As that question surfaces more frequently, internal service teams — and digital service teams (DSTs), a specialized subset — are one answer. The Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation released a guide earlier this month calling DSTs central to the work for their ability to integrate technology, service delivery, and expertise drawn from resident experience. In Louisville, Ky.; Baltimore; and Des Moines, Iowa, successful modernizations hinged on internal teams that expanded their technical expertise and treated the endeavors less as deployments and more as long-term operational work. Each built some version of internal capacity around that idea. BUILDING TEAMS BEFORE TECHNOLOGY Louisville’s modernization story essentially starts with people. It began, CIO Chris Seidt said, around 2012 with investments in smart-city efforts and a shift toward enterprise modernization — and bringing in expertise that could “help to develop out what we need to function in the 21st century.” “Some people think technology on its own can be a problem solver,” Greenberg said. “That’s not the case. It’s good technology with great people managing the technology.” The city expanded its teams in part by bringing people from the private sector on board, then paired them with IT — and an enterprise resource planning system from Workday that was customized to fit city operations rather than deployed out of the box. “It takes some customization, and it takes real strength of management,” Greenberg said. Louisville staff have brought free public Wi-Fi to all parks and have used tech to support requests for city records. This year, plans are to redesign service delivery, making the experience, “from reporting a broken trash can lid to a pothole to tall grass,” Seidt said, easier for residents to request. GOVERNMENT AS ITS OWN CONSULTANT Baltimore approached internal capacity through CityStat, its “performance and accountability program,” per