The Next Frontier in Federal Government

Over the past several years, federal government agencies have made significant strides in IT reform to enable them to transform the way they operate to better serve their constituencies. Many data centers have been consolidated and standardized. Many shared services have been implemented for better collaboration and productivity. Similarly, a large number of legacy systems have been replaced with open, cloud-based IT environments for better scale and agility. Some have implemented anytime, anywhere mobile access to agency data for workers on the go. Others are adopting analytic and business intelligence capabilities to bring real-time decision-making for rapidly changing agency demands and mission requirements.

All these activities are part of the ongoing IT evolution in building a 21st century digital government ecosystem that’s interconnected, streamlined and open to the American people. Government officials realize that in order to narrow the gap between citizen expectations and government performance, they must upgrade mission-critical legacy systems with technologies and services that support integration with reliable, secure infrastructures.

The next priority in this evolution is taking digital technologies (analytics, mobile, social media and cloud) to the next level to evolve into a fully digital government. The goal of digital government is to be more accessible, more transparent, more personalized and more engaging. It opens the door for self-service channels and empowers more public engagement in helping solve problems that government may not be able to solve itself.

In a recent research analysis, Agenda Overview for Government, 2015, published January 8, 2015, Gartner captures this transformation toward digital government with three central themes: engagement, connection and resourcing.

Figure 1. Government Agenda Overview 

Gartner Figure 1

Source: Gartner (January 2015)

The agenda raises key questions:

Engaging citizens – How will government engage the public (individuals and organizations) and its workforce in more efficient, agile and trustworthy relationships?

Connecting agencies – How will government connect agencies at the technical, policy and operational layers via wide and agile networks?

Resourcing government – How will CIOs preserve or expand the financing of IT-related activities by restructuring portfolios, increasing sourcing alternatives and improving collaboration to respond to business needs?

Dell Services Federal Government is at the forefront in helping federal agencies embark on their digital journey. Through our Digital Transformation Services, we can help you rethink your agency strategy and organizational structure so you can discover how to integrate analytics, mobile, social and cloud technologies into every aspect of your agency organization – from back-end operations to citizen-facing touch points.

Let us partner with you on that journey. For more information, visit the Dell Federal Services website or contact Sanjeev_Nehra@federal.dell.com.

About the Author: Sanjeev Nehra