Microsoft Federal helping agencies respond, recover, reimagine
Over the past several months, we’ve seen some heroic efforts by our federal government customers to respond to the many COVID-19 impacts that have disrupted work and life in the U.S. and around the world. From the outset, our Microsoft Federal team has partnered with government agencies of all sizes and scopes to continue delivering mission-critical work while addressing pandemic requirements and challenges. Just as you trusted us to help deploy and provide training on Microsoft Teams and other secure Microsoft 365 Government solutions, we’ll continue collaborating to ensure government continuity, delivery of critical services and mission support.
Hybrid and return to the workplace environments
While the initial pandemic response is behind us and more organizations are returning to the physical workplace, most of our federal customers are using a hybrid work approach, with few essential employees on-site and the majority continuing to work remotely. As our recovery continues, I’m pleased that Microsoft and our partners are stepping up with more tools to support a strong comeback, protect the workforce and reimagine a future of secure, agile digital transformation.
One example is our Power Platform return to the workplace solution, which enables enterprises and government agencies to prepare facilities and employees when a return to the physical workplace makes sense. We partnered with CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, to assist our joint customers return to their workplaces safely, confidently and securely. This comprehensive, end-to-end solution delivers location readiness, workplace care management, employee health and safety management, and location management to reopen responsibly, monitor intelligently and continuously protect employees in a safer work environment.
Dedicated to your missions
In addition to supporting hybrid work scenarios and a return to physical workplaces, Microsoft is working to address broader mission requirements. Microsoft Federal is inspired by how agencies adapted and responded to immediate pandemic uncertainty in real-time by enabling remote work and maintaining productivity and government continuity. As evidenced by our Power Platform, we’re partnering with the government to recover and rapidly return operations to scale. We also look forward to sharing more trusted cloud and AI solutions for government to reimagine a future of growth and new opportunities.
Committed to economic recovery
One of the nation’s biggest missions is a successful economic recovery. Microsoft is doing its part by supporting workforce and skills development, focusing on the people most impacted by pandemic-related job losses.
We recently announced a global initiative aimed at bringing more digital skills to 25 million people worldwide by the end of the year. We’re backing this initiative with $20 million in financial grants for nonprofits to assist the people who need it most – with $5 million going to U.S. nonprofits. We’ve already announced Atlanta and Houston as our first two “Accelerate” cities to help close the digital skills gap and build a more inclusive workforce.
Our Enterprise Skills Initiative is another digital skills example. Through this initiative, customers can develop and certify their employees’ technical expertise on Microsoft Azure and Dynamics 365. A comprehensive collection of training options allows employees to learn in the style that offers the best fit.
Digital transformation
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella put it best in late April when he said, “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.” That’s especially true for federal organizations.
Our Microsoft Power Platform offers employees tools to enable even greater digital transformation. This powerful suite, used by 97 percent of the Fortune 500, consists of:
- Power Apps: Agencies can build professional-grade apps in hours instead of months to modernize processes, solve tough challenges, boost productivity and automate workflows.
- Power BI and Power BI for the U.S. government: Allows team members to discover insights hidden in data to make informed, confident decisions. For 13 consecutive years, Gartner has recognized Microsoft as a Magic Quadrant Leader.
- Power Automate and Power Automate U.S. Government: Streamlines repetitive tasks and paperless processes, automates time-consuming manual tasks and helps build time-saving workflows.
- Power Virtual Agents: Require no coding to easily build conversational chatbots, which have proven invaluable for governments in rapidly delivering pandemic-related information to employees and the public.
Respond, recover, reimagine
At every phase along the respond, recover and reimagine path, you can be assured that Microsoft Federal is fully dedicated to empowering you to achieve more in fulfilling mission needs and driving more efficient, effective government. Please learn more at:
- Power Platform Blog: Return to the workplace with confidence.
- Enterprise Skills Initiative: ESI is designed to support our federal customers’ and partners’ desire to build their employees’ technical expertise. Request more information on ESI and get started.
- Cloud Skills Challenge: Kick start your learning journey with self-guided content from Microsoft Learn and curated learning paths by-product and job role.
- AI Business School for Government: Discover the transformational impact of AI in the public sector.
