Technology is constantly evolving creating ever expanding demands for user experiences that leverage the latest tech innovations in an intuitive and elegant manner. For government agencies keen to maximize the ROI of their internal development platforms, this requires a delicate balancing act wherein new technologies are investigated through the lens of a long-term innovation vision. Evaluating new technologies through the filter of an overarching innovation roadmap equips agencies to be responsive in assimilating new innovations that look certain to stand the ‘test of time’ while simultaneously mitigating demands for trendy technologies that present more likely as a ‘flavour of the month.’
As stewards of the POSSE Platform, the solution experts of Computronix maintain a comparable discipline rigorously evaluating emerging technology trends to ascertain the innovations most worthy of assimilating into the ongoing refinement of our award-winning solution. This assessment of both current and emerging technology trends and their envisioned integration into the POSSE Platform are expressed in the POSSE Product Roadmap providing both conceptual and practical insights into where this new technology is headed and how it will be leveraged by millions of POSSE users going forward.
In this technology trends excerpt from the POSSE Product Roadmap, we summarize where the latest innovations are leading us and their eventual adaptation within your ‘Powered by POSSE’ Solutions.
Remote Work
Post pandemic, we see both public and private sectors embracing the remote work model. This coincides with the pre-existing generational trend for seeking greater work-life balance and flexibility in the work environment. These trends will impact urbanization and perhaps even the face of urban centers in the future.
Throughout the pandemic and into the present day, our POSSE Solutions have proven the value of automation assisted, self-service portals that equip citizens and internal staff alike to carry on the essential services of governance on a 24/7 basis from any device and any location.
Decision Intelligence
While multiple data sources have become more ubiquitous, there remains the challenge of which information is relevant to use, and to what extent to automatically drive organizational decisions. Privacy is a major concern, with mounting legal challenges to the unapproved use of user information.
While misuse of information is largely confined to the private sector, government organizations have come under increased scrutiny with attention to information usage and transparency of governance.
From a platform perspective, the onus is on allowing collection and secure access to business analytical information related to our process automation solution. This includes ongoing refinement of the data mart and dashboards, availability of workflow statistics, and observability from the systems perspective.
Cloud-Native Platforms
Advancements in deployment, scaling, and management (logging, monitoring, microservices), and the technical maturity of such, make products such as Kubernetes and Docker, par for the course in modern cloud hosting. The underlying technology and architecture of the POSSE platform fits well with cloud-native concepts. While we currently use a custom communication layer and broker, the architectural components (presentation server, application server, worker processes, databases) are already isolated using internal APIs.
Low-Code / No-Code Solutions
The trend toward low-code/no code platforms (or the no-code revolution) is based not only on the pending IT skills crisis, but also business enablement.
The POSSE platform has leaned toward enablement since its inception, with business users completing much of the configuration for many client sites. With our latest WebUI module, POSSE has now solidly settled in as a low-code offering. We firmly believe in providing business-focused configuration with flexibility where needed for complex business and integration.
Important: Our PLS and ABC COTS products are built on top of the POSSE platform to offer a No-Code Platform for their respective lines of business. Note that the POSSE 8 architecture also allows more complex business components to be developed and reused by business users across the organization.
Digital Transformation
The recent pandemic has been a catalyst for the acceleration of “online everything.” Along with the economic impact comes a dramatic change in user expectations, driving focus and innovation. The increase in online transactions has also increased user expectations with respect to online government services. In response to this ever growing trend, the POSSE platform provides a fully responsive, multilingual, accessible public portal with ecommerce integration.
Cybersecurity Mesh
Security continues to be at the forefront of software concerns (kudos for 2022’s trend name of the year!). The mesh refers to bringing together all aspects of security and integrating best of breed solutions. Security is only as good as its weakest link.
Note that “Passwordless” authentication has come to the forefront, as the user community tires of the plethora of passwords, special requirements, and multifactor authentication. POSSE security integration is already capable of handling external authentication; therefore, as soon a client implements a new security mechanism, it can be integrated into the POSSE platform.
The POSSE roadmap gives high attention to observability, including data access and security logs that can be used by best-of-class security information and event management (SIEM) tools.
Accessibility
Accessibility covers a wide breadth of usage and challenges: color differentiation, attention disorders, motor skills, motion triggers, poor eyesight, and full blindness to name a few. Technology includes screen readers, braille devices, alternate input controls, pointing devices, speech recognition etc.
Commercial interests have driven many of the first forays into language and accessibility; however, it is government organizations that have the mandate to ensure their citizens are served to the fullest. Regulations provide the foundation for change, along with international organizations such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
With the release of POSSE WebUI, Computronix has established accessibility as a foundational concept. With the release of POSSE 7.4.2, we believe that upwards of 90% of WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance can be achieved out-of-the-box by the WebUI public module, with full compliance achieved through POSSE configuration.
Sustainable Energy Solutions
While not directly related to the software industry, environmental concerns and the reaction to global warming directly impacts our land management, environment, and oil sector clients. Renewable energy has gained momentum throughout the pandemic, increasing its share of the market, while also seeing a cost reduction. For the public, this has also led to greater scrutiny of decisions made in this area.
One of the more direct impacts in terms of work management software is the demand for transparency in governance. The public want to see that decisions are well informed and prudent, that the process includes acceptable checkpoints, and that there are tangible results. The POSSE platform provides a clear view into permit process history, with backing documentation, process checkpoints, and business audit information.
In addition to the above technology trends, the solution experts at Computronix are fully immersed in the process to evaluate and leverage further innovations such as Artificial Intelligence, Hyper Automation, Distributed Cloud Systems, and more as these technologies evolve into more fully realized and mature service oriented solutions. Such innovation planning is a core component of our corporate culture. In fact, Computronix invests in excess of 12 per cent of annual revenue into ongoing product research and development to further refine a government enterprise platform that we’ve already been developing for over 40 years!
That ongoing financial commitment reinforces the fundamental goal of our corporate culture, to build the very best government software solutions in the world to ensure total client satisfaction. By keeping our focus on this goal, we ensure that new technology trends and emerging innovations are evaluated with one question uppermost in mind, “How can this technology be best leveraged to improve the lives of our clients and the citizens they serve?”
