Innovation in Government: How to Change Things Up (and Make it Stick)

Posted on by Mike Adams

In government, we could say that innovation is invention that solves a problem or meets a need — in the community or within an organization undertaking the work. Big changes make government agencies more effective, prepared and useful, and they touch all aspects of agency operations — from IT to employee morale to digital services and more. In recent years, federal agencies such as the Census Bureau, General Services Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Office of Personnel Management have launched innovations labs, innovation libraries, and other innovation-focused resources and programs. Cities and states have as well, such as through Philadelphia’s Technology and Innovation group within the city’s Office of Innovation and Technology (OIT). Being innovative is not easy, of course: It requires a little bravery and lots of planning. But local and federal agencies are creating the space and resources to launch innovations that will, in the future, become standard operations. In this guide, we share case studies and best practices regarding some of government’s most pressing issues — workforce, customer experience and data use, to name a few — and we hear from government experts who know a thing or two about helping innovative initiatives succeed.

Analytics Innovations Draw a Complete Data Picture

“Spreadsheets are structured things: They have clearly defined lines, cleanly labelled columns, and rules that govern what goes where. Government analytic programs have become skilled at working within those parameters, even if it means spending hours manually manipulating data to fit. Spreadsheets are 30-year-old desktop technology. But other data exists, doesn’t it? The world is full of PDF documents, audio and video files, social media posts and other ‘messy’ data sources — the unstructured data that most agencies overlook. And most agency analytics programs are fragmented and overly manual. Recent innovations seek to change this.”

Read more insights from Alteryx’s Solutions Marketing Director for the Public Sector, Andy MacIsaac.

Driving Innovation to the Edge

“Across government, innovation is happening at the edge. By leveraging cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and related technologies, agencies can deliver services more quickly and effectively at the far reaches of operations, whether that’s in the battlefield or on the International Space Station (ISS). At the Red Hat Government Symposium held in late 2022, government and industry leaders discussed how agencies were leveraging these technologies to accelerate mission delivery. Their discussions and examples help illuminate how agencies are adapting to make the most of modern technological opportunities.”

Read more insights from Red Hat’s Government Symposium.

Build an Innovative Ecosystem Through Cloud Architecture

“In data transformation and innovation, it helps to view things through a different lens. Within the data ecosystem are three core pillars for transformation: people, processes and technology. Simple, singular data platforms should work with an architecture that breaks down information silos rather than creates them. That facility comes through in qualities such as data mesh or a decentralized data architecture that’s organized by business domain and operates through self-service. The architectural design also must help strengthen system security. That’s enormously important for federal data.”

Read more insights from Snowflake’s Chief Technology Officer for the Global Public Sector, Winston Chang.

Overcoming Challenges With Observability

“As agencies take steps to innovate — such as expanding reliance on the cloud and adding new apps, integrations, and automations — their IT ecosystems become more complex. There are more places where things can go wrong and more pressure to fix them quickly. The task of monitoring these complex systems gets more complicated, too. ‘The question is, how do I know there’s an issue?’ said Brian Mikkelsen of Datadog. ‘Is it when the tickets start flowing, when complaints increase, when your leadership team asks why something isn’t working?’ None of those options are ideal. Datadog’s application performance management platform provides a real-time window into the digital environment, identifying performance and security issues quickly. Its ‘full stack’ hybrid infrastructure capability means everything from the back end to the front end is monitored and reported via infrastructure metrics, application performance traces, and correlated logs.”

Read more insights from Datadog’s Vice President and General Manager, Brian Mikkelsen.

Download the full GovLoop Guide for more insights from these digital transformation leaders and additional government interviews, historical perspectives and industry research.

Unpacking Digital Transformation

Posted on by Bethany Blackwell

At long last, Government agencies are getting some real support for their modernization and transformation initiatives. Through the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) and the American Rescue Plan (ARP), Congress is providing significant funding for updating or replacing legacy systems, with a focus on both improving the security of government systems and delivering better services. The opportunity, now, is to make those investments pay off. How can agencies cut delivery times and meet expected outcomes? Download the guide to access worksheets, step-by-step guidelines, government and industry insights, and other resources that can help agencies launch transformation initiatives—and deliver on them.

