5 Key Takeaways From Tyler Connect 2021

Tyler Podcast Episode 28, Transcript

Our Tyler Technologies podcast explores a wide range of complex, timely, and important issues facing communities and the public sector. Expect approachable tech talk mixed with insights from subject matter experts and a bit of fun. Host and Content Marketing Director Jeff Harrell – and other guest hosts – highlights the people, places, and technology making a difference. Give us listen today and subscribe.

Episode Summary

Tyler Technologies held its' annual user conference Connect 2021 in April under the theme, Virtually Possible. We tracked the Top 5 key takeaways from the highly successful conference and share them with you today. Meredith Trimble, Tyler's Editorial Manager, is back on the show to talk about them in detail, and explains what they mean to the public sector.

Transcript

Meredith Trimble: So whether it's finance, tax, permitting and licensing, or public safety, courts, justice partners, and school systems as well, data ties it all together and creates the connections that solve problems. Those problem solving solutions definitely lead us to the best days.

Jeff Harrell: From Tyler Technologies, it's the Tyler Tech podcast, where we talk about issues facing communities today and highlight the people, places, and technology making a difference. I'm Jeff Harrell, I'm your host. I'm the director of content marketing for Tyler Technologies, and I'm so glad that you joined me.

Well, every year Tyler Technologies has Connect. That is our big annual user conference. And this year looked a little different than in past years, as you might expect. We actually had a virtual conference called Virtually Possible. And what we wanted to do today is share with you five of the key takeaways that we heard during that three day conference. So joining me today is Tyler's editorial manager, Meredith Trimble. She joined me on episode number 23 when we were talking about five key themes in the public sector for 2021. But Meredith has an extensive background in the public sector. She's a former elected official. She writes the Tyler blog and she also writes for third party publications like ELGL and GovLoop, and American City and County. So we are very excited to have Meredith back on the show to talk about five key takeaways from Tyler Connect 2021. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Meredith Trimble.

Well, Meredith I'm excited to have you back on the podcast. And we just had what I think is a very successful Connect 2021, that looked a lot different than our normal Connect. We love to meet our users in person, but for obvious reasons with the pandemic, we weren't able to do that. But I feel like, and I'd love your perspective on that, it felt like people have adopted to this virtual reality and that the conference went really, really well.

Meredith Trimble: Well, you're right. We're absolutely still in this virtual conference world, but hopefully we're starting to come out of that. But what we found with Tyler Connect is that virtual could also be synonymous with engaged. And that was really exciting to see.

We are connected.

Jeff Harrell: That was. And I think our theme Virtually Possible was perfect because we got to do some things maybe even that you can't do live, like have a ton of people in one room watching Steve Martin and things like that. So I think from the overall perspective, it worked out really, really well. So we wanted to talk about all key takeaways, and there were many, we wanted to talk about maybe the five... And we love to give a little bonus at the end as well, but the five biggest takeaways from Connect 2021. So Meredith what's the first one that you've written down?

Meredith Trimble: The first takeaway is that we are all still connected. One thing that our chief marketing officer, Samantha Crosby said in her event summary is that Connect 2021 really will stand out as an affirmation that we are all just as strongly connected as ever before, and perhaps even more so. It's almost too bad, Jeff, that this show is only audio because one of the best visuals to come out of Connect for me was this full, vibrant picture mosaic. I don't know, it's like a colorful e-quilt almost, and it's made up of the faces of our attendees who visited our virtual photo booth during the event. So we've got pictures of coworkers together, public sector staff in government and home offices, and of course all the animal coworkers out there too. And it's a really great visual that just speaks to that continued connection that we all have, even though in this case it was a virtual event. And of course there are numbers that point to connections as well. I can give you just some of those from the event.

We had a total of 6,168 attendees, which I think might be a near record attendance level for us. And they engaged in over 73,000 class views and consumed nearly 40,000 hours of content. And that's just a lot when you think about it. They participated in over 670 chat sessions in our solution and partner hubs. And those are by and large the numbers that show the attendees connections to us, to Tyler. But I think also meaningful are the connections between the attendees themselves, the public sector peers. These are the people who understand each other's challenges and have tested out solutions on the ground. So they're able to give those insider pro tips and tricks and practical advice really from someone who's been there and knows. And they made over 1,200 meaningful peer connections through all sorts of different channels, including over 240 brain date small group meeting topics. And that was one of the really unique features of this virtual conference. And I don't know if anyone was on LinkedIn during Connect from our side, but there were over 1,200 engagements happening there as well.

