IT Modernization – Federal News Network https://federalnewsnetwork.com Helping feds meet their mission. Thu, 30 Jun 2022 21:47:11 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/cropped-icon-512x512-1-60x60.png IT Modernization – Federal News Network https://federalnewsnetwork.com 32 32 GSA looks to reach 100M Login.gov users by year’s end, starting with VA partnership https://federalnewsnetwork.com/it-modernization/2022/06/gsa-looks-to-reach-100m-login-gov-users-by-years-end-starting-with-va-partnership/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/it-modernization/2022/06/gsa-looks-to-reach-100m-login-gov-users-by-years-end-starting-with-va-partnership/#respond Thu, 30 Jun 2022 21:47:11 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4131065 var config_4071784 = {"options":{"theme":"hbidc_default"},"extensions":{"Playlist":[]},"episode":{"media":{"mp3":"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/pdst.fm\/e\/chrt.fm\/track\/E2G895\/aw.noxsolutions.com\/launchpod\/federal-drive\/mp3\/052322_Jory_web_fvca_554f142d.mp3?awCollectionId=1146&awEpisodeId=371b4174-4a97-4013-b01f-89be554f142d&awNetwork=322"},"coverUrl":"https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/FD1500-150x150.jpg","title":"GSA at the forefront of government’s customer experience improvement efforts","description":"[hbidcpodcast podcastid='4071784']nn<em>Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive\u2019s daily audio interviews on\u00a0<\/em><a href="https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/federal-drive-with-tom-temin\/id1270799277?mt=2"><i>Apple Podcasts<\/i><\/a><em>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href="https:\/\/www.podcastone.com\/federal-drive-with-tom-temin?pid=1753589">PodcastOne<\/a>.<\/em>nnThe Biden administration is setting a high bar for customer experience across government, but it\u2019s the General Services Administration that\u2019s laying the foundation for those improvements.nnGSA, under the <a href="https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/presidential-actions\/2021\/12\/13\/executive-order-on-transforming-federal-customer-experience-and-service-delivery-to-rebuild-trust-in-government\/">administration's executive order on improving customer experience<\/a>, is looking to make digital services at other agencies secure and accessible through Login.gov, a shared service for online identity verification across the federal government.nnGSA Administrator Robin Carnahan, in a recent interview, said Login.gov has about 40 million users right now across 27 agencies, looking is looking to increase usage to 100 million users by the end of the year.nn\u201cWe\u2019ve got big aspirations there. My personal view is that this digital identity area is one that is in serious need of attention by the government,\u201d Carnahan told Federal News Network.nnCarnahan said that government-issued photo IDs, including driver\u2019s licenses, have long been the \u201cgold standard for identity.\u201d But she said a digital equivalent of that gold standard has not yet come into focus.nn\u201cWhen it comes to digital identity, I think we need to equally let people have access to a digital identity from the government that is secure, that protects their privacy and that is accessible to everyone, so we want to be able to offer this,\u201d she said.nnCarnahan pointed to COVID-era fraud and inaccessibility of unemployment benefits earlier in the pandemic as reasons for prioritizing a secure digital identity for online services.nn\u201cWe also saw that scammers took huge advantage of this, and that billions of dollars were lost, all because of this notion of getting a digital identity, and so we think it's really important. We think it saves a lot of money for taxpayers, and it helps government deliver at people's time of need,\u201d she said.nnThe Biden administration\u2019s customer experience executive order directs GSA to work with the Department of Veterans Affairs to make Login.gov the identity-verification foundation across all VA\u2019s online services.nnCarnahan said about 60,000 veterans currently use Login.gov as an identity proofing service, and that those numbers are going to increase.nnThe <a href="https:\/\/www.va.gov\/opa\/pressrel\/pressrelease.cfm?id=5802">VA made progress on that goal this week, when it announced<\/a> veterans can now use the same through Login.gov username and password to access VA.gov, My My HealtheVet, and VA\u2019s Health and Benefits mobile app.nnVA Chief Technology Officer Charles Worthington said in a statement that the rollout of Login.gov at the agency will \u201cstreamline how users access government benefits and services.\u201dnn"As part of the department's digital transformation efforts focused on continuous improvement, we're embracing the innovative technology designed by Login.gov to provide our veterans a seamless sign-in experience to better serve, engage and enhance the customer experience,\u201d Worthington said.nnDave Zvenyach, the director of GSA's Technology Transformation Services, said Login.gov will provide a \u201csecure and seamless digital experience for veterans and those supporting them.\u201dnnThe service also allows veterans to use the same credentials to access services across multiple federal agencies. Including the Office of Personnel Management and the Small Business Administration.nnCarnahan said GSA is also \u201chaving lots of conversations with the IRS,\u201d as it plans its own adoption of Login.gov as an identity verification service.nn\u201cObviously this is one of the primary interactions people have with government every year, and we ought to make that seamless. We ought to do it in a way that protects the privacy and ensure security and make sure it's accessible to everybody,\u201d Carnahan said.nnThe IRS announced it would pivot to Login.gov after it <a href="https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/newsroom\/irs-unveils-new-online-identity-verification-process-for-accessing-self-help-tools">launched a new identity verification process<\/a> last year, which initially relied on facial recognition technology from ID.me. The process, however, received strong pushback from Congress and the public.nnThe administration <a href="https:\/\/www.performance.gov\/pma\/cx\/">tapped Carnahan to serve as one of three interagency leads<\/a> on improving customer experience across government as part of the President\u2019s Management Agenda.nnBiden administration, under the PMA, is directing agencies to prioritize customer experience improvements around five cross-cutting priority \u201clife experiences.\u201dnnThese include helping individuals who are approaching retirement age, recovering from a disaster, or transitioning from active-duty military service.nnGSA, as part of this interagency team, is focused on improving public-facing services at 35 agencies and programs designated as High-Impact Service Providers.nn\u201cWe're going in and having technology teams that focus on user experience and customer experience look at those journeys to see what that actual interaction is like, and how to streamline the process and make it easier," Carnahan said. "Part of that's about communicating in plain language. Part of it's about how you design the websites. Part of it's about how many steps there are in the process."nnThe Biden administration\u2019s executive order also directs GSA to make USA.gov a \u201cdigital front door\u201d for individuals seeking federal services.nn\u201cA citizen shouldn't have to try to figure out what agency to go to for some service and have to understand the structure of government. They ought to be able to go to usa.gov, talk about what their interests or need is, and then be directed to the right place,\u201d Carnahan said.nnThe administration is focused on ensuring historically underserved communities have access to government services. To achieve that goal, Carnahan said agencies need a diverse range of experts at the table to create these services.nn\u201cWe don't pick our customers. It's all Americans that we're here to serve. The only way you can do that effectively, is if you have a cross-section of people in the room being talked to about how to make sure the services we're providing are accessible to everyone,\u201d Carnahan said.nnGSA is also looking at ways to support the federal workforce as it looks to improve service to the public. Carnahan said the agency is looking at developing \u201ceasier on-ramps to be able to come work in government," and helping agencies re-imagine their workspaces as part of its \u201cWorkplace 2030\u201d initiative.nnThrough its Workplace 2030 initiative, GSA is also looking at offering federal employees a \u201chome office in a box,\u201d giving workers the option to furnish a home office with work gear needed for their jobs.nnCarnahan said GSA is also looking to provide federal co-working spaces where federal employees can work out of the office.nn\u201cWe're talking a lot to our customers about what their needs are. But we know the future is going to look different than the past. And GSA is going to try to be on the front lines of serving our customers so they can better serve the public,\u201d Carnahan said.nn "}};

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

The Biden administration is setting a high bar for customer experience across government, but it’s the General Services Administration that’s laying the foundation for those improvements.

GSA, under the administration’s executive order on improving customer experience, is looking to make digital services at other agencies secure and accessible through Login.gov, a shared service for online identity verification across the federal government.

GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan, in a recent interview, said Login.gov has about 40 million users right now across 27 agencies, looking is looking to increase usage to 100 million users by the end of the year.

“We’ve got big aspirations there. My personal view is that this digital identity area is one that is in serious need of attention by the government,” Carnahan told Federal News Network.

Carnahan said that government-issued photo IDs, including driver’s licenses, have long been the “gold standard for identity.” But she said a digital equivalent of that gold standard has not yet come into focus.

“When it comes to digital identity, I think we need to equally let people have access to a digital identity from the government that is secure, that protects their privacy and that is accessible to everyone, so we want to be able to offer this,” she said.

Carnahan pointed to COVID-era fraud and inaccessibility of unemployment benefits earlier in the pandemic as reasons for prioritizing a secure digital identity for online services.

“We also saw that scammers took huge advantage of this, and that billions of dollars were lost, all because of this notion of getting a digital identity, and so we think it’s really important. We think it saves a lot of money for taxpayers, and it helps government deliver at people’s time of need,” she said.

The Biden administration’s customer experience executive order directs GSA to work with the Department of Veterans Affairs to make Login.gov the identity-verification foundation across all VA’s online services.

Carnahan said about 60,000 veterans currently use Login.gov as an identity proofing service, and that those numbers are going to increase.

