Announcing the Dig IT Award finalists: Mobile
Connecting state and local government leaders
Government employees and ordinary citizens alike expect services to excel wherever they are. These projects are delivering on that promise.
GCN's Dig IT Awards recognize the best examples of discovery and innovation in government IT. Today we are pleased to announce the finalists in our fourth category: Mobile.
The projects below, along with the finalists in five other categories, will be profiled in the coming weeks in GCN and on GCN.com and honored in person at the GCN Dig IT Awards Gala on Oct. 13 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, Va. The overall winner in each category, as selected by our judging panel of top government IT innovators, will be announced at the Oct. 13 gala.
The finalists for the Big Data, Analytics and Visualization, Cloud and Infrastructure and Cybersecurity categories were published previously, and the top projects in the remaining two categories will be announced tomorrow and Thursday. Today, however, GCN's congratulations are focused on the six Dig IT Award finalists for Mobile:
Aero App Electronic Flight Bag
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Not so long ago, pilots had to pack binders stuffed with an ever-changing array of maps, charts, flight rules and other manuals. The static manuals were the first to digitize, and now the Aero App Electronic Flight Bag provides more than 25,000 pilots with a cloud-backed, constantly updated suite of maps, route plans, geo-referenced approach plates and other resources to make flying safer. Developed by NGA to support military and first-responder aviators, this tablet-delivered tool is used by the Defense Department, Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service and others.
Enterprise Mobile Provisioning Service
Social Security Administration
Mobile devices usually boast easy and intuitive user experiences. Provisioning and managing mobile across the enterprise? Not so much. The Social Security Administration, however, has worked hard to change that -- pairing a blanket purchasing agreement with a managed service to coordinate ordering, expense management and device security. SSA users now have more choices, management has better agencywide metrics and the annual spend on mobile has been cut by more than half.
Fleet Management System 2 Go
General Services Administration
GSA manages more than 200,000 vehicles for participating federal agencies, and its revamped fleet management system has dramatically improved both overall management and ease of use for government customers. Barcoded vehicles make accurate inventory management possible, and expensive dedicated hand-held scanners have been replaced by an Android app that can run on either government-issued or employee-owned mobile devices. And while the back-end system still runs on mainframes, a robust set of APIs enable real-time access and the ability to use modern mobile devices' powerful image- and voice-recognition capabilities.
Gov2Go
Information Network of Arkansas
Gov2Go brings government services to Arkansans through a single citizen-centric portal that can effectively serve as a "personal government assistant" via any mobile device. Employing user-created profiles, Gov2Go builds a personalized timeline to track important deadlines, payments and service deliveries. Additional agency integrations are in the works, and more than 12 percent of eligible state residents used the portal in its first year.
Eagle Directed Identification Environment Application
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The Eagle Directed Identification Environment, or EDDIE, application gives Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel an iPhone application and Bluetooth-connected fingerprint scanner to collect biometric data in the field far more efficiently. Capturing fingerprints used to require a laptop and portable scanner; the secured system can now be carried in an officer’s pocket.
Mobile App Software Assurance Research and Development Project
Department of Homeland Security
While third-party mobile apps are an increasingly critical part of public sector IT, agencies must be able to ensure these tools don't come with unacceptable security risks. To help in that effort, DHS' Science and Technology Directorate has deployed the Mobile App Software Assurance project. A research and development project and system for analyzing security vulnerabilities and archiving mobile applications, MASA is a modular, cloud-based solution that works across all major mobile platforms and is available to state and local as well as federal agencies.