And finally, our attendees also joined in a little friendly competition. They logged in over eight million steps in support of the San Antonio Food Bank. I mentioned those because those types of industry are so affirming and energizing and valuable. And so often we see that they translate into career-long friendships.

Jeff Harrell: Well, as a ultramarathon runner, over eight million steps, that's way more than I've ever gotten any kind of ultramarathon. That's incredible.

Meredith Trimble: It's the power of coming together and joining forces. It's amazing.

Jeff Harrell: Absolutely. One of the things I really enjoyed is usually I would find classes that I wanted to attend that were happening at the same time and you just have to pick if you're at a live event. Because we were virtual, I was actually able to go to as many sessions as I wanted because a lot of them were on demand. And you mentioned the brain dates. Those are really cool because you got to pick different topics. It's almost like a little virtual meeting room where you got to talk about different topics with a smaller number of people and really connect that way. So I think even though we would love to be live and we hope to be live this next year, some virtual possibilities were there that maybe we didn't normally see.

Meredith Trimble: And our attendees really embraced those and took advantage of those and made those connections meaningful. And I think it's important to just say that we talk about connections at Tyler so much because of our connected communities' vision. We call it a vision, but in practice, I think it's more and more becoming the reality. Connected communities, just for people who aren't familiar with the term, just have a modern digital infrastructure. And that's what bridges local government agencies with other jurisdictions in the public across some of those more traditional department or geographic boundaries. And the promise is that those connections help in solving real problems and creating thriving communities and a more just society. And actually, as I'm talking about it, Jeff, a good podcast topic would be an update on the state of connected communities where the vision started and where local governments are now would be an interesting thing to measure and assess.

Government Heroes

Jeff Harrell: I love that. I'm writing it down. You're helping me fill the schedule for the remainder of the year. I love that. Well, we are still connected. That's the first big takeaway. Meredith, what's the second takeaway that you noted from Connect 2021?

Meredith Trimble: My second takeaway was that government practitioners are absolutely among the heroes of 2020. That's absolutely not news to our listeners, I'm sure. But I think it deserves to be said out loud and often. Each Connect conference seeks to make public sector attendees work lives easier by providing them with new ways to streamline work or find efficiencies or receive and share information or make smarter decisions or achieve their goals through technology. That's what the conference does. And this year's event did that. But from the first minutes of the opening session, Connect 20201's focus was really on honoring and celebrating the public sector heroes who have demonstrated time and again what is virtually possible in this tumultuous time that we've had.

The conference theme itself, Virtually Possible, was a nod to their work as much as it was a recognition of our current remote world. And I think it's just important to just take a moment and state that again, that public sector servants kept those essential services afloat this past year. Tyler's president and CEO, Lynn Moore recognized this in his very opening remarks, noting that our clients also provided new and extraordinary public health communication and emergency services for their constituents while their own work and home lives were completely in upheaval. I mean, it's not like they didn't have other things going on besides serving the public. But they did it and well, and without complaint or break.

Jeff Harrell: Meredith, I love that you consistently remind me, because we talk about reopening all the time, but you remind me that governments never shut down. They were always open and trying to help their citizens live their lives through this upheaval of the pandemic. So yeah, I love the constant reminder that when we're talking about reopening that government's never closed. So number two is government practitioners are among the heroes of 2020. Meredith, any specific examples that you'd love to share with us?

Meredith Trimble: So many examples came out during this event. We learned so much just by listening to our clients talk of their amazing achievements. Some of the examples that we heard and that were also highlighted include the city of Orlando Police Department for example. They were highlighted in our opening session for how they kept their community safe during the pandemic. The Saratoga Springs City School District, their profile was a really poignant reminder of the pandemic's impact on school operations. I can give you a couple other examples. El Cajon, California, for example, had a really great example of leaders implementing a citizen self-service web portal for community development. And what's neat about that is that it moved the city from a paper environment to a completely virtual one in just 30 days. And similarly, there's Olathe, Kansas fast tracked digital transformation by shifting from paper permit to virtual ones at the onset of the pandemic.