The VA made progress on that goal this week, when it announced veterans can now use the same through Login.gov username and password to access VA.gov, My My HealtheVet, and VA’s Health and Benefits mobile app.

VA Chief Technology Officer Charles Worthington said in a statement that the rollout of Login.gov at the agency will “streamline how users access government benefits and services.”

“As part of the department’s digital transformation efforts focused on continuous improvement, we’re embracing the innovative technology designed by Login.gov to provide our veterans a seamless sign-in experience to better serve, engage and enhance the customer experience,” Worthington said.

Dave Zvenyach, the director of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services, said Login.gov will provide a “secure and seamless digital experience for veterans and those supporting them.”

The service also allows veterans to use the same credentials to access services across multiple federal agencies. Including the Office of Personnel Management and the Small Business Administration.

Carnahan said GSA is also “having lots of conversations with the IRS,” as it plans its own adoption of Login.gov as an identity verification service.

“Obviously this is one of the primary interactions people have with government every year, and we ought to make that seamless. We ought to do it in a way that protects the privacy and ensure security and make sure it’s accessible to everybody,” Carnahan said.

The IRS announced it would pivot to Login.gov after it launched a new identity verification process last year, which initially relied on facial recognition technology from ID.me. The process, however, received strong pushback from Congress and the public.

The administration tapped Carnahan to serve as one of three interagency leads on improving customer experience across government as part of the President’s Management Agenda.

Biden administration, under the PMA, is directing agencies to prioritize customer experience improvements around five cross-cutting priority “life experiences.”

These include helping individuals who are approaching retirement age, recovering from a disaster, or transitioning from active-duty military service.

GSA, as part of this interagency team, is focused on improving public-facing services at 35 agencies and programs designated as High-Impact Service Providers.

“We’re going in and having technology teams that focus on user experience and customer experience look at those journeys to see what that actual interaction is like, and how to streamline the process and make it easier,” Carnahan said. “Part of that’s about communicating in plain language. Part of it’s about how you design the websites. Part of it’s about how many steps there are in the process.”

The Biden administration’s executive order also directs GSA to make USA.gov a “digital front door” for individuals seeking federal services.

“A citizen shouldn’t have to try to figure out what agency to go to for some service and have to understand the structure of government. They ought to be able to go to usa.gov, talk about what their interests or need is, and then be directed to the right place,” Carnahan said.

The administration is focused on ensuring historically underserved communities have access to government services. To achieve that goal, Carnahan said agencies need a diverse range of experts at the table to create these services.

“We don’t pick our customers. It’s all Americans that we’re here to serve. The only way you can do that effectively, is if you have a cross-section of people in the room being talked to about how to make sure the services we’re providing are accessible to everyone,” Carnahan said.

GSA is also looking at ways to support the federal workforce as it looks to improve service to the public. Carnahan said the agency is looking at developing “easier on-ramps to be able to come work in government,” and helping agencies re-imagine their workspaces as part of its “Workplace 2030” initiative.

Through its Workplace 2030 initiative, GSA is also looking at offering federal employees a “home office in a box,” giving workers the option to furnish a home office with work gear needed for their jobs.

Carnahan said GSA is also looking to provide federal co-working spaces where federal employees can work out of the office.

“We’re talking a lot to our customers about what their needs are. But we know the future is going to look different than the past. And GSA is going to try to be on the front lines of serving our customers so they can better serve the public,” Carnahan said.

 

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GSA considers how to interconnect systems for new buildings https://federalnewsnetwork.com/technology-main/2022/06/gsa-considers-how-to-interconnect-systems-for-new-buildings/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/technology-main/2022/06/gsa-considers-how-to-interconnect-systems-for-new-buildings/#respond Tue, 28 Jun 2022 19:28:46 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4126408 IoT Security Month - June 28, 2022

As the director of the Buildings Technology Services Division at the General Services Administration’s Office of IT, Sandy Shadchehr said there has been a surge in desire for interconnected building systems over the past decade. In her office’s case, presidential mandates to integrate buildings for more, and more efficient data, are reinforcing the trend to migrate systems to the network.

“There’s a lot of IP-enabled devices. And with that, obviously, with the connectivity, with all those benefits that you get from connectivity, there comes the risk. And what is happening these days, back to your question is cyber, cyber, cyber,” she said on Federal Monthly Insights — IoT Security.

In the days of “standalone mode,” building systems were meant to last 20 or so years, and the risk levels were comparably low because those systems were not connected. Today, when system components are now IT components, the risk if greater, she said. But, interconnectivity can have preventative measures that bring on cost benefits.

“Once you have the systems interconnected and they communicate with each other, then you can actually have a dashboard that you can have in an entire building in a nice console that you’re looking at and you can start doing predictive analysis so that you’re not just waiting until system breaks down,” she said on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. “You can actually have a way of systems sending you notification: This thing doesn’t sound like this, this piece of equipment is not working quite right.”

That can mean fewer people needed in the building at all times, as well as greater energy efficiency, she said. But it also raises questions around ownership of the data on those systems. If something is hacked, Shadchehr said, traditionally that was a problem for IT or the singular security person. She said GSA changed its stance and determined that everyone has a role in solving cybersecurity weaknesses, from the Public Buildings Service to the chief information officer, to the building manager, the operational management maintenance person, and the service center director.

Examples of cyber dangers to building systems include people obtaining data about the operations to predict when personnel are working, to disrupt operations by hacking into a building. GSA’s portfolio of critical buildings for the federal government’s more sensitive agencies are top of mind, and are why constant vigilance is required, she said.

“Another one is that there can be a disruption of operations. There could be a very sensitive court proceeding going on and somebody can turn the lights on and off, and that can disrupt, or it can make a building very hot in the middle of July in Arizona, or in Texas,” she said. “They can make it unbearable to be in the building or incredibly cold, and the pipes get burst … so many things, so many scenarios that can happen, absolutely.”

Part of the predictive analytics of buildings systems Shadchehr described comes from occupancy and environmental sensors. The former can be things like thermostats and motion-detected room lights. COVID-19 was a game changer for these, as agencies needed to spread out their building occupancy for social distancing. At GSA headquarters in Washington, D.C., they used sensors to determine where to place people throughout the building. It is not just cameras but also devices using wifi or Bluetooth can alert a censor when they enter the building. The Office of IT is tapping into the Internet of Things to see what works and what does not compromise security or privacy.

“We’ve done a few different pilots to see what works better for us. And we have buildings and all shapes and sizes and color so it’s we have to probably try different types of things for different types of buildings that we have,” Shadchehr said.

Sensors and networks produce data, and the “mad rush” of IoT inspired a similar dash to collect that data. Just because GSA is collecting that data does not mean it will “just talk with each other,” she said. The Office of IT wants to work closely with the Office of Design and Construction to ensure the IT backbone is installed in new construction to be an afterthought.

“It’s a lot easier to put it in place or to build it correctly, as you’re building the building, instead of going back and retroactively try to fit that. We’ve been in that scenario many times, and it’s a lot more costly, a lot more time consuming to basically fit a square peg in a round hole,” she said.

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Current, former Hill staffers say centralized authority needed to modernize Congress https://federalnewsnetwork.com/congress/2022/06/current-former-hill-staffers-say-centralized-authority-needed-to-modernize-congress/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/congress/2022/06/current-former-hill-staffers-say-centralized-authority-needed-to-modernize-congress/#respond Mon, 27 Jun 2022 17:18:09 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4123922 The upside to Congress’ decentralized nature is that innovation can come from anywhere. The downside is that coordinating those innovations is hard.

Current and former Hill staffers say technology can and has solved many common problems for members of Congress, but they want to see members tap into more commercial-friendly platforms and give centralized authority to bodies like the Bulk Data Task Force, or the House Digital Service.

Stephen Dwyer, senior adviser to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), pointed to solutions such as the Dome Watch and Dome Directory mobile apps, created by the office to help members of Congress, their staff and the public better track movements on the House floor. The 13-year-old private intranet DemCom for House Democratic staff was also redesigned last year with expanded access for Senate staff, mobile functionality and a bigger database of information.

But custom-built systems for “uniquely Congressional purposes,” as Dwyer said, are not all that’s recommended. He told the House Select Committee on Modernization last week, the programs are representative of what is possible when the legislative body coordinates its technology efforts, but that requires in-house digital staff for each office. He recommended hiring digital aides with programming and development skills for every member, in addition to more traditional political science and communications staffers.

“There’s just so much more that they need to do, even versus five, 10 years ago when I was in a congressional office,” Dwyer said. “A lot of that is in digital communications. Every office needs to not just take a bunch of pictures and post them on Twitter and Facebook but they have to do more technical Facebook Lives, they’ve got to take their boss live, there’s a lot of technical tasks that didn’t exist many years ago.”

But Dwyer said Congress needs to recognize the demand for these workers and compensate them appropriately. The House is raising its staff salary floor to $45,000, after essentially a decade-long pay freeze and record inflation made it difficult to attract and retain employees.

