Working on budgets, grants, and expenses is a basic part of being in a business — public or private sector. It’s not always exciting, but without managing our budgets day to day, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. If you don’t have skills like these to contribute to your team, you might be missing important knowledge that will keep your career and your bottom line on track.

If you’re researcher, an engineer, or a data analyst, you likely already have the math skills to balance your bank account. So why is this important in business? Accounting can be complicated, and it takes a professional to do it right. However, at a basic level staying in the black should be simple — and should come first — for institutions as much as individuals. This is doubly true in the public sector. Government organizations are mandated to do things that benefit the public, and they are held in trust to do so with public money. Government services, when done right, provide a positive experience for their end users — just like the best businesses create for customers.

While knowing myself that accounting isn’t the simplest task, I took his point: staying in the black should be simple — and should come first — for institutions as much as individuals.

Transparency is a fundamental part of being a government organization — the public holds elected and appointed officials accountable, and regularly votes for or against an administration based on their record of action. This begins with publishing a budget, but means more than just that. Transparency is also about knowing what resources are offered to citizens, information and data, and visibility of the government’s goals. If the administration in question can execute with transparency, they’re on the way to successful public service. The following paragraphs discuss a few different usages of this idea of transparency in the public sector.

Resources and Budgets

At all levels of government, using resources efficiently is of paramount importance — doing more with less is the new normal. Before and after the recent government shutdown in 2013, many institutions were noticeably overworked and under supported. For example, in the recent sequestration and shutdown, you may remember that the national parks closed their gates. Monuments and recreation areas had operating budgets suspended, and employees went without pay. These places are open again today, but it serves as a reminder that the margin for error is thin.

In tandem, budgets are almost always under pressure from the political arena. IT is a big chunk of any institution’s budget, and in recent years government contracting — once seen as a money-saving tactic — is now known to often be quite expensive.

Finding a way to deal with this new normal helps administrations continue to be effective in their delivery of citizen services and overall quality of experience. Transparency regarding budget and resources helps leaders plan ahead, allocate resources efficiently, and develop a more sustainable service infrastructure.

Data

You may have heard that big data is only getting bigger. In fact it is estimated that 90% of the world’s data has been created in the last two years alone. This is a direct result of digital technology — the proliferation of not only home computers, but of smartphones, devices like tablets, and the internet of things. In our lifetimes, the amount of data that will be created simply by people and things moving around everyday seems incomprehensible, as more day-to-day interactions get translated into quantifiable information.

Cities can either take advantage and ride this wave, or be overwhelmed by it entirely. A few decades ago, human ‘computers’ were still needed to crunch numbers, process forms, and the like. Today, humans still need to direct, sift through, and make sense of data; that’s only possible with software that can handle it. Citizens can either sit in line at the DMV — or be online and get what they need quickly.

Visibility

Lastly, transparency can also mean visibility — in the media, in the popular imagination, or in physical advertising. Citizens need to have a sense that what they are paying for is worth it. A good example of a government service that was streamlined with current technology is the Michigan State Health Information Network (MiHIN). Executive Director Tim Pletcher used the example of an ATM — bank account information is easily accessible worldwide. This system made health history and care information available on a network throughout the state. By using a Salesforce platform, patients are protected and duplicative work can be avoided.

The connected city moves more quickly than cities of the 20th century. Individual connected citizens can use systems such as 311 to gain transparency to city services, and rapidly reach into areas that were not always so readily available in the past. Furthermore, there is pressure on city services to be as responsive to citizen-customer demands as private sector businesses are to their customers. This means building and managing relationships with citizen-customers, not simply responding in the moment to urgent requests.

Learn more about the potential cloud brings to government missions at salesforce.com.