As we look ahead to the new fiscal year, federal agencies will be planning investments in technology and related infrastructure that meet the goals outlined in key policies and initiatives. However, limited funding often hinders their plans to completely replace legacy systems with newer applications, and large amounts of the budget go towards upkeep. In fact, many agencies allocate roughly 90 percent of their IT budgets on operation and maintenance costs to keep existing systems running, despite it being incapable of meeting the needs of our 21st-century government. We know that there is a constant revolving door of federal IT directives that agencies must meet – it is part and parcel of working in government. However, what most IT decision makers do not realize is that the most efficient way to be compliant with these requirements is to move away from investing in single applications and instead adopt subscription-based models. This minimizes their spending on legacy systems and instead embraces more modern forms of technology.
Greater Cost Benefits – Higher Customer Satisfaction Rates
IT modernization has remained a bipartisan focal point in and around the beltway for nearly a decade – and policymakers, the presidential administration as well as agency leaders continue to look for technology that can achieve government’s goal of maximizing the quality of service delivery without depleting its budget. While some of these outcomes include greater cost savings and stronger retention of IT talent, customer experience has risen to the top of the priority list largely because it’s a common pain point for federal agencies and sucks up time and resources.
In fact, the federal government among the bottom of all U.S. industries in delivering customer satisfaction categorizes customer satisfaction as providing quality services to individuals and improving the aforementioned services to individuals through the use of technology in addition to data collection and standardization.
However, optimal customer experience can’t be achieved when federal agencies are continuing to operate using outdated, paper-based processes and collecting data that lives in siloes across a broad swath of applications. This is where TRN can have a profound impact on improving the experience of both citizens and employees. By adopting a mature and forward-leaning, TRN services, federal agencies can transition to 4-6 platforms, seamlessly aggregating and normalizing their data. In addition, agencies can create custom applications within these platforms, which can yield higher delivery rates and an overall quality experience for customers.
Paving the Way for Government’s Digital Transformation
The federal government’s modernization journey has gradually evolved over time – years of planning and enacting policies have set the stage for agencies to take a course of action and begin adopting innovative forms of technology. Both the administration and Congress agree that technology is a channel to achieve the architectural vision of a 21st century government. However, with limited additional funding allocated to reach these goals, the federal government’s embrace of modern technology is simply limited to individual agencies and is devoid of a cohesive strategy. The transformative architecture of our technology is the missing link between funding and IT-centric policy enactments. As TRN srevices can yield higher returns on investment in short periods of time, the success of this model may ultimately entice federal decision-makers to allocate more funds to support government’s common mission objectives. In turn, the federal government can further its progress in the digital transformation. .