Announcing the 2021 Google Cloud Customer Award Winners in Government

We’re thrilled to celebrate this year’s seven state, local and federal government winners of the Google Cloud Customer Awards.

The second annual Google Cloud Customer Awards program recognizes organizations who have demonstrated inspirational and meaningful transformation with the use of Google Cloud products and solutions. Google experts from around the world judged and scored an unprecedented number of submissions this year. Winners have succeeded in turning new ideas into interesting realities. In addition to winning industry category awards, two of these public sector winners are also receiving a special Technology for Good honor for Social Impact, as noted below.

Google Cloud Customer Award Winners: Government

Winner: U.S. Air Force. The U.S. Air Force needed a way to address a shortage of approximately 2,200 trained pilots by transforming flight simulator training. Traditional flight simulators were very expensive, which meant many students had to take turns sharing limited numbers of simulators and waiting in line. When the student wasn’t in a simulator, they could only train with rudimentary tools such as posters taped to the wall. To drastically increase the scale and efficiency of training, the 19th Air Force Pilot Training Transformation (PTT) program developed low-cost simulators (that use Google Cloud technology and hosting) that could be proliferated to every student. Now, when student pilots step to the flight line, they are better prepared to fly.

Winner: Commonwealth of Massachusetts.When the Commonwealth of Massachusetts needed to quickly distribute a limited COVID-19 vaccine supply while complying with the CDC’s ever-evolving requirements, the Commonwealth’s Executive Office of Technology Services and Security built and deployed an online portal in 12 days to help citizens pre-register for mass vaccination. The portal fielded more than 400,000 registrations on the first day and approximately 650,000 people were vaccinated through the system, which managed appointments for seven vaccination sites statewide.

Winner: Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC). The State of Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) struggled to keep up with frequent maintenance needs, limited access to data, and slow response times. By migrating to Google Cloud, the KYTC team was able to access real-time dashboards, review up-to-the-minute analytics on traffic patterns and road conditions, and now process over 150 million records daily. By modernizing their technology infrastructure, KYTC can more easily support their goal of providing real-time monitoring and insights into road conditions to support its constituents.

Winner: OklahomaOffice of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES). The Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) provides the state of Oklahoma with a broad range of services for its constituents, including finance, human resources, property management, and business expertise. Within OMES, each state agency previously had its own repository of siloed data, and many couldn’t easily access their own data, let alone make it available to other agencies. During the pandemic, OMES developed a centralized data model pulling in information from statewide databases to process queries in minutes instead of months. Six agencies opted into the program, and OMES aims to double the number of participants within the next year, with a five-year growth plan to include all 189 state agencies and improve the ability to quickly turn around critical projects for the state’s 4 million people.

Winner: Hamilton County Job and Family Services. Hamilton County Job and Family Services, which serves the county that includes Ohio’s third-largest city, Cincinnati, was challenged to dramatically increase the pace and volume of rent and utility assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. New federal funding streams, urgent public need, and evolving federal compliance requirements brought unprecedented challenges. When the federal government authorized $46 billion in the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) in December 2020, the county had to approve and disburse funds at a pace of no less than $500,000 a week to avoid federal rescission. With leadership from local commissioners, auditors, administrators, and exceptional staff, the county rapidly deployed a streamlined solution to take renters from application to payout in record time using Contact Center AI and an expanded Google Cloud infrastructure. 

Google Cloud Customer Award Winners: Social Impact

Government organizations are moving forward with projects that power inclusion, openness, and community support. Innovative thinking and outstanding transformation in the public sector continues to usher in a brighter future.

Winner: New York State Department of Labor. Many low-wage, undocumented immigrant workers who helped keep New York State going during the COVID-19 pandemic found themselves excluded from stimulus checks, unemployment insurance, federal aid, and other programs that helped other New Yorkers stay afloat. The New York State Department of Labor launched the Excluded Workers Fund to distribute $2.1 billion to help New Yorkers who were ineligible for other forms of relief. The department built a mobile-first application and used Contact Center AI and Document AI to enable eligible New Yorkers to apply online 24/7 in 13 languages, upload documents, and receive pre-paid payment cards once approved. In total, more than 350,000 applications were submitted, including 90,000 in the first month alone, and over 128,000 were approved to receive one-time payments of up to $15,600. 

Winner: Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. A Social Impact Award also goes to the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Opioid Response Solution. Oklahoma, like many states, is focused on responding to the ongoing opioid crisis. By partnering with Google Cloud, the department can identify early trends in data to help implement more effective, personalized community responses for treatment and support. The ability to share data with other public sector entities and agencies helps create a more unified approach to tackling the crisis, resulting in better allocation of resources, research and support of community-wide outcomes. For instance, the state is adding data from more than 500 school districts as a part of the Oklahoma Prevention Needs Assessment (OPNA), a statewide survey of drug and mental health topics to drive prevention and intervention strategies.

We’re excited to see our government customers lead with innovation to meet the needs of the mission. Visit our government customer page to find out why many more agencies are choosing Google Cloud to help them innovate faster, make smarter decisions, and operate more effectively.