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digital services is critical, and they are taking meaningful steps toward enhancing constituent/government interactions. Cloud sits at the center1 of these efforts: Social media
and messenger apps are often incorporated into digital services, optimizing service delivery and improving customer communications across a variety of channels.
The San Francisco Fire Department, for example, uses Oracle Social Cloud to communicate with citizens on Twitter and Facebook. The department consistently delivers vital information during disasters and reassures citizens when events are resolved. It also uses the Social Cloud to monitor and respond
to social media comments, and communicates real-time safety issues, including dangerous surf conditions and rip tides.
Digital communication means more than just social media.
One state government uses the Oracle Policy Automation Cloud service to help entrepreneurs launch a new business through a decision tree of questions. The service
guides users through the process
of opening a new business and directs them to relevant information depending on the business category and legal structure.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already changing the way government and citizens interact. New AI-enabled “chatbots” help move citizens along the decision tree by answering a series of logical questions. These messaging apps are integrated
with existing citizen engagement platforms, allowing users to learn how to open a business, inquire about social benefits, or obtain other government services.
Cloud technology can provide agencies with an on-ramp to
COMPREHENSIVE CLOUD PLATFORM FOR GOVERNMENT
Oracle offers government a complete cloud vision with the broadest portfolio of cloud solutions available. Agencies are empowered to:
 LEAD THE TRANSFORMATION OF GOVERNMENT
The Oracle Cloud allows you to nimbly create modern services: Streamline back-office processes, improve employee effectiveness, and create new levels of citizen engagement.
 INTEGRATE CLOUD WITH EXISTING MISSION-CRITICAL IT SYSTEMS Optimize your IT organization by running workloads where they run best — on-premises or in the cloud. Integrate business processes across these environments and easily migrate workloads between them.
 ACCELERATE AGENCY APPLICATION INNOVATION
Enjoy rapid-application development with easy-to-use, open source tools and instant cloud access. Your team can focus on creating innovative services with world-class automation in a cloud built for maximum security.
For more information: cloud.oracle.com/public-sector
improving customer service. The Kauai Department of Water, for example, recently used the Oracle Service Cloud and Policy Automation Cloud to help customers submit service requests online or via a mobile device.
“Cloud-based solutions are
also ideal for citizen-facing
issues requiring cross-agency collaboration,” says Franco Amalfi, director of strategic government programs at Oracle. Using Platform- as-a-Service (PaaS), agencies can more easily build processes and define steps to include information- sharing among agencies, eliminating siloed data sources.
Modernizing the
Government Back Office Whether it’s improving the procure- ment process, automating the hiring process, or managing financials, agencies are looking for ways to
modernize and optimize critical in- ternal operations. While on-premis- es ERP and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solutions can
do the job, there are real benefits to using cloud-based services. Regu- lar upgrades that come along with cloud services can improve the over- all performance and security of the software, and often adds new fea- tures and functionality that would take months to test and implement on an on-premises system. Mobile solutions, analytics and social media applications are easier and faster to implement in the cloud.
Financial systems running in the cloud can benefit every government institution, no matter what the size or mission. At the Fox River Water Reclamation Authority in Elgin,
Ill., finance manager Nazer Uddin recognized his outdated system had to change; he had no ability to
1 https://www.meritalk.com/the-situation-report-will-2017-be-the-year-federal-cloud-takes-off/