In today’s tight job market, filling open technology positions can be an enormous challenge. This is especially true for state and local governments, which compete with the private sector to hire the best and brightest minds. Meanwhile, government tech teams are stretched thin as they support operational needs and take on increasing numbers of new project requests.

Public sector IT leaders are developing what experts call an “automation-first mentality” and turning to automation to improve customer satisfaction and reduce the amount of time IT shops spend on repetitive manual tasks.

As state and local governments continue to modernize, many are making the switch to codeless service management platforms that can integrate with automation tools like iPaaS. Not only do these types of tools offer great flexibility, but they also often have a lower total cost of ownership. Here are two stories from local governments who recently made the switch.

IT leaders struggle to find enough resources to meet demand, meanwhile, highly qualified technicians are spending 2-3 months a year on manual tasks that can be automated.  Anyone working the helpdesk in IT can tell you they spend a lot of time handling requests for things like password resets, name changes, onboarding, and other common IT ticket requests.

Did you know the average IT worker spends up to 10 hours a week – that’s one whole financial quarter per year – on completing manual tasks that should be automated? These are tasks like onboarding and offboarding users, name changes, department changes, password resets, etc.

Many IT leaders in state & local government are looking to improve service and project delivery while battling limited resources and tight budgets, a one-platform approach to managing services and projects could be the answer. Here’s why – by using a single platform for IT Service Management (ITSM) and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) you can better understand your resource capacity and plan accordingly.

Automation tools are helping state chief information officers (CIOs) drive more efficiency in government operations and advance citizen service delivery, according to state and local government experts.

As state and local governments look to modernize aging IT infrastructure and offer more self-service to residents in this digital age, it’s becoming clear that successful digital transformations rely on a solid IT Service Management (ITSM) foundation – a foundation that will form the backbone for a broader use of service management best practices. The combination of a clear ITIL framework and a flexible, no code, easy-to-use ITSM platform is essential for any organization striving to meet the needs of its end-users with both limited budgets and resources.

State and local governments (SLGs) are taking a page from Federal Cloud First and Cloud Smart modernization initiatives to sunset legacy systems and migrate to the cloud. Modernization efforts have been a top priority for over a decade, with cloud first appearing on NASCIO’s State CIO Top Ten priorities list in 2010 and making the list ever since.

State and local government (SLG) IT leaders overwhelmingly agree that critical infrastructures are at risk due to legacy applications and systems, according to new research from MeriTalk, underwritten by Google Cloud, Pure Storage, ServiceNow, and TeamDynamix.