Supercharge Your Agency Service Management

“Using cloud solutions, organizations can automatically scale up their systems when constituent demand is high and down when demand is lighter. This enables agencies to be more responsive, efficient and constituent-friendly. Most federal agencies are going through a major digital modernization effort, replacing outdated/ legacy systems with cloud-based solutions, said Sandra Trumbull with Atlassian, a software-based company. And self-service — whether through guided prompts, artificial intelligence or other methods — is increasingly important because users are more empowered and typically obtain faster responses service teams have fewer headaches, agencies can lower their service costs, and everyone receives a better overall experience.”

Read more insights from Adaptavist’s Phill Fox, Principal Customer Success Advocate, and Atlassian’s Sandra Trumbull, Enterprise Solutions Advocate.

How Agencies Are Driving Innovation to the Edge

“Not so long ago, Air Force communications meant radios that transmitted information about where to go and what was happening. Now, digital input is being delivered directly into the cockpit. ‘We’re talking about a situation where edge capability expands the envelope of the missions that we can get accomplished and changes the ways in which we can accomplish them,’ said Winston Beauchamp, Deputy Chief Information Officer for the Department of the Air Force. Currently, the service uses edge computing in its Agile Combat Employment, a scheme of maneuvers aimed at increasing survivability while generating combat power. If warfighters are under threat at fixed bases, they must move to alternate locations quickly — and those might not have all the infrastructure of a traditional base. ‘Edge technologies enable you to deploy to that location that you need to accomplish that mission without a huge footprint,’ Beauchamp said.”

Read more insights from Red Hat’s Government Symposium.

Data, Data Everywhere, but Not a Byte to Eat

“The first element of intelligent data management is visibility: Where is agency data located? And directly associated, Breakiron said, is accessibility, knowing how the agency organizes and uses its information, and what the data’s condition is. ‘We often find, especially in the government, in excess of 50% of the data hasn’t been touched for as much as five years,’ he explained. ‘And we also find that about 20% of the data, you couldn’t talk to if you had to.’ Commvault calls that “orphan data,” and it’s akin to having a VHS tape but no VHS player with which to view it. An intelligent data management system creates a tiered storage approach that identifies long-ignored information, allowing an archival model for ‘pennies to the dollar vs. thousands of dollars in storage costs,’ he said.”

Read more insights from Commvault’s Richard Breakiron, Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives for the Federal Sector.

Build a Functional Ecosystem Through Cloud Architecture

“While technology is at the core of a total agency transformation, Chang advised against having it ‘dragging process and then dragging people along.’ The process and the people need to move along with the technology instead of clinging to its shirttails. ‘One thing I would offer as a piece of advice, having done multiple transformations in the Federal Government, is invest in upskilling your people,’ said Chang. ‘If your people can’t use the technology — no matter how great the technology is — the organization as a whole does not move forward.’ For federal environments, he urged technology upskilling to improve employees’ data literacy, analytics awareness and coding abilities — or at least to provide a basic familiarity with those activities.”

Read more insights from Snowflake’s Winston Chang, Chief Technology Officer for the Global Public Sector.

How Open Source Database Technology Can Support Transformation

“Modernizing your applications and services without modernizing the underlying database is like buying a new car but installing your old engine. You’re just holding yourself back. That’s the experience of Enterprise DB (EDB), which provides tools and services to large organizations adopting PostgreSQL (Postgres), a relational database management system based on open source technology. Like other enterprise-grade, open source systems, Postgres helps organizations avoid the rising licensing costs and vendor lock-in that come with proprietary software, said Jeremy Wilson of EDB. But just as importantly, Postgres is rapidly replacing legacy, proprietary software as a platform for innovation.”

Read more insights from EDB’s Jeremy Wilson, CTO of North America Public Sector.

Transforming With Visibility and Agility

“Staff working their way through a digital transformation, such as a cloud migration, will need new skillsets. They’re going to use new services and capabilities — and none of them will be the same, Shopp said. SolarWinds helps users build knowledge, intelligence, configuration smarts and cloud awareness, he explained. ‘Intelligence in a box,’ as Shopp called it, is codified into SolarWinds products and helps agency employees monitor workloads. ‘When it comes to understanding your infrastructure and your workloads, no matter where they reside — on premises, the cloud or hybrid — we’ve got you covered,’ Shopp said.”

