The article I read was called “IBM Targets Smart Cities, Government Services” by J. Nicholas Hoover from Information Week. The article is about how IBM has created software for the use of government agencies. This software can be used by all sorts of governments ranging from local government agencies, all the way up to federal government agencies. The software covers a wide range of tasks needed within a government agency by targeting five specific areas: tax and revenue management, safety and security, social services, transportation, and integrated urban infrastructures or "smart cities."
I feel that it is very important in our world today to have the most efficient government possible, whether it’s local government or the federal government. IBM has not only provided information technologies for businesses and people but also for governments. IBM's general manager for global government and education, Gerry Mooney said "IBM has decades of experience working with various government entities worldwide and understands the need for a unified approach. We are bringing that expertise to a single integrated platform that can now connect different agency teams for real-time views that span the entire government structure, allowing for a quicker, more targeted response as situations of all kinds emerge." With this approach, companies like IBM will help governments become more efficient by providing these kinds of services. With this kind of software governments can respond much quicker when faced with problems. This system will decrease the lag time from when the problem arises to when a decision to solve the problem is made.
Our government system today is slow enough, mainly because there are so many moving parts within the system, so we cannot afford to waste time with technologies that are not integrated with one another. Some government agencies are very complex which can easily cause different departments within the agency to sometimes not be on the same page with one another. However, if these government agencies implement software, like the one IBM is offering, to integrate the different departments within the agency so that everything is on the same platform, then the government agency will cut their costs and be able to work much faster.
I found it interesting that IBM creates this kind of software for many different industries. IBM has created software to integrate products for governments, hospitals, companies, etc. Even if the industries are completely different, the software created has the same goal, which is to integrate the contents so that they are able to operate more efficiently.
I believe that it is important that more companies like IBM create software that is able to integrate contents of a company. If this were to happen, more companies would be able to afford this kind of software and operate more efficiently. When a company does not have all of its components on the same platform, their costs will increase and the operation of the company will slow down. I believe every company will need to put this kind of software into their company in the future in order to effectively operate. There is no need for companies or governments to wait on implementing this kind of software. The faster they integrate their components, the quicker they will see their operations run more efficiently.
This was a very interesting article. It is cool to see how we are going to be able to use technology to make are cities smarter as a whole. We will be able to use technology to help bring down tax costs by reducing the amount of expenses that our Government has. I also think that it is cool that our cities will be able to be a lot more efficient and faster moving because of this new software technology. There will not be as many traffic jams, and the city will move faster as a whole. I hope that this software helps our Government work at a much faster and efficient pace
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