One of the Modernization committee’s recommendations last Congress was to create a common committee calendar portal to reduce scheduling conflicts. Vice Chairman William Timmons (R-S.C.) asked witnesses for suggestions to get the ball rolling on what he said could have a big impact on members and staff. Reynold Schweickhardt, Lincoln Network senior adviser, said an issue is that between the House clerk, the chief information officer and the committees themselves there is no clear button to push for technology needs. As such, another recommendation was to clearly focus the responsibility for legislative product.

“I think the other challenge that I alluded to is there’s no gatekeeper for scheduling projects. The CIO, they may be working on five to 10 projects, so they tell you they’re working on your project and they are, but they’re sort of shuffling things back and forth,” said Schweickhardt, who served at the Committee on House Administration for 13 years and the Government Publishing Office for eight years Versus a program-management kind of functionality that says, ‘What are the three things we want to accomplish in the next couple of months? Let’s knock ‘em out. Let’s figure out what the next set of important things are.’”

Dwyer said the foundation is laid. For several years, House rules have required all committees to post hearings and testimony in a central place, putting the body ahead of the Senate, but amplifying that with a more consumer-friendly version would help, he said.

Melissa Dargan, co-founder of AppMy LLC and a former Hill staffer, seconded the use of funds for a centralized scheduling platform. It’s a problem she tried to tackle when she launched the TourTrackr app to better manage constituent tour requests.

“From constituent tour requests to flown flag purchases, these important responsibilities were tracked using printouts, binders and excel spreadsheets. It was a fragmented, inefficient process. At the time, there were no digital alternatives that House offices were approved to use. So while these tasks seemed easy, they were tedious, repetitive and time consuming,” she said, adding that technological innovation does not need to come at the expense of security.

“I respect and understand that the House has high standards for new tech approval. Protecting security and personal identifiable information are critical to ensure the integrity of the institution. That said, upholding those priorities and creating a welcoming environment for new tech products can be done simultaneously,” Dargan said.

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VA confidence in new EHR ‘shaken’ following cases of patient harm, McDonough says https://federalnewsnetwork.com/veterans-affairs/2022/06/va-confidence-in-new-ehr-shaken-following-cases-of-patient-harm-mcdonough-says/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/veterans-affairs/2022/06/va-confidence-in-new-ehr-shaken-following-cases-of-patient-harm-mcdonough-says/#respond Thu, 23 Jun 2022 14:54:29 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4115774 The Department of Veterans Affairs, Congress and the vendors behind the VA’s new Electronic Health Record are renewing their scrutiny of the EHR rollout.

Denis McDonough told reporters Wednesday that his “confidence has been shaken” over the rollout of the new Cerner Electronic Health Record, following system outages and IG reports documenting risks to patient care.

“I do now know that there are instances of patient harm, and that there could be a range of factors that contribute to that,” McDonough said.

McDonough said he’s communicated his concerns with EHR vendor Cerner, and that the agency and Cerner are addressing issues with the system rollout.

“There’s been some work over the course of the last 10 days, that seems to have had a major impact on that,” McDonough said.

The Spokesman-Review over the weekend first reported that a draft IG report found 148 cases of patient harm following the EHR go-live in Spokane, Washington.

McDonough told reporters he could neither confirm nor deny the existence of the draft VA IG report. However, he said the VA’s patient safety expert team is looking into these cases of patient harm, and that team at this point “can’t rule out that EHR plays a role” in the harm caused.

McDonough said he’s been in close contact with the VA inspector general about its EHR findings, and said he has “gotten smarter on these reports over the course of the last couple of months.”

“The kind of back and forth that we’re currently engaged with the IG on is really, really important to us getting better at what we do. That kind of ability to exchange candid views, including on draft reports, is really important to us getting better,” he said.

McDonough said that he’s also been in close contact with VA Chief Information Officer Kurt DelBene, who’s been leading the agency’s technical team.

The VA recently announced it will push back the EHR go-live at four locations from this year to 2023. These include facilities in the Puget Sound VA Health Care System and Portland VA Health Care System.

The EHR, however, will still go live in Boise, Idaho on July 23 as planned.

It remains unclear when McDonough first learned of the patient harm cases documented by the VA inspector general’s office.

McDonough told the House VA Committee last that the agency wouldn’t proceed with the EHR rollout if he determined that issues with the rollout “create a threat to our veterans.”

“If I had known what I know today when I was appearing before Congress, I would have answered those questions differently,” McDonough said Wednesday.

McDonough said the VA right now is “trying our darndest to make the Cerner option work,” adding that a well-functioning electronic health record will improve patient outcomes, but said the agency wasn’t yet prepared to discuss alternative options.

The VA awarded a 10-year contract with Cerner in May 2018 to replace its legacy VistA electronic health record with the same commercial off-the-shelf platform used by the Defense Department and Coast Guard.

“This is the option that we had when we arrived. We’re executing as diligently as we can on that, as transparently as we can, and working closely, for example, with Congress and the IG, and we’ll continue to do that. But I’m not ready to answer hypotheticals about if this doesn’t work,” McDonough said.

The lifecycle of the contract is currently estimated at $16 billion. Previous IG reports warn those costs may continue to increase in light of schedule delays.

McDonough said several degradations and outages since the second EHR go-live in Walla Walla, Washington have “shook my confidence in the system.”

“They have a very generous contract that was awarded several years ago to provide a workable EHR. And that’s what we’re holding them accountable to,” he said.

Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said in a statement Wednesday that since acquiring Cerner two weeks ago, Oracle engineers have been on the ground, “making technical and operational changes, with an emphasis on patient safety, to ensure the system exceeds the expectations of providers, patients, and the VA.”

“We intend to bring substantially more resources to this program and deliver a modern, state-of-the-art electronic health system that will make the VA the industry standard. We have a contractual and moral obligation to deliver the best technology possible for our nation’s veterans, and we intend to do so,” Hellinger said.

House VA Committee Chairman Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and Technology Modernization Subcommittee Chairman Frank Mrvan (D-Ind.) said in a statement Wednesday that the draft VA IG report’s findings were “seriously troubling and contradict what we have heard from VA officials during public testimony,”

“We have already begun discussions with VA on the performance of Cerner and requested an official briefing on the forthcoming report. Once released, we will be reviewing the findings closely in order to determine if there are any contractual or legal repercussions of these draft findings,” the lawmakers wrote.

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USDA has been trying to consolidate 17 networks for a decade, now it has the money to do it https://federalnewsnetwork.com/it-modernization/2022/06/usda-has-been-trying-to-consolidate-17-networks-for-a-decade-now-it-has-the-money-to-do-it/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/it-modernization/2022/06/usda-has-been-trying-to-consolidate-17-networks-for-a-decade-now-it-has-the-money-to-do-it/#respond Wed, 22 Jun 2022 14:49:17 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4114550 Gary Washington is trying to do something at least four other Agriculture Department chief information officers have promised to do, but came up well short.

The difference this time as USDA tries, once again, to consolidate 17 disparate networks into one is Washington has real funding.

USDA will receive $64 million from the Technology Modernization Fund Board for this project. This was USDA’s fifth award under TMF.

The TMF Board made two other awards on June 21 as well, giving the Homeland Security Department $26.9 million to modernize its Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) and $3.9 million to the Federal Trade Commission to procure a security operations center-as-a-service (SOCaaS) in order to implement a zero trust architecture.

The board has made 14 awards since receiving $1 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021. It still has more than $650 million left in the account. The Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration on June 16 committed to spending $100 million on customer experience projects that cut wait times for public-facing federal services, as well as excessive paperwork and other barriers.

While DHS signaled its desire to update HSIN in an April request for information and the FTC’s move to zero trust is part of the Biden administration’s overall push to improve cybersecurity, the USDA award is what Congress created the TMF for in the first place — to give agencies a boost to get over the modernization hump.

“This investment will be used for the USDANet startup costs that reduces the number of USDA-owned and operated networks from 17 to 1 and will result in $734 million in estimated costs savings/avoidance,” the TMF website states. “The lowered total cost of ownership by the USDA means Mission Areas can allocate greater portions of their IT spending from basic infrastructure to public-facing applications that promote conservation, goodwill, and optimization of resources.”

Washington said at a recent event sponsored by ACT-IAC on June 14 said this effort will be done through the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) vehicle run by GSA.

Gary Washington is the USDA chief information officer.

“We have submitted our project plan. We’ve been working with our contractor, and we’re aggressively working toward meeting the milestones that we have to set,” Washington said during the panel discussion on EIS. “We had approximately 54% disconnect rate, currently, so we’re going try to aggressively get that up. But the primary thing is we’re going to transition to a managed service model, where we can, like modernize the network periodically like we’re supposed to. It provide better service because we’re all over the country, and we have a national presence as well.”

USDA awarded Lumen a task order under EIS in January that could be for as much as 11 years and could be worth $1.2 billion.

One of the key factors for the TMF Board to make an award is whether the agency has an existing project and contract in place.

Long-running challenge at USDA

Previous attempts to consolidate and modernize USDA’s networks have struggled but not for lack of trying or will. For example in 2011, then Secretary Tom Vilsack — who is back as secretary today — approved a report detailing 379 recommendations for improving agency operations and saving administrative money to reinvest into citizen services.