Read more insights from SolarWinds’ Brandon Shopp, Group Vice President of Product.

Observability Made Simple

“The task of monitoring these complex systems gets more complicated, too. ‘The question is, how do I know there’s an issue?’ said Brian Mikkelsen of Datadog. ‘Is it when the tickets start flowing, when complaints increase, when your leadership team asks why something isn’t working?’ None of those options is ideal. Datadog’s application performance management platform provides a real-time window into the digital environment, identifying performance and security issues — quickly. Its ‘full stack’ hybrid infrastructure capability means everything from the back end to the front end is monitored and reported via infrastructure metrics, application performance traces, and correlated logs.”

Read more insights from DataDog’s Brian Mikkelsen, Vice President and General Manager.

Download the full GovLoop Guide for more insights from these digital transformation leaders and additional government interviews, historical perspectives and industry research.

Normalizing Innovation: Lessons from State and Local Leaders

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

Think about the past 18 to 20 months. Many facets of our lives were (and still are) in flux. The same is true for municipalities, school districts, counties and states. Pandemic-related responses stretched public servants beyond their job descriptions, and they showed up: creating life-saving workarounds for the public; cutting through bureaucratic red tape to streamline benefits; rethinking how to serve constituents in need; launching digital tools and services to empower employees and the public in new ways; and more. This guide provides use cases and practical tips for ensuring that the progress made during the pandemic sticks. In conversation, innovation and technology intertwine, but technology alone isn’t innovation. True innovation gets to the heart of how governments use tech to improve outcomes, save lives and empower employees to serve at their best. Download the guide to read more about how agencies at the state and local levels are advancing with the latest technology.

3 Things You Can Do Now to Rethink Innovation

“Innovation came in waves in the past 18 months. It started with agencies having to reinforce technology’s critical role in their daily operations. ‘I think the second wave of innovation is realizing the opportunity to work differently,’ said Kevin Tunks, National Technology Adviser for State and Local Government at Red Hat, a leader in enterprise open source software innovation. Red Hat is a proponent of using human-centered design to shape positive employee interactions with technologies and impactful customer experiences with government services. ‘I think this pandemic forced everybody to step off the treadmill collectively and rethink how we want to go forward,’ Tunks said. But what does that look like in practice?”

Read more insights from Red Hat’s National Technology Adviser for State and Local Government, Kevin Tunks.

Is Your Relationship With Data Helping or Hurting Innovation?

“Your data has a time value, whether you’ve explicitly acknowledged it or not. ‘What we’ve seen at the forefront is this concept of needing to have readily available, reliable data for critical decision-making,’ said Matt Walk, Director of State/Local Government for the Eastern U.S. at Snowflake, a data platform provider. Although states have focused on modernizing their systems for years, the pandemic created a sense of urgency. It reinforced that the stakes are much higher in terms of the ability to quickly access data to make critical decisions, Walk said. This is especially true as states transition from responding to the pandemic to recovering from it. The success of these efforts depends on the extent to which states eliminate silos and embrace a more data-driven, enterprise-focused approach to governing.”

Read more insights from Snowflake’s Director of State/Local Government for the Eastern U.S., Matt Walk.

Why Innovation Must Account for the Identity Factor

“The reach of government services hinges on recipients’ ability to prove that they are who they claim to be. However, with the adoption of social distancing practices, the once routine transaction of identification became a logistical and security headache for many agencies. This adjustment particularly impacted departments of motor vehicles and heavily paper-based agencies that had not embraced digital transformation. Then the pandemic hit. Not only were many agencies scrambling to prove identities for large swaths of employees needing remote access to administer government services and benefits, but they also had to provide the same electronic services to the public in need of those services. Embracing the changes was an example of breakthrough innovation for agencies that were forced to adapt. But what can leaders do to sustain and build on this progress?

Read more insights from BeyondTrust’s Chief Security Officer, Morey Haber.

