Frozen in place by isolated IT management systems and spreadsheets for cataloging data, public sector technology buyers are now stepping out of the cold.

The Tennessee Department of Human Services (DHS) tackled a customer service dilemma that had reached critical mass by implementing a new customer service management (CSM) solution, and came out of the ordeal with lower customer wait times, a renewed and energized staff, and a demonstrably strong value proposition to satisfy the bottom-line demands of the state’s Federal funders and support a statewide service rollout.

The nature of work–the jobs performed and the cross-departmental collaboration required to get them done–has not changed much in the past two decades, but the means to perform those jobs can be revolutionized in the next three to five years, said John Donahoe, president and CEO of cloud platform provider ServiceNow.