Washington even called in the IT Centers of Excellence in 2018 to help wrangle these networks and move applications to the cloud. While the IT CoEs helped the agency move more applications and systems to the cloud, Washington said EIS gives them an opportunity to rethink how their supporting infrastructure supports their cloud environment and cloud strategy.

“It’s going to really happen, and I’m going make sure I will be here to make sure it does happen,” Washington said about the network consolidation. “We were very excited about that. Our leadership is excited about it. Actually, I briefed the secretary on this last week. So it’s just really a matter of getting our equipment and making sure that we would pick up the pace in terms of actually implementing this solution. We’ve got a lot riding on this.”

As for the investments at DHS and FTC, the board continues to signal its desire to choose projects that could have broad impacts on users or on demonstrating how something could work.

DHS released an RFI to modernize HSIN in April, seeking industry feedback on how to take the current platform from complex, costly and not optimized for cloud-based and mobile features to one that better supports end-users and rapidly addresses threats to homeland security.

“DHS looks to redefine information accessibility and build a modern, comprehensive information sharing platform using cloud-based technologies to increase speed, mobility, and access to unclassified information,” the RFI stated.

Cloud native, modern tools

With the TMF money, DHS says it will “rebuild its information sharing system as a cloud native platform with modern tools and technologies. The new platform will be capable of scaling up to meet peaks in demand during times of emergency while also offering significant new features including improved access and security; better content sharing and discoverability; and greater emphasis on connecting HSIN’s partners to each other for closer collaboration. DHS will also use the TMF investment to build a platform that is more responsive to a post pandemic work environment for users with easy and secure access on mobile platforms and other devices.”

DHS expects the extra money to accelerate its modernization effort to create a system that is more flexible, offers a better user experience and costs less.

The board’s award to the FTC — its fourth specifically around zero trust — is almost a proof-of-concept that other small agencies could take advantage of.

The FTC will use the extra funding to replace its existing security operations center that is built for government-operated data centers and has trouble scaling to address growing cyber threats.

“[T]he FTC will expedite its SOCaaS implementation using security services and trusted cloud service providers to host sensitive FTC data. This comprehensive approach will greatly reduce the risk of bad actors executing a ransomware or other cyber attack,” the TMF website stated. “It will also reduce the number of man hours currently expended to respond to indicators of cyber incidents. These hours could then be repurposed to continue improvements to the agency’s many operational systems for merger filing review and reporting of fraud. The agency is collaborating on this effort with other federal cyber security leaders, including the Department of Homeland Security, to share best practices.”

Raghav Vajjhala, the FTC CIO, said in July 2021 that half of all of its systems and applications are in the cloud and is upgrading its network to be software-defined. These modernization efforts need a modern security architecture, he said.

]]>
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/it-modernization/2022/06/usda-has-been-trying-to-consolidate-17-networks-for-a-decade-now-it-has-the-money-to-do-it/feed/ 0
New House Digital Services Office seeks to fill gaps to modernize Congress https://federalnewsnetwork.com/ask-the-cio/2022/06/new-house-digital-services-office-seeks-to-fill-gaps-to-modernize-congress/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/ask-the-cio/2022/06/new-house-digital-services-office-seeks-to-fill-gaps-to-modernize-congress/#respond Fri, 17 Jun 2022 22:18:20 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4108466 var config_4108574 = {"options":{"theme":"hbidc_default"},"extensions":{"Playlist":[]},"episode":{"media":{"mp3":"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/pdst.fm\/e\/chrt.fm\/track\/E2G895\/aw.noxsolutions.com\/launchpod\/adswizz\/1128\/061622_ask-cio-cao_web_uhp2_7a69b51c.mp3?awCollectionId=1128&awEpisodeId=5758df8c-339d-4c23-ad3f-d1017a69b51c&awNetwork=322"},"coverUrl":"https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/AsktheCIO1500-150x150.jpg","title":"New House Digital Services Office seeks to fill gaps to modernize Congress","description":"[hbidcpodcast podcastid='4108574']nnThe House of Representatives Chief Administrative Office is close to adding another shared service to the 100 or so it already provides.nnThese range from <a href="https:\/\/cao.house.gov\/about\/business-units">acquisition support to human resources<\/a> to finance and logistics. But the one area where those services were missing and sorely needed was around digital transformation.nn[caption id="attachment_4108481" align="alignright" width="300"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-4108481" src="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/alan-thompson-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" \/> Alan Thompson is the chief information officer for the House of Representatives.[\/caption]nnSo in the coming months, the CAO will launch its new digital services office.nnAlan Thompson, the House\u2019s chief information officer, said over the last decade, and specifically over the last two-plus years, a lot of member offices, committees and caucuses have been trying to take advantage of technology in new ways. But many times their staff had limited knowledge or brought in consultants that cost a lot of money.nn\u201cWe'd like to fill that gap for them,\u201d Thompson said on Ask the CIO. \u201cWe're going to have several different roles in this team. We'll have a product manager role. We'll have a user experience designer as well as software engineers. We really hope to bring in the capability to rapidly develop or maybe just consult on how an organization within the House member, committee or leadership office or a conference or caucus wants to achieve something. Really the hope is to be that resource there that can help them do that.\u201dnnThe CAO, which first announced its plan to create a digital services office in March at a hearing of the House Select Committee on the <a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/congress\/2022\/01\/some-members-of-congress-are-working-to-make-things-more-civil-in-a-congress-that-works-better\/">Modernization of Congress<\/a>, is hiring both new employees but also bringing in experts from the U.S. Digital Service as well as TechCongress, an innovation fellowship that places technologists with Congress for a year.nnCatherine Szpindor, the House of Representatives chief administrative officer, said members or committees are trying to solve a specific problem, but don\u2019t know exactly how to do that.nnThe CAO offers almost 100 cloud approved services, for example, and the new digital services team will be able to do more than just point them in the right direction, but help get offices from idea to implementation.nn[caption id="attachment_4108483" align="alignleft" width="300"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-4108483" src="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Catherine-Szpindor-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" \/> Catherine Szpindor is the House of Representatives chief administrative officer.[\/caption]nn\u201cWe have traditionally been a typical IT support group. We support major applications like PeopleSoft in our HR and payroll applications, these large Oracle and other products that have been traditional, and that\u2019s served us well,\u201d Szpindor said. \u201cBut I think just since we really started integrating Office 365 and going to the cloud with so many other things, we started realizing that there was a real need for us to be able to provide consultative services and help with the development of some of these newer products that are automated in a way in which you don't have to know a lot about the standard way to program. They're low code, no code type applications. Allen's bringing in Appian as one of those that we could possibly use. We are looking at robotics process automation. This was just a good time to do that. The time was right, the enthusiasm is there, and I think industry experts are backing us with ideas and how it's being used in other places.\u201dnnThe House started implementing Microsoft O365 in 2019 and brought in other cloud products like WebEx from Cisco and Zoom to address the fast growing need for remote work during the pandemic.nnThese tools have made hearings more accessible, but they have also help improve the connection between Washington, D.C. office and members\u2019 district offices.nn\u201cI will point out that these the members have gotten very good at using these tools, which I've been very happy to see,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cI attended an event the other night hosted by Rep. [Eric] Swalwell (D-Calif.) when he was at home with his new baby in his arms while he was doing this meeting. The members have really taken to and, I think, have gotten used to this and have a lot more flexibility now. We required a lot of hands on from my team to support these meetings, and now we're finding that, they're like, \u2018Oh, we got this, we can make this work.\u2019\u201dnnThat feeling of \u201cwe got this,\u201d is part of the reason why the CAO is taking the next step with digital services.nnThompson said the digital services office will work directly with digital directors, who work for committee and member offices. While the CAO continues to set the office up, Thompson and his team are meeting with the digital directors to better understand what the trends, challenges and broad needs are across the House.nn\u201cThere's a lot of outreach going on reaching out to even chiefs of staff in member offices, trying to understand what problems are they having, where's the gaps so you can consider it a listening tour, if you will, doing a lot of research about what kinds of tools or things or initiatives that they're trying to perform,\u201d he said.nnThompson said as a pre-cursor of sorts to the digital services office, the CAO has been improving the technology infrastructure for the House over the last few years.nnHe said from improving Wi-Fi access in the office buildings to a new pilot in the district offices to improve their wireless connectivity, the goal is to make it easier to connect offices and people.nn\u201cWe've also put a virtual private network (VPN) concentrator out on the West Coast, this is all about are trying to improve service for the district offices. They're those satellite offices that two or three people are sometimes one person in them, but still having them be connected and being able to collaborate use all the same tools that we do here on the Hill,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cWe opened up two new pops, or point of presence, if you think for a national backbone in the Southwest and the Midwest. We have about 900 plus district offices out there in the members\u2019 home districts that need to be connected, just like they would be here. Now, these offices can jump on our network faster and have less latency getting to our infrastructure services.\u201dnnSzpindor added since the CAO put the network and infrastructure upgrades in place, the number of calls they receive from member offices about dropped network connections or latency issues has dropped significantly.nn\u201cThe thing that we have to do better with is when the offices have issues, whether it's with their technology or their network, they have to know who to call to get help,\u201d she said. \u201cIt breaks my heart when one of the district office directors or someone talks about all the network issues that they have in our office, and we were never contacted. I don't know who she was talking to, but it never got down to our network staff. We are willing to do whatever it needs to improve, including getting on a plane and flying to the office to check things out or doing monitoring by checking the bandwidth or whatever to make it better. The communication on what we can do and how we can help is something we're working on.\u201dnnSzpindor said the digital services office also will help current staff upskill through short or medium term assignments on projects.nn\u201cI try to look at the employee side of things, there will be a shift, and some of the work that's been done to where maybe there's a certain percentage of the work that we have been doing on our back end systems, that will shift here. So we want to keep in mind, the needs of our dedicated employees to try to help them to get to where they can be part of this as well,\u201d she said."}};

The House of Representatives Chief Administrative Office is close to adding another shared service to the 100 or so it already provides.

