Let’s recap 2018 really quick, the technologies and innovative ideas that came about changed the IT landscape disrupting the way companies work. These innovations and technologies caused organizations to rethink, redesign, and restructure their organizations to accommodate the way the market functions; this is IT Modernization. C-Level Executives and Boards of Directors have been put in a position where they can optimize and deliver quicker and faster results. Some of the innovations from 2018 are: Waterfall organizational structures have been replaced with agile structures, platforms have moved to the cloud, and humans have swapped with artificial intelligence systems to replace certain jobs. Due to the rapid change in enterprise and the better results the enterprise is getting, the federal government has even started changing the way they operate. With what we learned from 2018, we can predict 2019 to be a year of full integration and implementation of big data innovations and rapid delivery structures.
From multiple industry surveys and industry leader interviews, it's evident that IT Modernization is becoming a top priority for many organizations and the federal government. As Dominic Delmolino, chief technology officer, Accenture Federal Services states "IT leaders will become business leaders and use their unique understanding of technology’s potential and limitations to help their agencies envision the art of the possible.” (NextGov) The government has realized that commercial and enterprise technology has become more advanced and more efficient than the previous methods of operating and will help improve federal agencies overall. In order to compete with others, it’s time that they move past older legacy systems and outdated organizational structures and replace these with smaller iterations of projects while utilizing cheaper and more efficient business intelligence software.
One of the big reasons we're seeing IT Modernization shift in large organizations is due to the large amounts of data in which these companies aggregate, process, filter, and derive real-time actionable insights. Older legacy systems are causing organizations that operate in the IT industry to fall behind and backlog projects. (NextGov) However, operating at a large scale, the amount of data becomes too heavy of a task for human workers. Therefore, a solution to the problem is to turn to Business Intelligence (BI). (DigitalJournal) Many organizations in 2018 either started to integrate Artificial Intelligence into their business operations or have completely integrated it. Although, it appears that tools like this will continue to grow during 2019 because of the speed and reliability in these tools bring to the table. Not only does the government want to make decisions quicker and deliver valuable actions but, they also want to increase the customer value and satisfaction and decrease the price of operation for old legacy systems. The commercial sector compared to the federal sector reveals a significant difference in satisfaction. (WashingtonExec)
2019 is going to be a year where the priorities of organizations change to accommodate the rapidly evolving marketplace. However, as with every evolutionary stage there is its own set of drawbacks, Sanjay Sardar, vice president of modernization and digital transformation at SAIC, put together a list of issues that government customers face as they try to modernize their operations:
modernizing without disrupting current operations;
understanding which upgrades to make and in what order;
keeping up with the breakneck pace of technological evolution;
paying for expensive new technology when the bulk of agency IT budgets is slated for maintaining legacy systems; and
helping personnel adapt to the changes
As organizations continue to grow and evolve with technology, delivering real-time insight and actionable solutions based on big data will still be the most valuable deliverable of IT modernization.
At CORAS we believe 2019 will be a great year for continued innovation and growth even with the not so trivial challenges that face many organizations. There are but a few moments in history where there are significant technological advancements and modernizing technology of today will allow us to continue to act, learn, grow, and perform better in shorter iterations. Today’s market will only continue to advance and those operating in the IT Industry at a large scale will need to think twice about their priorities in the advancement of their organization and their implementation of Business Intelligence tools. Acknowledging and having the vision to invest in something more than just a BI tool is the move savvy CTTs and CFOs are looking to do. Learn more on how Coras.com takes you closer to the goal where decisions are informed.