If you are an IT government contractor – this is for you! Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) are required to be FedRAMP certified by June 2014. Current deployments of cloud-based services in use by Federal agencies must be compliant with FedRAMP guidelines by June 2014. Commercial providers that offered cloud-based services to the Federal government or in the acquisition process prior to June 5, 2012, must have a FedRAMP P-ATO. Government agencies have to move one system to a cloud provider within 12 months of project start, and two more systems within 18 months of launch, by the end of 2015.

Businesses are always evolving, and through their evolution and expansion technology becomes obsolete and organizations find themselves needing an upgrade. As a customer base grows the need for technology grows greater. Most organizations spend thousands of dollars attaining and upgrading to the most current technology, but still have many problems implementing their new technology to meet all the demands of their customers. Organizations that invest in technology should also consider the effects of its implementation. Possessing technology does not necessarily prove it effective, and every organization needs an efficient system that can manage the services provided by its technology. That is where IT Service Management (ITSM) is born. ITSM is crucial to the functionality and expansion of organizations in several aspects: The number of requests for automating business processes is rapidly growing, ITSM can ensure speedy and accurate delivery to both internal end users and external customers. ITSM boosts productivity which results in lower operating costs and faster adaptability to customer requests for your business. ITSM can effectively capture and share knowledge for IT end users to quickly locate and fix reported problems. Upgrades and requests expand quickly, ITSM can assure a single, user friendly customer portal for reporting problems, software upgrades and requesting services. Tracking historical and real-time data through ITSM allows IT leaders to spot problems faster and using historical reports will increase productivity through analyzing past trends. IT Managers and business leaders can access their system from any location, allowing customers and employees to conduct transactions at any time, from anywhere. ITSM implementation is also designed for simplicity, meaning IT leaders aren’t required to have any special skills to create the customer forms, dashboards, and other various components. Implementing a successful ITSM strategy can help growing organizations process, maintain, and support a skyrocketing customer in-take and manage customers with a cost effective and simple solution. Read more about the benefits of ITSM and how it helped organizations such as PCMall and Evergreen in this white paper, “Leveraging Your IT Service Management.”

Technology is always changing, and with each change every successful organization needs to adjust to the upgrades and advancements. The downside of not upgrading can create incorrect data entry, poorly tracked documents, excess time consumption, and an overall increase in costs as a result. The solution to these problems - an Asset Management Solution (AMS).

Customer service is one of the most important aspects of a successful company. Good customer service can increase company sales, raise competition, and enhance the image of a company. These same attributes can be applied to government agencies as well. Good customer service will enhance the public’s image of government, and give citizens a sense of support and security from their government agencies.

Having trouble with Windows XP? Always having troubleshooting problems and need help adjusting and migrating to the update? This April, Microsoft is ending support for Windows XP, and as a result, government agencies are quickly migrating to Windows 7.

Contrary to popular belief, teenagers are not the only ones posting pictures and content on social media platforms. Federal, state, and local government agencies have been implementing commercially provided media technologies to promote their services and support their missions. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlighted several distinct methods that 23 of 24 major agencies are using to increase citizen engagement through social media platforms. Such activities include reposting information available on official agency websites, posting information not available on agency websites, soliciting comments from the public, responding to comments on content, and providing links to non-government websites.