These range from acquisition support to human resources to finance and logistics. But the one area where those services were missing and sorely needed was around digital transformation.

Alan Thompson is the chief information officer for the House of Representatives.

So in the coming months, the CAO will launch its new digital services office.

Alan Thompson, the House’s chief information officer, said over the last decade, and specifically over the last two-plus years, a lot of member offices, committees and caucuses have been trying to take advantage of technology in new ways. But many times their staff had limited knowledge or brought in consultants that cost a lot of money.

“We’d like to fill that gap for them,” Thompson said on Ask the CIO. “We’re going to have several different roles in this team. We’ll have a product manager role. We’ll have a user experience designer as well as software engineers. We really hope to bring in the capability to rapidly develop or maybe just consult on how an organization within the House member, committee or leadership office or a conference or caucus wants to achieve something. Really the hope is to be that resource there that can help them do that.”

The CAO, which first announced its plan to create a digital services office in March at a hearing of the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, is hiring both new employees but also bringing in experts from the U.S. Digital Service as well as TechCongress, an innovation fellowship that places technologists with Congress for a year.

Catherine Szpindor, the House of Representatives chief administrative officer, said members or committees are trying to solve a specific problem, but don’t know exactly how to do that.

The CAO offers almost 100 cloud approved services, for example, and the new digital services team will be able to do more than just point them in the right direction, but help get offices from idea to implementation.

Catherine Szpindor is the House of Representatives chief administrative officer.

“We have traditionally been a typical IT support group. We support major applications like PeopleSoft in our HR and payroll applications, these large Oracle and other products that have been traditional, and that’s served us well,” Szpindor said. “But I think just since we really started integrating Office 365 and going to the cloud with so many other things, we started realizing that there was a real need for us to be able to provide consultative services and help with the development of some of these newer products that are automated in a way in which you don’t have to know a lot about the standard way to program. They’re low code, no code type applications. Allen’s bringing in Appian as one of those that we could possibly use. We are looking at robotics process automation. This was just a good time to do that. The time was right, the enthusiasm is there, and I think industry experts are backing us with ideas and how it’s being used in other places.”

The House started implementing Microsoft O365 in 2019 and brought in other cloud products like WebEx from Cisco and Zoom to address the fast growing need for remote work during the pandemic.

These tools have made hearings more accessible, but they have also help improve the connection between Washington, D.C. office and members’ district offices.

“I will point out that these the members have gotten very good at using these tools, which I’ve been very happy to see,” Thompson said. “I attended an event the other night hosted by Rep. [Eric] Swalwell (D-Calif.) when he was at home with his new baby in his arms while he was doing this meeting. The members have really taken to and, I think, have gotten used to this and have a lot more flexibility now. We required a lot of hands on from my team to support these meetings, and now we’re finding that, they’re like, ‘Oh, we got this, we can make this work.’”

That feeling of “we got this,” is part of the reason why the CAO is taking the next step with digital services.

Thompson said the digital services office will work directly with digital directors, who work for committee and member offices. While the CAO continues to set the office up, Thompson and his team are meeting with the digital directors to better understand what the trends, challenges and broad needs are across the House.

“There’s a lot of outreach going on reaching out to even chiefs of staff in member offices, trying to understand what problems are they having, where’s the gaps so you can consider it a listening tour, if you will, doing a lot of research about what kinds of tools or things or initiatives that they’re trying to perform,” he said.

Thompson said as a pre-cursor of sorts to the digital services office, the CAO has been improving the technology infrastructure for the House over the last few years.

He said from improving Wi-Fi access in the office buildings to a new pilot in the district offices to improve their wireless connectivity, the goal is to make it easier to connect offices and people.

“We’ve also put a virtual private network (VPN) concentrator out on the West Coast, this is all about are trying to improve service for the district offices. They’re those satellite offices that two or three people are sometimes one person in them, but still having them be connected and being able to collaborate use all the same tools that we do here on the Hill,” Thompson said. “We opened up two new pops, or point of presence, if you think for a national backbone in the Southwest and the Midwest. We have about 900 plus district offices out there in the members’ home districts that need to be connected, just like they would be here. Now, these offices can jump on our network faster and have less latency getting to our infrastructure services.”

Szpindor added since the CAO put the network and infrastructure upgrades in place, the number of calls they receive from member offices about dropped network connections or latency issues has dropped significantly.

“The thing that we have to do better with is when the offices have issues, whether it’s with their technology or their network, they have to know who to call to get help,” she said. “It breaks my heart when one of the district office directors or someone talks about all the network issues that they have in our office, and we were never contacted. I don’t know who she was talking to, but it never got down to our network staff. We are willing to do whatever it needs to improve, including getting on a plane and flying to the office to check things out or doing monitoring by checking the bandwidth or whatever to make it better. The communication on what we can do and how we can help is something we’re working on.”

Szpindor said the digital services office also will help current staff upskill through short or medium term assignments on projects.

“I try to look at the employee side of things, there will be a shift, and some of the work that’s been done to where maybe there’s a certain percentage of the work that we have been doing on our back end systems, that will shift here. So we want to keep in mind, the needs of our dedicated employees to try to help them to get to where they can be part of this as well,” she said.

]]>
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TMF board leaders outline goals for $100M customer experience investment in agencies https://federalnewsnetwork.com/it-modernization/2022/06/tmf-board-leaders-outline-goals-for-100m-customer-experience-investment-in-agencies/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/it-modernization/2022/06/tmf-board-leaders-outline-goals-for-100m-customer-experience-investment-in-agencies/#respond Thu, 16 Jun 2022 21:33:58 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4106252 var config_4108113 = {"options":{"theme":"hbidc_default"},"extensions":{"Playlist":[]},"episode":{"media":{"mp3":"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/pdst.fm\/e\/chrt.fm\/track\/E2G895\/aw.noxsolutions.com\/launchpod\/federal-drive\/mp3\/061722_Jory_web_tozz_b1cfde44.mp3?awCollectionId=1146&awEpisodeId=214537a3-8869-4e49-a02a-0cc7b1cfde44&awNetwork=322"},"coverUrl":"https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/FD1500-150x150.jpg","title":"TMF board leaders outline goals for $100M customer experience investment in agencies","description":"[hbidcpodcast podcastid='4108113']nn<em>Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive\u2019s daily audio interviews on\u00a0<\/em><a href="https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/federal-drive-with-tom-temin\/id1270799277?mt=2"><i>Apple Podcasts<\/i><\/a><em>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href="https:\/\/www.podcastone.com\/federal-drive-with-tom-temin?pid=1753589">PodcastOne<\/a>.<\/em>nnThe Technology Modernization Fund is making a big investment in better customer experience throughout government.nnThe Office of Management and Budget and General Services Administration announced Thursday that TMF will award $100 million to projects that cut wait times for public-facing federal services, as well as excessive paperwork and other barriers.nnThese projects tie back to the Biden administration\u2019s executive order on improving customer experience, as well as one of three pillars of the President\u2019s Management Agenda.nnTMF Chairwoman and Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana said in an interview Thursday that the board will give \u201cpriority review\u201d to the 35 agencies and program offices designated as High-Impact Service Providers (HISPs).nn\u201cHigh-Impact Service Providers are designated through a pretty rigorous process, so we already know the kind of impact that they have on our federal environment and on the American people. It\u2019s really important for us to focus on this group, but this allocation of CX funding is available for all agencies,\u201d Martorana said.nnAgencies have until Aug. 1 to apply for expedited consideration for a customer experience improvement project, or Sept. 30 on a rolling basis.nn\u201cWe\u2019re really looking for proposals that can clearly articulate what improvements are going to be made. How they\u2019re user-driven, what the kind of end-benefits to regular people are,\u201d TMF Executive Director Raylene Yung said. \u201cThat\u2019s something we\u2019re looking for across the board.\u201dnnMartorana added that GSA\u2019s TMF program management office has created a TMF CX interest survey for agencies interested in learning more about how the fund.nn\u201cIt\u2019s really low-friction. You can tell us about your idea, and then we can engage with you, before agencies go off and spend an enormous amount of time on a multimillion-dollar request, we can actually start engaging early,\u201d Martorana said.nnThe TMF Board will prioritize investments in projects that cut across multiple agencies, cut down on wait times, reduce paperwork or barriers individuals face when interacting with federal agencies.nn\u201cIt can be something as simple as making sure that a website is mobile-optimized, available and written in plain language and accessible. Those are really simple cornerstones of really good CX,\u201d Martorana said.nnThe administration\u2019s focus on better customer experience in government also links back to its executive orders promoting accessibility across government\u2014 as part of a broader focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.nn\u201cIt\u2019s really making sure that we are meeting our customers where they are, making sure that somebody can look for a benefit or service, find accurate, credible and trustworthy, timely information about that service, and then start on their journey interacting with the government,\u201d Martorana said.nnTo date, the TMF has invested nearly $400 million out of the $1 billion in the American Rescue Plan funds it received. That $400 million has gone into 12 projects.nnIt remains unclear how many awards to agencies the TMF board will make from the $100 million investment on customer experience. But Yung said just about any amount of money can help improve customer experience in government.nn\u201cWe can actually see a lot of impact with a relatively small investment. We\u2019ve had investments of a few million dollars that have transformed entire agency systems. So I\u2019m hopeful we can actually cover a lot of ground with this, but I think it will come down to what types of proposals come our way,\u201d Yung said.nnThe TMF isn\u2019t the only fund to back governmentwide IT modernization projects.nnGSA, according to the administration\u2019s recently released IT Operating Plan, will use what\u2019s left of the $150 million in ARP funding that went into its Federal Citizen Services Fund to improve customer experience across several dozen agencies and programs designated as HISPs.nnYung said the FCSF will focus spending on \u201ccore investments\u201d in shared services, including Login.gov.nn\u201cI think the TMF comes in with targeted investment in specific agencies that are seeking to adapt these shared services, or use them, or maybe even develop new ones of their own. So I see these as very complementary efforts,\u201d Yung said.nnMartorana said TMF funding can also help increase momentum on customer experience projects already in motion.nn\u201cI think many of the incremental CX projects that I am aware of, that are happening across government, they can be smaller to start with, as an accelerant to a larger project. So I think that we will actually cover a significant amount of federal agencies with this funding," she said.nnThe administration, in a recent Performance.gov update, launched <a href="https:\/\/whitehouse.us7.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=0b118f06efd1af82b1ed474c3&id=630fe3f4e4&e=fd956f97ff">five interagency teams<\/a> to improve the quality of services that go beyond the domain of any one agency or program office.nnThese include helping members of the public who are approaching retirement, recovering from a disaster, or transitioning from active-duty military service.nnAgencies are also directed to improve services that support low-income mothers and children, as well as those suffering from a sudden financial loss who may be newly eligible for public assistance programs.nn\u201cThey have already committed to doing work, and that usually means in agencies that you have acquisition and funding lined up. But we would really be looking to see ways where we could be an accelerant to the work that\u2019s already underway and really maybe help them pull their roadmap in and deliver faster for the American people,\u201d Martorana said."}};

