Mobile computing on smartphones, tablets and wearable devices has taken the world by storm. Smartphones are used by more than 77 percent of people in the U.S. And around the world, organizations are taking advantage of mobile platforms to reach customers and solve business problems.
Here in Illinois, various agencies have been building mobile responsive sites and tinkering with developing mobile apps, but there has been a lack of strategy and direction. The creation of the Mobility Working group, comprised of the agency CIOs, has resulted in the creation of a high-level strategy to adopt mobile technology and standardization on a development environment. The long-term vision is for all state of Illinois applications to be “MobileFIRST" and to be accessible on all mobile form factors, and for the state to use mobility as a strategy to solve critical business problems.
Accomplishments in the last three months include:
- The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) mobile application for caseworkers to collect data on state wards and for supervisors to manage cases. This application is the first native mobile app built and deployed within a mobile device management environment (MDM). It has the capability to capture images and voice-to-text transcription.
- Mobile responsive Student Portal by Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC). The portal provides tools and resources to assist students with the college going process, including games for financial literacy.
- More than 20 agency websites were moved to a mobile responsive framework.
- A proof of concept IllinoisFIRST mobile application was launched. An integrated assessment automation platform was launched by our EPA groups focused on improving inspections, audits and notifications.
- The success achieved in the last three months has resulted in numerous agencies identifying business processes to be improved by adopting a “MobileFIRST” strategy.