3 Ways to Embed Innovation in Your IT Roadmap

“Remote employees may be sharing Wi-Fi with non-government employees on their home networks. Are agencies prepared to address ongoing challenges with security risks and network performance issues as employees compete for bandwidth when working remotely? Among the drivers is the president’s cybersecurity executive order that calls for adopting a zero-trust security model, where implicit trust of any device, node or user is replaced with continuous verification. The mandate is for federal agencies, but the trickle-down impact will affect state and local governments, too.”

Read more insights from SolarWinds’ CISO Tim Brown.

How to Support Lasting and Agile Transformation

“Innovation isn’t typically associated with citizen-facing government services, such as state toll roads, some transit authorities or even public school systems. That’s changing, though, as more governments embrace transformation as a continuous and holistic evolution — backed by formal strategy, dedicated funding, clear roles and expertise. Dick Stark, President of RightStar, an Atlassian verified Government Partner and IT service management provider, has seen these truths unfold across agencies as they embrace Agile and DevOps methods. Take the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which operates two of the busiest toll roads in the country, for instance. By partnering with RightStar, the agency modernized and consolidated its IT operations, including service incidents and asset management, and tracking functions outside IT, such as intelligent device signage and cameras.”

Read more insights from RightStar’s President, Dick Stark.

How to Make State and Local Innovation Last

“The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a hard truth – state and local governments cannot always meet the public’s needs in person. To adapt, many agencies had to deliver their products and services digitally for the first time. How can agencies sustain this innovation permanently? With more public-sector workforces mixing onsite and remote employees while addressing public preferences, this question’s relevance grows daily. Cloud content management can become a strong component of lasting innovation. Using cloud computing’s decentralized IT, agencies can access computing resources such as data storage on demand. Ultimately, this power can help agencies create innovative digital workflows that serve constituents wherever they are.”

Read more insights from Box’s Managing Director for State and Local Government, Murtaza Masood.

Download the full GovLoop Guide for more insights from these state and local leaders and additional government interviews, historical perspectives and industry research on the future of innovation.

Teaming Up on Emerging Technologies

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

In recent years, agencies’ growing need for IT modernization has prompted their biggest suppliers — federal systems integrators (FSIs) — to look for innovative ways to meet that need. FSIs’ deep working knowledge of government operations gives them a distinct advantage, but to provide all the expertise an agency needs on a contract, FSIs have always partnered with subcontractors. Now they are broadening their reach by seeking out cutting-edge companies that can help them develop solutions that incorporate the latest innovations in technology and strategy. Those “greater than the sum of their parts” solutions have a profound impact on agencies’ ability to meet mission-critical demands in a wide range of areas. In a recent survey of FCW readers, only 19% said they always know about the latest technologies. Adopting those technologies requires acquisition processes that are fast and flexible. 75% of respondents said their agencies rely on FSIs for complex IT projects. Many agencies are turning to agile methodologies, either on their own or with contractors, to develop and deliver solutions incrementally rather than taking years to launch a complete system. How can FSIs continue to meet these needs by partnering with innovative tech companies and small businesses? Read the latest insights from industry thought leaders in emerging technology in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government^® report.

A Risk-Adaptive Approach to Data Security

“Protecting data in today’s heterogeneous, highly dynamic IT environments is one of the biggest cybersecurity challenges agencies face, especially now that data is potentially being stored and touched by many people, devices, apps, services and systems. That’s why a strong data protection strategy goes well beyond encryption to incorporate zero trust principles. Rapidly changing IT environments and continuously evolving cyber threats require proactive, high-performing cybersecurity solutions that can adapt on the fly and constantly answer questions about what’s happening to data in terms of who, when, where, what and how. It is essential to create a platform in which tools and analytics can be integrated quickly to respond to current threats. In other words, rather than hundreds of best-of-breed solutions stitched together, agencies require a comprehensive, integrated solution.”

Read more insights from Cloudera’s Senior Director of Global Alliances, Jenn Azzolina, and Raytheon Intelligence and Spaces’s CTO of Cybersecurity and Special Missions, Michael Daly.