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

The Technology Modernization Fund is making a big investment in better customer experience throughout government.

The Office of Management and Budget and General Services Administration announced Thursday that TMF will award $100 million to projects that cut wait times for public-facing federal services, as well as excessive paperwork and other barriers.

These projects tie back to the Biden administration’s executive order on improving customer experience, as well as one of three pillars of the President’s Management Agenda.

TMF Chairwoman and Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana said in an interview Thursday that the board will give “priority review” to the 35 agencies and program offices designated as High-Impact Service Providers (HISPs).

“High-Impact Service Providers are designated through a pretty rigorous process, so we already know the kind of impact that they have on our federal environment and on the American people. It’s really important for us to focus on this group, but this allocation of CX funding is available for all agencies,” Martorana said.

Agencies have until Aug. 1 to apply for expedited consideration for a customer experience improvement project, or Sept. 30 on a rolling basis.

“We’re really looking for proposals that can clearly articulate what improvements are going to be made. How they’re user-driven, what the kind of end-benefits to regular people are,” TMF Executive Director Raylene Yung said. “That’s something we’re looking for across the board.”

Martorana added that GSA’s TMF program management office has created a TMF CX interest survey for agencies interested in learning more about how the fund.

“It’s really low-friction. You can tell us about your idea, and then we can engage with you, before agencies go off and spend an enormous amount of time on a multimillion-dollar request, we can actually start engaging early,” Martorana said.

The TMF Board will prioritize investments in projects that cut across multiple agencies, cut down on wait times, reduce paperwork or barriers individuals face when interacting with federal agencies.

“It can be something as simple as making sure that a website is mobile-optimized, available and written in plain language and accessible. Those are really simple cornerstones of really good CX,” Martorana said.

The administration’s focus on better customer experience in government also links back to its executive orders promoting accessibility across government— as part of a broader focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.

“It’s really making sure that we are meeting our customers where they are, making sure that somebody can look for a benefit or service, find accurate, credible and trustworthy, timely information about that service, and then start on their journey interacting with the government,” Martorana said.

To date, the TMF has invested nearly $400 million out of the $1 billion in the American Rescue Plan funds it received. That $400 million has gone into 12 projects.

It remains unclear how many awards to agencies the TMF board will make from the $100 million investment on customer experience. But Yung said just about any amount of money can help improve customer experience in government.

“We can actually see a lot of impact with a relatively small investment. We’ve had investments of a few million dollars that have transformed entire agency systems. So I’m hopeful we can actually cover a lot of ground with this, but I think it will come down to what types of proposals come our way,” Yung said.

The TMF isn’t the only fund to back governmentwide IT modernization projects.

GSA, according to the administration’s recently released IT Operating Plan, will use what’s left of the $150 million in ARP funding that went into its Federal Citizen Services Fund to improve customer experience across several dozen agencies and programs designated as HISPs.

Yung said the FCSF will focus spending on “core investments” in shared services, including Login.gov.

“I think the TMF comes in with targeted investment in specific agencies that are seeking to adapt these shared services, or use them, or maybe even develop new ones of their own. So I see these as very complementary efforts,” Yung said.

Martorana said TMF funding can also help increase momentum on customer experience projects already in motion.

“I think many of the incremental CX projects that I am aware of, that are happening across government, they can be smaller to start with, as an accelerant to a larger project. So I think that we will actually cover a significant amount of federal agencies with this funding,” she said.

The administration, in a recent Performance.gov update, launched five interagency teams to improve the quality of services that go beyond the domain of any one agency or program office.

These include helping members of the public who are approaching retirement, recovering from a disaster, or transitioning from active-duty military service.

Agencies are also directed to improve services that support low-income mothers and children, as well as those suffering from a sudden financial loss who may be newly eligible for public assistance programs.

“They have already committed to doing work, and that usually means in agencies that you have acquisition and funding lined up. But we would really be looking to see ways where we could be an accelerant to the work that’s already underway and really maybe help them pull their roadmap in and deliver faster for the American people,” Martorana said.

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DISA’s HaCC prioritizing customers over technology https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2022/06/disas-hacc-prioritizing-customers-over-technology/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2022/06/disas-hacc-prioritizing-customers-over-technology/#respond Thu, 16 Jun 2022 11:58:58 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4104763 The Hosting and Compute Center (HaCC) at the Defense Information Systems Agency wants to be the “provider of choice” for Defense Department organizations, according to Director Sharon Woods. To do that, HaCC is prioritizing the customers over the technology itself.

“So as HACC started rolling out new products, it really became clear that it’s more than the products. It’s about great service to achieve that velocity of action,” Woods said during FCW’s June 15 DoD Cloud workshop. “And so to answer that call, not just for velocity of action, but dynamic change … we have to move quicker, we have to do more. And so the HACC is designing a dynamic customer service experience for our cloud customers, the warfighter.”

HaCC is focused on getting the best possible value to the warfighter, as quickly as possible. Toward that end, its customer service experience consists of three components:

  • agile customer relationship management.
  • self-service support.
  • resiliency for the warfighter.

Agile customer relationship is all about speed to capability. With the shift to focusing on near-peer adversaries, and with a constantly changing cyber threat environment, the requirements of warfighters are changing as well. It’s not enough to spend a year developing a solution, and hope it works. DoD’s mission is too diverse and variable for that.

“We don’t start a project anymore, unless we can deliver some kind of minimal viable product within six months,” Woods said. “We’re very much focused on iterative micro-successes, not just so that we’re making progress, but that we’re making this incremental progress in a way that lets us pivot to user demand to respond to that continuous user feedback.’

One way HaCC is doing that is by using Salesforce to gather feedback and experience from its customers. It also reveals strategic alignments. Often the customer is not the only one having that same problem, but due to silos, no one else is aware of the others’ difficulties. So HaCC is using that experience data not only to inform its own processes and priorities, but also to build partnerships and coalitions.

For example, Woods said DoD’s infrastructure code baselines were originally automated and pre-configured in order to facilitate the rapid creation of a cloud environment. The intention was to develop those baselines in the unclassified environment in AWS and Azure. But through the gathering of feedback, HaCC concluded that wouldn’t be enough. So now it’s added Google and Oracle to those baselines to satisfy the customers’ need for more vendors. It’s also just pushed its first baselines into the classified environment, Woods said, something else the customers expressed a need for.

