IT modernization is a long game

Those who work in the public service are all too familiar with the policy changes that accompany each new administration. Such changes often result in a reorientation of priorities and investments. It is only fitting that the course of federal efforts reflects the will of the people who elected their leaders.

However, some initiatives are crucial enough to national security and well-being that they must transcend ideology and politics for the good of the country, no matter who is in power. For example, the director of the FBI has a ten-year term and the Social Security Commissioner has a five-year term. Technological modernization reaches this level of importance.

IT innovation undertaken in four-year increments is neither sufficient nor effective. Technology is simply changing too quickly, so having advanced capabilities requires staying more up to date. At the same time, the underlying IT infrastructure and architecture must be both sustainable and flexible to support a long-term vision while adapting to new developments. It’s a balancing act.

Proactively embracing technological advancements early on and with a longer term perspective will help the federal government drive innovation that generates tangible budget savings while improving operational efficiency and outcomes for citizens. Here are some considerations:

Use cloud migrations for more efficiency and innovation

Contrary to popular belief, “the cloud” is not synonymous with modernization; moving workloads or applications to the cloud does not make a process de-cluttered or better organized. Basically, moving to the cloud means renting space. Just as a wagon parked in a yard doesn’t sit on a progressive moving train, a workflow sitting in a cloud doesn’t mean automatic innovation. Go to the cloud Is create an opportunity to review existing workflows, processes and rules that would transition to the cloud as part of a true modernization effort.

It takes some planning, but like a move, why pay to move the clutter? IT teams will be well served to perform a pre-analysis of how workflows can be aligned, automated and innovated to leverage other resources that will be available once in the cloud environment.

For example, the workflow of a citizen applying for Social Security benefits can be simplified by Social Security Administration staff who perform many manual data capture steps to automatically scan and attach images provided by the taxpayer to the taxpayer’s account. Likewise, the stock transaction data that stock brokers digitally provide to the IRS could be automatically associated with a taxpayer’s account instead of the taxpayer providing the data manually.

Increase flexibility and incident preparedness

Regular progressive modernization can also be the first step towards better preparedness for incidents. General modernization solutions are inherently more flexible and can be redeployed more easily to deal with the unexpected. For example, it might be unwise to store face masks because they might not be useful during the next health crisis. But what’s safe is to increase overall readiness to meet this need. It depends on maintaining a modernized IT inventory that can be set up to meet the needs of the day, not hastily activated for the first time. A useful example is network bandwidth consumption. The government will experience known peaks in consumption (i.e. at time of tax filing) as well as unexpected peaks (i.e. agencies should not have to buy for the peak and stay there. the best option is to apply technical solutions that can automatically analyze consumption patterns from data from broadband providers, define various types of surges and moderate capacity usage accordingly.

Adjust budget practices

Of course, the modernization capacity of organizations is limited by the government’s approach to capital planning, credits and purchasing. Budgeting operations and maintenance against capital expenditure neglects accurate cost-benefit analysis. If the technology is still viable, it is retained regardless of the overhead. But the cost of new technology has come down so much that the payback curve is much steeper than it was a few years ago. For some technologies, it’s as little as a year.

As a result, the cost of maintaining old technologies is now often higher than that of simply adopting new ones. Agencies also experience lost opportunity costs, increased cybersecurity risk from using older and more vulnerable systems, and a suppression of workforce skills advancement.

There is an opportunity for the government to shift the focus of credits and budgeting towards the withdrawal of technology at the end of its profitability. Consolidating progress through mechanisms such as multi-year planning or multi-year funding would help maintain momentum, whenever within a jurisdiction’s mandate a modernization initiative begins.

Modernization protects national security and well-being

The continuity of the technology that underpins virtually everything government does is crucial to protecting our American way of life. It is not a one-off event. Instead, it should be a process that is continually measured and considered to understand where new technologies need to be implemented more effectively.

Dave Turner is President and CEO of Hitachi Vantara Federal.