BUILDING A TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION TO SUPPORT RECOVERY: Using ARPA Funds at the State and Local Level

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) is a $1.9 trillion federal stimulus bill intended to speed up recovery from the pandemic and the ongoing recession. The bill provides $350 billion for state, local, and tribal governments. With ARPA’s emphasis on key infrastructure projects, it is important to underscore the reality that essential infrastructure often depends heavily on technology systems and services. Despite being foundational to state and local government operations, this technology infrastructure is often slow to modernize for the analytics and capabilities needed to empower the organization, the public sector workforce, and the constituents they serve.

With broad potential uses and relatively few limitations, the funding could be transformational to pandemic recovery. Below are some key recommendations for using ARPA funds to strengthen technology infrastructure in ways that align with the intent of the program.

1.????INVESTING IN INFRASTRUCTURE MODERNIZATION

Many long-term capital projects to modernize critical business systems such as ERP and Human Capital Management tools were slowed or halted altogether as funds shifted to support critical and direct pandemic response efforts.

Public sector organizations utilizing funds to move aging on-premise systems to more reliable, secure, flexible, and dynamic cloud solutions, stand to realize significant long-term benefits, by leveraging proven cloud migration models, available from experienced business application providers. ?

2.????SUPPORTING A HYBRID WORKFORCE

Human Capital Management is a high-risk issue due to skills gaps, retirement waves, and the changing nature of public sector work. Organizations need to modernize their talent acquisition, talent development, and human capital strategic planning frameworks and systems. Becoming a talent destination is a crucial component of workforce resilience, particularly as public sector personnel have been stretched thin responding to the pandemic. This has caused mass hiring and training needs for new or under-skilled employees.

As governments continue their vaccination distribution efforts, external workforce enhancement is key to completing short-term pandemic-related programs and reinvigorating vital government services.

3.????GAUGING SENTIMENT TO IMPROVE SERVICE

As organizations grapple with the cultural and physical service shifts brought on by the pandemic, gathering, evaluating, and understanding perceptions and satisfaction levels becomes a crucial component of any constituent outreach opportunity. Internally, organizations need to understand employees’ perspectives and foster a culture of collaboration, empowerment, and inclusion. By incorporating a strategic approach to the collection and analysis of key insights, agencies can prioritize and drive informed actions to improve the workforce experience.?

4.????DEEPENING INTELLIGENCE WITH ANALYTICS

By leveraging data as a strategic asset, public sector organizations can identify, merge, synthesize, and use disparate data across systems in a cohesive way. This leads to real-time analytics to help drive both tactical and strategic decision-making at all levels of the organization.

The adoption of a data-driven strategy and a centralized toolset enables real-time insights and supports service delivery that results in greater public confidence and higher engagement, even during post-pandemic hybrid operations.

These recommendations should be considered as components of a larger recovery strategy. ARPA funds are not an opportunity to produce an “IT wish list” but rather to demonstrate the key role of technology as a cornerstone of your larger recovery strategies. When developing funding requests, connect your technology investment to the specific language and objectives set forth by the Treasury Department.

Using ARPA funds to modernize legacy systems through a move to the cloud and by expanding workforce and analytics tools, your organization can expedite pandemic recovery while forging a strategic path to long-term benefits and overall service improvements. Want to know more? Contact me or my colleague, Don Ingle, or check out our recent white paper on the topic - Funding Technology Enhancements at the State and Local Level Using the American Rescue Plan.