A couple more, just because I think these are so fascinating and useful. Bexar County, Texas added new fields to its e-citation solution to enable officers to cite and release, to support social distancing and increase everybody's safety in traffic stops. And Delaware County, Pennsylvania is a good one. They moved valuation appeals from in person to phone appeals. And what that did was really help their property owners meet deadlines during a reassessment. Of course, the reassessment coincided with the pandemic. And just two more, the Superior Court of San Luis Obispo, California customized its e-filing solution so that domestic violence complaints could be filed online while shelter in place orders were in effect. So that important wheel of justice, so to speak, could keep on moving. And the New York State Division of Veterans Affairs used a case management solution that enabled staff to approve claims from their homes and that ensured uninterrupted access to benefits for veterans.

I think maybe not everybody knows that Connect is also the major forum in which we announce our Tyler Excellence Award winners each year. And these are the jurisdictions that showed innovation with technology solutions in ways that are scalable for other governments to use. And this year they also had a COVID-19 response component. So I'll just give you a couple examples. Data and insights winners included Pierce County, Washington, which used the Socrata Connected Government Cloud to centralize data about CARES Act funding, and really ensure that the allocation or distribution of that funding was on target and that they were measuring the impact. And of course, I have to mention the state of Connecticut, where I live, for being an Excellence Award winner for scaling its open data program to facilitate inter-agency collaboration from the Department of Public Health to the state Department of Education. That collaboration gave all the residents really in depth daily COVID-19 updates and supported effective policy decisions. And I have to say, I still try to catch the 4:00 PM daily updates, and I'm personally very grateful for them.

Moving to the Cloud

Jeff Harrell: Well, we call it the Tyler Excellence Awards for a reason. You can see with all those examples just the excellence that our clients work with in helping their constituents solve the problems that they're dealing with. So thank you, Meredith for all those awesome examples. Government practitioners truly are heroes of 2020. That's one of our big takeaways. All right, number three. I know we talk a lot about the cloud. So much that I think sometimes people hear that term over and over again. But man, it is such an important piece of where the public sector is headed. What's our big takeaway number three?

Meredith Trimble: Absolutely. Number three is the public sector is moving to the cloud. That was absolutely apparent. The clients who were honored at Connect and with those Tyler Excellence Awards excelled in innovation sure, like we just said, but in many cases they accelerated some of their moves to more modern technology to facilitate those innovations. And so often, this included a move to the cloud. The journey to the cloud is one that we're making at Tyler together with our clients. And while Tyler's developing these cloud solutions for more than 15 years, we too accelerated this development at the onset of the pandemic to help our clients overcome those new challenges quickly and to provide them with the agility that they absolutely needed.

Tyler's chief operating officer, Jeff Puckett discussed this at Connect with our attendees at length. And specifically, he talked about what the cloud means for the actual government technology users. And he put it simply that the cloud offers more flexibility to adapt to the rapidly changing world of technology and allows Tyler to innovate and deliver more features to support clients and their operational needs. It really just provides more of what they want. And he also noted, of course, the additional cloud benefits. And these were also talked about a great deal in the product based general sessions. But the cloud increases connectivity, mobility, security, scalability, all of those things, along with more timely and stable software releases. So as you can see, the cloud is a very comprehensive and necessary component of what our government clients are trying to achieve.

Jeff Harrell: And Meredith, do you think because of the pandemic that journey to the cloud has been accelerated for some of the clients? Did you hear a lot about that during Connect?

Meredith Trimble: I do. I do think the cloud has been accelerated. For example, it was readily apparent at the onset of the pandemic that those jurisdictions that already had operations in the cloud were much more able to pivot quickly and adapt to a remote environment in terms of staff were working from home, engaging citizens in new, online opportunities, providing virtual services to their constituents. Those jurisdictions, so to speak, how to leg up. And I think that's something that was very noticeable. One of the things that we've talked about in the past, and I think you've talked about on the podcast, is that those types of innovations that were necessary to continue operations in a pandemic are actually things that are going to continue way past COVID-19 because they have so many benefits to residents and individuals and communities beyond the pandemic. And the cloud in terms of its security, mobility, scalability is necessary for all of that.