“Had we not been focused on agile customer relationship management, I think we would have missed the boat on what the customer really needs and allowing the customer to drive where we’re going, and not guess,” Woods said. “And I think that’s something historically that the department can be better about. And we’re looking to continually partner with industry so that we can get your perspective on what you’re seeing in your engagement so that we can understand that collectively.”

In another example, Woods said HaCC just developed a new product: containers as a service. HaCC was looking for a simple, common problem to solve, and it settled on web servers. They have to be set up individually every single time, unless automation is involved. Often, that means manual processes on more than 1,000 different web sites, each one carrying the potential for human error.

So HaCC developed a single, containerized web server that then automatically propagated to all the others. That provided immediate security hardening, and HaCC was able to turn that around in less than six months. In fact, Woods said, it’s already been piloted, and HaCC is already receiving and incorporating the feedback.

That’s why Woods said HaCC devotes an entire team to understanding customer needs and feedback.

“It is time consuming to reach out to customers and really try and understand what’s going on. But what’s the point, unless you’re taking the time to really understand if what we’re doing is responsive to their needs?” Woods asked.

Meanwhile, HaCC turns to self-service support to enable and empower the customer to solve their own problems. Automated password resets are one example that is currently being incorporated by the DoD and industry. Woods said HaCC’s predecessor organization was doing manual password resets across a Microsoft 365 environment with more than three million users. She called it “horrifying.”

That’s why HaCC is making automation a major component of Stratus, DISA’s private cloud replacement for milCloud.

Finally, resiliency for the warfighter is an acknowledgement of two fundamental inevitabilities:

  1. Issues, especially catastrophic ones, will happen in any environment.
  2. DoD, because of its unique mission, is necessarily more prone to catastrophic issues.

That’s why everything has to be engineered with resiliency in mind. Woods compared it to when Netflix intentionally released the Chaos Monkey code to see how well its environment could withstand such an attack. In addition to making catastrophic issues more likely, Woods said DoD’s unique mission also demands resiliency. Warfighters need to know that their cloud environment can withstand pressures.

“We can’t just deliver good IT, that’s not good enough,” Woods said. “We have to deliver a dynamic customer service experience so that we’re not just delivering best value IT, but we’re doing it in a way that really matters for the customer, that solving their problems.”

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Commerce BIS, Coast Guard closing in on infrastructure modernization wins https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2022/06/commerce-bis-coast-guard-closing-in-on-infrastructure-modernization-wins/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2022/06/commerce-bis-coast-guard-closing-in-on-infrastructure-modernization-wins/#respond Wed, 15 Jun 2022 15:55:13 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4103717 var config_4101968 = {"options":{"theme":"hbidc_default"},"extensions":{"Playlist":[]},"episode":{"media":{"mp3":"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/pdst.fm\/e\/chrt.fm\/track\/E2G895\/aw.noxsolutions.com\/launchpod\/federal-drive\/mp3\/061422_Jason_web_e6y9_5edb59a5.mp3?awCollectionId=1146&awEpisodeId=104054aa-7b61-477f-94bb-a2655edb59a5&awNetwork=322"},"coverUrl":"https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/FD1500-150x150.jpg","title":"A wrap-up of ACT-IAC Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference","description":"[hbidcpodcast podcastid='4101968']nn<em>Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive\u2019s daily audio interviews on\u00a0<\/em><a href="https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/federal-drive-with-tom-temin\/id1270799277?mt=2"><i>Apple Podcasts<\/i><\/a><em>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href="https:\/\/www.podcastone.com\/federal-drive-with-tom-temin?pid=1753589">PodcastOne<\/a>.<\/em>nnThe return of in-person conferences still is a bit weird. As most attendees will say, it\u2019s great to see people in person, but it\u2019s less fun to wear \u201creal\u201d clothes and shoes. The \u201cbusiness on the top and vacation on the bottom (dress shirt and shorts)\u201d doesn\u2019t work well when you are in a hotel or conference center for most people.nnMaybe the best part of the return to in-person events, at least for intrepid reporters, is the ability to ask follow-up questions after a presentation or speech. That is when you turn a story that is likely to be a lemon into sweet lemonade.nnAt the recent Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference sponsored by ACT-IAC in Cambridge, Maryland, the lemonade was flowing thanks to the bevy of speakers who were willing to talk about all the good things happening in their agency.nnFrom Army chief information officer Raj Iyer offering an update on <a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/army\/2022\/05\/byod-app-consolidation-next-for-army-digital-transformation\/">his digital transformation efforts<\/a> to Sonny Hashmi, the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service in the General Services Administration, talking about the latest contract to <a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/contractsawards\/2022\/05\/why-gsa-believes-its-new-cloud-services-contract-is-different-than-past-efforts\/">buy cloud services<\/a>, to Stacie Alboum talking about <a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/technology-main\/2022\/05\/an-nih-technology-executive-moves-from-the-health-field-to-banking-and-finance\/">her new job<\/a> at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as deputy director of enterprise strategy, the news flowed like, well lemonade.nnBut here are three items you may have missed from the event.n<h2>AFWERX moving back to DC<\/h2>nThe Air Force\u2019s innovation arm missed the Washington, D.C. metro area after all.nn<a href="https:\/\/afwerx.com\/spark_\/">AFWERX<\/a> closed its offices in Arlington, Virginia during the pandemic, figuring it would use its offices in Las Vegas and Austin, Texas as places to recruit innovative companies.nnBut like in Godfather Part III, AFWERX may have been screaming\u00a0 \u201cjust when I thought I was out, they pull me back in" to Washington, D.C.nnGarrett Custons, a Spark cell director at AFWERX, said the organization is looking for new space in the D.C. metro area.nn\u201cIt\u2019s really a blank slate with what it could look like,\u201d Custons said. \u201cWe want to build out an incubator in the D.C. area. We\u2019d love it to be co-located with other organizations in the government innovator space. We don\u2019t just the space, but a place where tools and products can be tested.\u201dnnAFWERX, which the Air Force launched in July 2017, focuses on accelerating agile and affordable capabilities by teaming innovative technology developers in the private sector with Airman and Guardian talent. \u00a0In 2020, the Air Force <a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/dod-reporters-notebook-jared-serbu\/2020\/09\/industry-holds-its-breath-on-impact-of-trump-diversity-training-order\/">split AFWERX<\/a> into three different branches: AFVentures, Spark and Prime. The <a href="https:\/\/afwerx.com\/spark_\/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spark branch<\/a> is focused on empowering <a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/dod-reporters-notebook-jared-serbu\/2020\/07\/dods-7b-household-goods-contract-takes-an-even-stranger-turn\/">innovation at the operational edge<\/a>.nnCustons said the decision to rethink the need for an office in the D.C. area is based on two factors. The first is internal growth of staff. The second is number of vendors in D.C. metro area.nn\u201cThis is where the decision makers are,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a logical progression of the lifecycle of AFWERX to help companies get into the federal market.\u201dnnAFWERX has money set-aside for the office space, but isn\u2019t against the idea of sharing space with other agencies or innovation cells.nnCustons said one option would be to share space with the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and the National Security Innovation Network in Arlington, Virginia.nn\u201cIf a government organization has office space, we\u2019d like to talk to them. It\u2019s hard to know what is available and what\u2019s out there,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are talking to the General Services Administration because they have collaboration space that isn\u2019t being used as much as they thought, so maybe partnership play there.\u201dn<h2>Commerce BIS sprint to the cloud<\/h2>nYou\u2019d think moving to the cloud would by now would be pass\u00e9. Agencies have been talking about it for more than a decade.nnFor the Commerce Department\u2019s Bureau of Industry and Security, cloud services represent an entirely new way of doing business.nnMike Palmer, associate chief information officer for BIS, said the goal of moving to the cloud is, of course, IT modernization. But the bigger win will for BIS is how the cloud services will free up data and break down silos.nn\u201cWe\u2019ve focused over the last six months on upgrading our infrastructure. In January, we decided to take our entire infrastructure to the cloud and out of this archaic on-premise based infrastructure,\u201d he said. \u201cBy July 1, our six month move of our entire infrastructure to the cloud should be complete. In the meantime, in parallel, we are starting to do some interesting things with data. It gives us more flexibility to make quicker decisions.\u201dnnPalmer said BIS is launching a pilot program around a data warehouse and data sharing platform to improve how they work with the intelligence and law enforcement communities as well as conducting a pilot to take some of its data from licensing offers and turn it into export control impact.nn\u201cOne of the things we believe in is trying things on a smaller scale and expand it from there so \u00a0quick, small investment to prove out a concept,\u201d he said. \u201cThe next phase of our product lifecycle modernization effort is to do a lot of user research over the summer as part of our enterprise modernization activities.\u201dnnA BIS spokesperson offered a few more details by email.nnThe spokesperson said the <a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/federal-insights\/2022\/01\/three-perspectives-on-network-modernization-fail-fast-fail-small-and-succeed\/">move to the cloud<\/a> will set the foundation for a broader modernization journey that includes creating new data sharing capabilities, public-facing digital services and a zero trust cybersecurity architecture.\u00a0 The move to the cloud is expected to improve BIS\u2019s operational resiliency and security, reduce costs, and provide modern tools for developing new software applications that will improve the BIS customer experience.nnPalmer said at the event that one of the biggest challenges for BIS is getting the workforce comfortable with using cloud services and no longer being in a physical environment.nnBIS expects the infrastructure modernization to save money, but Palmer said the CIO\u2019s office still is finalizing those details.n<h2>Coast Guard less disconnected<\/h2>nThe Coast Guard Commandant\u2019s tech revolution will not be televised, but it now will be on Zoom or Microsoft Teams.nnThat\u2019s right, major cutters now have enough bandwidth to use video teleconference platforms.nnBrian Campo, the Coast Guard\u2019s deputy CIO, said the service recently <a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/defense-main\/2020\/04\/covid-19-highlights-coast-guards-issues-with-it-modernization\/">upgraded<\/a> the communication bandwidth for all major cutters, which are out to sea 180 to 200 days a year.nn\u201cThe Coast Guard has been going out with Navy fleets for the last several years into places like Indo-PACOM and around the horn of Africa, but also going up into the Arctic. These are places were communications are really challenging. So one of the thing we have been trying to do is upgrade equipment, working with industry partners and looking at different communications links we could use,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the most amazing things have done in about the last year is we\u2019ve doubled connectivity to the major cutters. What we have been able to do is upgrade them so that they have enough bandwidth so now on the morale side in some of the mess decks and personnel areas, they can actually get what we would call \u2018dirty\u2019 internet to be able to send email back to loved ones. Just recently we just doubled their internet again so they can actually do video teleconferences using Teams and Zoom to actually reach back and talk with their loved ones.\u201dnnFormer Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz, who retired on June 1, made the increase of bandwidth to cutters a central part of his <a href="https:\/\/www.dcms.uscg.mil\/Portals\/10\/CG-6\/roadmap\/C5i-roadmap-FINAL-v6.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tech Revolution plan<\/a>.nnThe Tech Revolution Plan includes four other priorities: Data to decisions, software, mobility and the cloud, cyber readiness and command, control, communications, computers, cyber and intelligence (C5I).nnCampo said the Coast Guard now is adding two new lines of effort command and control and navigation.nn\u201cEach of those two new systems are game changing to the Coast Guard. They are systems we have been leveraging from the Defense Department that we will be retiring in the next few years,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are trying to build out some new replacements for those systems and taking a different approach. We are leveraging what we did in the first half of the tech revolution bringing in things like data, making data part of what we do for our C2 systems, making sure as we develop navigational systems we are leveraging the technology through commercial satellite communications. We are thinking about how we can use artificial intelligence to actually build out navigation systems that can manage these over congested ports and work with the shippers to give them more information as they come into a port.\u201d"}};

