How to take the cloud to the next level

The next level of the cloud: From monolithic to modern HHS systems

State and local health and human services (HHS) agencies are under constant pressure to cut costs, become more efficient and improve outcomes for those they serve. Modern solutions help HHS agencies meet immediate needs while keeping pace with rapid change.

One such solution is cloud technology. It provides the scalability, availability and processing power that can be difficult and costly to create in-house. HHS can truly transform when they take the cloud to the next level through business process-as-a-service (BPaaS).

Benefits of BPaaS cloud technology

Medicaid and other HHS organizations have a history of building complex, monolithic systems  that are risky and costly to maintain. To modernize, they need an agile, modular approach. BPaaS can help agencies modernize systems, overcome challenges and deliver services .

BPaaS enables the user-centric experiences citizens expect, with online portals, mobile apps and other technologies that are part of daily life. For staff, technology simplifies workflows and helps them provide better service. 

BPaaS helps break down data silos to enable data sharing. This also improves data security, confidentiality and compliance. HHS agencies have a vast amount of health records, financial information and other sensitive data, often stored in the silos of legacy systems that make it more difficult to manage and protect.

Cloud evolution

The secret to successfully modernizing HHS services is a BPaaS approach that takes cloud capabilities to the next level. This is done by incorporating human expertise and HHS best practices.

BPaaS is not only a platform with basic functionality. It includes industry process knowledge, built-in analytics and various forms of business process automation. HHS agencies can tap into that and thereby extend and improve their services.

This goes beyond the typical benefits of the cloud to provide a complete turnkey solution that is adapted to HHS-specific needs. It helps organizations manage change, reduce the burden on developers and modernize more quickly and effectively.

BPaaS breaks processes into discrete modules that focus on specific aspects of health and human services. This modular approach allows agencies to build new capabilities while still interacting with legacy systems — unlike an all-or-nothing approach where requirements change before the system is fully implemented. Examples of typical BPaaS modules for HHS include integrated eligibility services, analytics and data warehousing, and Medicaid business operations and health care services. BPaaS lets you deploy only the processes you need, which could potentially save millions of dollars.

BPaaS also helps state and local agencies embrace emerging technology. The "internet of things," computing, AI and blockchain could revolutionize how HHS agencies provide services and care. These technologies are meant to deal with an immense scale of information to drive insight and reduce complexity.

A services-based approach allows organizations to think about these technologies in terms of larger business processes instead of discrete components. That helps them integrate in a more effective way to solve more complex scenarios.

Adding value by improving outcomes

State and local governments expect to spend a total of $28 billion on HHS-related IT in 2019,* and cloud computing is a top priority. As agencies decide where to invest hard-won funding, they’ll need to consider solutions that allow them to:

• Modernize at their own pace
• Continue to use legacy systems as needed
• Maximize the value of every dollar

BPaaS solutions represent the next evolution of cloud-based services. By improving client outcomes and reducing costs, BPaaS can add tremendous value to an agency’s investment in HHS solutions.

To learn more and about best practices for getting started, read the article. 

_{*Government Technology Navigator: 2019 State and Local Government Health and Human Services IT Spend, govtech.com/navigator/numbers/2019-health--human-services-it-spend_193.html.}