Cybersecurity Matters

Jeff Harrell: Meredith, you mentioned security that leads us into the fourth big takeaway, and I think that's cyber security matters. What do you mean by that?

Meredith Trimble: Cyber security does matter. Our Connect educational opportunities reflected the environment that we all find ourselves in right now regarding some very real risks. Extended work from home, as everybody has heard, it has increased cybersecurity risks to the point where the threat landscape is evolving more rapidly than ever before. A recent security report noted that cyber attacks on state and local governments in particular are up 50% in just the last three years. So all of our product sessions covered cybersecurity mitigation strategies, and Connect also hosted two really special keynote speakers on the topic.

Assistant Special Agent in Charge Matt O'Neill is a special agent with the US Secret Service Office of Investigations, and he talked with our attendees about threats coming from both nation states and from financially motivated cyber criminals. And it was a really fascinating session. His statistics were both sobering and instructive. He said, for example, that 81% of hacking related breaches leveraged either stolen or weak passwords, which is something to think about, and that 50% of all fraud losses in 2020 were related to business email compromise. And those compromises represented, this is an astounding amount to me, $26 billion in losses for victims. And he talked about ransomware also saying that ransomware infecting a system mostly through phishing emails increased 109% in the last two years. I felt like as he was talking, every other sentence was just a high level bullet point that I needed to take in and remember. But one thing he said really stood out and that is cyber is a team sport. Meaning the human factor is important there, and all employees at any level in an agency are important in mitigating risk. And he also said, and you'll appreciate this, that prevention is cheaper than recovery. Which I think is pretty self-explanatory.

The other speaker was Dan Lohrmann, who is Chief Security Officer and Chief Strategist at Security Mentor, and he's also a senior fellow at the Center for Digital Government. He provided tips on how our attendees can protect their data in a world of new cyber threats and really make life more secure online. That means work life and personal life. And he asked the question, "Are you prepared if you get hit?" Which I'm sure made everyone there really think. It made me really think. And he also put the risk of an interconnected world into perspective. I thought this was really fascinating. He said an average of 70 million smartphones are lost each year. And he said only 7% of those are recovered. And he also noted that 80% of the cost of the losses from lost devices are due to data breaches.And I think the point there was that the information on these devices is just worth so much more than the actual device itself. And regardless of what it is, laptop, phone, what really matters is how we're protecting it and what the strength of that security is.

And actually the top tips from both of these speakers are detailed in a blog on Tyler's Resource Center if people are interested. But I think it's kind of useful to pull back to the 30,000 foot view here and just mention what Lynn Moore explained to our attendees, which is that cybersecurity is such an important component of a modern gov tech stack. And that's that digital foundation that we talked about that makes efficient, integrated government operations possible. It's what enables connected communities. And the bottom line in terms of this number three or number four cyber security matters is that creating a culture of cyber security really means focusing on your people, your process and your technology controls, and that's what's going to help agencies mitigate their risk.

Partners are valuable.

Jeff Harrell: Yeah, cyber security is such an important topic. Both of those presentations I really enjoyed. And I would also like to refer our listeners back to episode number 18 of the Tyler Tech podcast, where we talk about tips to build cyber resilience in the public sector, a nice handy resource for that as well. And I believe, Meredith, your blog mirrored that as well.

Well, Meredith one of the most powerful, I felt like, presentations or sessions at Connect was a round table between Samantha Crosby, who's our chief marketing officer, and the National League of Cities and the National Association of Counties. So I think that's our fifth big takeaway was that partners are so valuable.

Meredith Trimble: Partners are valuable. I think we have all recognized that we're part of a larger ecosystem, and the pandemic enhanced cooperation and sharing an alignment in a way that maybe didn't feel as urgent as it did prior to COVID-19. And you're absolutely right, one of the true highlights of the conference was just an exceptional panel conversation with Clarence Anthony, the National League of Cities CEO and Matt Chase, the National Association of Counties executive director. These two national industry leaders shared their insight and vision on how cities and counties can harness this moment of opportunity to ensure an equitable reopening and recovery. And what was so interesting about their conversation was to just get a sense of their cooperation and alignment in how they lobbied the federal government for recovery funds to help counties and cities and smaller jurisdictions.