Eliminating the Boundaries to Health Care

“The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the reality that our health care system is not a system at all but a series of disconnected providers who struggle to coordinate with one another and support patients on their health journeys. The first generation of health IT was not built around patients. A patient is a different person in every medical system he or she encounters; hence, continuity of care across providers is filled with barriers. The same challenges are pervasive in federal, state and local government health agencies. Even when data comes into a system in a timely manner, it’s often unstructured and cannot be reconciled with the existing record. That puts a heavier burden on doctors, who have to build their own mental model of what a particular patient needs.”

Read more insights from Perspecta’s Chief Medical Information Officer, Shane McNamee, M.D. and Red Hat’s Field CTO for Federal Health, Ben Cushing.

A Framework for Achieving Data Intelligence

“Highly adaptive adversaries confront the U.S. and its allies in every domain: air, sea, space, land and cyber. The aircraft, satellites, ships and ground vehicles that military forces operate collect an abundance of information, but processing and analyzing that amount of data can be daunting, especially given the multiple levels of security in which systems must operate. The Defense Department is pursuing a new way of warfighting based on a concept called joint all-domain operations. By synchronizing major systems and crucial data, DOD provides a complete picture of the battlespace and empowers warfighters to quickly make decisions that drive action so they can disrupt and overwhelm adversaries in seconds versus minutes when seconds really matter. There’s a new asset helping DOD and its allies realize this vision of the future battlespace: data.”

Read more insights from Collibra’s Senior Vice President for Public Sector, Aileen Black, and Lockheed Martin’s Vice President, Mike Baylor.

Partnering to Modernize the Customer Experience

“Working together allows ServiceNow and GDIT to respond to newly emerging capabilities very quickly. Because of its deep understanding of government agencies’ business operations, culture and processes, GDIT can support ServiceNow’s ability to deliver value in new ways. In one example, GDIT saw increasing demand from government customers for solutions authorized at the FedRAMP High level and helped ServiceNow meet this capability. The company now has an offering on Microsoft’s Azure cloud that has been authorized at FedRAMP High and the Defense Department’s Impact Level 5. In another example, GDIT uses insights from initiatives for large federal agencies, such as robotic process automation (RPA) solutions, to drive investments in leading-edge capabilities that have the best chance of achieving the desired outcomes.”

Read more insights from ServiceNow’s Vice President of Solution Consulting, Anto Tossounian, and GDIT’s Vice President of Federal Civilian, Brian Fogg.

Constructing a Next-Generation Data Architecture

“The conversation about data should start and stop with the mission impact and how quality data can improve decision-making and customer services. Once they have a clear understanding of their internal and external data assets — what data they have and how it can be used, along with the owners and sources of that data — agencies can progress toward intuitive AI-driven data catalogs. In addition, agencies should encourage a data-savvy culture across all layers of the organization and continually improve their data so that they can take advantage of modern applications. The volumes of government data would overwhelm any on-premises system, so moving to the cloud is essential for building a modern data architecture. However, simply lifting existing datasets into the cloud doesn’t solve the problem. People will work the way their data is organized, so rather than build data silos and create siloed workforces, agencies must combine data to empower their employees.”

Read more insights from Snowflake’s Chief Federal Technologist, Nicholas Speece, and Deloitte’s Principal of Strategy and Analytics, Vishal Kapur.

A Faster Route to Secure Cloud Adoption for DOD

“Three substantive challenges have made it difficult for Defense Department agencies to adopt cloud technology. First is the complex and lengthy procurement process to obtain cloud services. Second are the networking and security challenges to establish a cloud environment and connection. Third is the costly challenge of refactoring applications for a specific cloud environment. The partnership between DISA’s milCloud 2.0 contract, General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) and VMware effectively eliminates all three of these challenges. A native, on-demand milCloud 2.0 VMware environment dramatically simplifies migrations, lowers the risk of cloud adoption by eliminating the refactoring of applications and workloads, and allows users to leverage familiar VMware solutions for a consistent operating model across their enterprise.”

Read more insights from VMware’s Vice President of Federal Sales, Bill Rowan, and GDIT’s Partner Accounts Director for milCloud 2.0, Brian Whitenight.

Download the full Innovation in Government® report for more insights from these government emerging technology thought leaders and additional industry research from FCW.

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