CX
FedRAMP authorized cloud contact centers enable agencies to support a secure, remote workforce – ensuring ongoing availability in times of health, weather, or economic crisis. These agents can deliver excellent customer service from almost anywhere using a secure end-user connection point.

Delivers peace of mind and improves citizen trust
Preventing PHI and PII from falling into the wrong hands is of critical importance. FedRAMP authorization alleviates and addresses those concerns by providing baseline requirements for securing cloud products and services in a standard way.

Due to IT mandates to modernize, many agencies are moving away from legacy systems. Citizens are demanding a new way of interacting with the government that is not currently supported by those outdated systems. FedRAMP is enabling state, local, and federal government agencies to safely access a wide range of cloud-based technologies while remaining secure and compliant. Not only can FedRAMP authorization provide enhanced security and efficiency in the cloud as well as cost savings, but it also paves the way for agencies to serve citizens better.

This content is written by Raj Parameswaran, President, Information Technology, MAXIMUS Federal.

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