They were in Washington DC, and they were there telling local government stories and making sure that the conversation wasn't just about these jurisdictions' revenue issues, but also about the demand side, the increased expenses due to resident needs. And that would never have been a part of the conversation without these leaders. Their collaborative efforts really made a difference in securing relief for local jurisdictions. And the two certainly had thoughts on how governments should best use those funds to ensure, number one, equity, but also future stability. That there's a difference between just spending money and investing it. And I thought that was really fantastic of them to share their alignment on that. Their partnership with us is important too, because there's a critical intersection between smart policy and the technology that enables it. So that's one thing that really came out in this conference to me, is how in this environment and going forward, these collaborations and partnerships and the ability to share is going to be just so important.

Jeff Harrell: I love that, Meredith, and I just wanted to note too, if you want a little more detail on a lot of the happenings at Connect, you can go to the Tyler Tech blog, which is on our Resource Center. So if you go to tylertech.com, you'll see resources at the top of the page, there is tons of great content, a lot of it written by Meredith, on a variety of different topics, including the ones we covered here today. Well, we love to give, Meredith, a bonus. So do we have a bonus for this one, some of the key takeaways from Connect?

Meredith Trimble: Well, I also love a bonus and one of the things that jumped out at me from the beginning of Connect throughout Connect and again at the end was that truly the best days are ahead of us. Our data and insight session, for example, covered health state and local governments have this once in a generation chance to create a more resilient, equitable future. And when we keep moving forward with what we've begun in terms of creatively using existing technology systems or investing in new solutions, enabling remote operations and virtual services, truly enhancing citizen engagement and self service, things like gaining accurate insights for recovery and continued performance metrics, these are the innovations and investments that all of our product groups have a hand in. And these are the innovations and investments that are paving the way for the public sector to emerge from this pandemic transformed and in a stronger position.

In a context of public health crises, disrupted economy and important calls for social justice, it's really critical to remember also how data can help in that response. We had a really engaging keynote session by Natalie Evans Harris, she's senior advisor to Secretary of Commerce and a 16 year veteran of the National Security Agency. And she talked about how COVID-19 is forcing us to figure out how we can share data rapidly and responsibly. And she really impressed upon attendees the importance of asking themselves two questions. The first was what role does government serve in ensuring equity of opportunities, even five to 10 years from now? And the second was what is the relationship between data, digital technology and societal outcomes? And that's where the future is. It's about data and what it can do for governments as well as society and individuals. So whether it's finance, tax, permitting and licensing, or public safety, courts, justice partners, and school systems as well, data ties it all together and creates the connections that solve problems. Those problem solving solutions definitely lead us to the best days.

 

Jeff Harrell: Well, Meredith this has been awesome. I'm going to read through these again. Top five key takeaways from Connect 2021 is number one, we are still connected. Two, that government practitioners are among the heroes of 2020. Three, that the public sector is moving to the cloud. Four, cybersecurity matters. Five, partners are valuable. And six, the bonus, the best days are ahead of us. As I mentioned, if you'd like to read more content from Meredith, go to the Tyler Tech Resource Center, tylertech.com, resources at the top of the page. Meredith, if someone wanted to connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that?

Meredith Trimble: Anybody listening is welcome to reach out to me over email. My email address is meredith.trimble@tylertech.com. And I am always interested in stories out there of local government successes, as well as ideas as to what people want to read about from the Tyler blog.

Jeff Harrell: Well, Meredith great stuff as always. Thanks again for joining us on the Tyler Tech podcast.

Meredith Trimble: Thank you so much.

Jeff Harrell: Well, I appreciate Meredith joining us. Five great takeaways from Connect 2021. Things we'll be watching as we go throughout the year. I want to thank Meredith for joining us. Want to thank you for listening. We have a new episode dropping every other Monday, so please join us. Please subscribe to the podcast. Until next time, this is Jeff Harrell, director of content marketing for Tyler Technologies. We'll talk to you soon.