The Record - Issue 21: Summer 2021

35 reality, to deploying virtual assistants to quickly connect victims of domestic abuse (which trag- ically increased throughout the pandemic) with support services, our efforts have helped to deliver the services that people need, where they need them, when they need them. What are the most valuable lessons you think public sector organisations learned about resilience during the pandemic and how will those lessons impact the evolution of digitally transformed public sector services in the future? Under the pressures of the pandemic, public sector organisations everywhere faced a press- ing need not just to deliver services remotely, but also to work remotely. Governments which had planned ahead and invested in digital capacity and capabilities through the years were able to pivot quickly, moving at a rate and pace that was once unthinkable. Shared Services Canada, for example, deployed a planned three-year transition to remote working in a matter of weeks, whilst the United Arab Emirates leveraged its longstand- ing commitment to digital service delivery to shift the entire country to online learning at the height of the pandemic. Governments which were not as advanced quickly learned the advantage of becoming fast followers, work- ing closely with organisations like the United Nations to adopt and deploy best practices from around the world. Now that the innovation genie is out of the bot- tle and public sector agencies have experienced the value of resilient digital infrastructures, the challenge will be to build upon crisis-driven adaptations to deliver deep and lasting digital 3AM Innovations uses Azure Cognitive Services and IoT Edge to fuel a situational tracking platform that helps keep firefighters safe