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

The return of in-person conferences still is a bit weird. As most attendees will say, it’s great to see people in person, but it’s less fun to wear “real” clothes and shoes. The “business on the top and vacation on the bottom (dress shirt and shorts)” doesn’t work well when you are in a hotel or conference center for most people.

Maybe the best part of the return to in-person events, at least for intrepid reporters, is the ability to ask follow-up questions after a presentation or speech. That is when you turn a story that is likely to be a lemon into sweet lemonade.

At the recent Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference sponsored by ACT-IAC in Cambridge, Maryland, the lemonade was flowing thanks to the bevy of speakers who were willing to talk about all the good things happening in their agency.

From Army chief information officer Raj Iyer offering an update on his digital transformation efforts to Sonny Hashmi, the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service in the General Services Administration, talking about the latest contract to buy cloud services, to Stacie Alboum talking about her new job at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as deputy director of enterprise strategy, the news flowed like, well lemonade.

But here are three items you may have missed from the event.

AFWERX moving back to DC

The Air Force’s innovation arm missed the Washington, D.C. metro area after all.

AFWERX closed its offices in Arlington, Virginia during the pandemic, figuring it would use its offices in Las Vegas and Austin, Texas as places to recruit innovative companies.

But like in Godfather Part III, AFWERX may have been screaming  “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” to Washington, D.C.

Garrett Custons, a Spark cell director at AFWERX, said the organization is looking for new space in the D.C. metro area.

“It’s really a blank slate with what it could look like,” Custons said. “We want to build out an incubator in the D.C. area. We’d love it to be co-located with other organizations in the government innovator space. We don’t just the space, but a place where tools and products can be tested.”

AFWERX, which the Air Force launched in July 2017, focuses on accelerating agile and affordable capabilities by teaming innovative technology developers in the private sector with Airman and Guardian talent.  In 2020, the Air Force split AFWERX into three different branches: AFVentures, Spark and Prime. The Spark branch is focused on empowering innovation at the operational edge.

Custons said the decision to rethink the need for an office in the D.C. area is based on two factors. The first is internal growth of staff. The second is number of vendors in D.C. metro area.

“This is where the decision makers are,” he said. “It’s a logical progression of the lifecycle of AFWERX to help companies get into the federal market.”

AFWERX has money set-aside for the office space, but isn’t against the idea of sharing space with other agencies or innovation cells.

Custons said one option would be to share space with the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and the National Security Innovation Network in Arlington, Virginia.

“If a government organization has office space, we’d like to talk to them. It’s hard to know what is available and what’s out there,” he said. “We are talking to the General Services Administration because they have collaboration space that isn’t being used as much as they thought, so maybe partnership play there.”

Commerce BIS sprint to the cloud

You’d think moving to the cloud would by now would be passé. Agencies have been talking about it for more than a decade.

For the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, cloud services represent an entirely new way of doing business.

Mike Palmer, associate chief information officer for BIS, said the goal of moving to the cloud is, of course, IT modernization. But the bigger win will for BIS is how the cloud services will free up data and break down silos.

“We’ve focused over the last six months on upgrading our infrastructure. In January, we decided to take our entire infrastructure to the cloud and out of this archaic on-premise based infrastructure,” he said. “By July 1, our six month move of our entire infrastructure to the cloud should be complete. In the meantime, in parallel, we are starting to do some interesting things with data. It gives us more flexibility to make quicker decisions.”

Palmer said BIS is launching a pilot program around a data warehouse and data sharing platform to improve how they work with the intelligence and law enforcement communities as well as conducting a pilot to take some of its data from licensing offers and turn it into export control impact.

“One of the things we believe in is trying things on a smaller scale and expand it from there so  quick, small investment to prove out a concept,” he said. “The next phase of our product lifecycle modernization effort is to do a lot of user research over the summer as part of our enterprise modernization activities.”

A BIS spokesperson offered a few more details by email.

The spokesperson said the move to the cloud will set the foundation for a broader modernization journey that includes creating new data sharing capabilities, public-facing digital services and a zero trust cybersecurity architecture.  The move to the cloud is expected to improve BIS’s operational resiliency and security, reduce costs, and provide modern tools for developing new software applications that will improve the BIS customer experience.

Palmer said at the event that one of the biggest challenges for BIS is getting the workforce comfortable with using cloud services and no longer being in a physical environment.

BIS expects the infrastructure modernization to save money, but Palmer said the CIO’s office still is finalizing those details.

Coast Guard less disconnected

The Coast Guard Commandant’s tech revolution will not be televised, but it now will be on Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

That’s right, major cutters now have enough bandwidth to use video teleconference platforms.

Brian Campo, the Coast Guard’s deputy CIO, said the service recently upgraded the communication bandwidth for all major cutters, which are out to sea 180 to 200 days a year.

“The Coast Guard has been going out with Navy fleets for the last several years into places like Indo-PACOM and around the horn of Africa, but also going up into the Arctic. These are places were communications are really challenging. So one of the thing we have been trying to do is upgrade equipment, working with industry partners and looking at different communications links we could use,” he said. “One of the most amazing things have done in about the last year is we’ve doubled connectivity to the major cutters. What we have been able to do is upgrade them so that they have enough bandwidth so now on the morale side in some of the mess decks and personnel areas, they can actually get what we would call ‘dirty’ internet to be able to send email back to loved ones. Just recently we just doubled their internet again so they can actually do video teleconferences using Teams and Zoom to actually reach back and talk with their loved ones.”

Former Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz, who retired on June 1, made the increase of bandwidth to cutters a central part of his Tech Revolution plan.

The Tech Revolution Plan includes four other priorities: Data to decisions, software, mobility and the cloud, cyber readiness and command, control, communications, computers, cyber and intelligence (C5I).

Campo said the Coast Guard now is adding two new lines of effort command and control and navigation.

“Each of those two new systems are game changing to the Coast Guard. They are systems we have been leveraging from the Defense Department that we will be retiring in the next few years,” he said. “We are trying to build out some new replacements for those systems and taking a different approach. We are leveraging what we did in the first half of the tech revolution bringing in things like data, making data part of what we do for our C2 systems, making sure as we develop navigational systems we are leveraging the technology through commercial satellite communications. We are thinking about how we can use artificial intelligence to actually build out navigation systems that can manage these over congested ports and work with the shippers to give them more information as they come into a port.”

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Army’s 2023 IT, cyber budget request aims to push digital transformation further, faster https://federalnewsnetwork.com/army/2022/06/armys-2023-it-cyber-budget-request-aims-to-push-digital-transformation-further-faster/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/army/2022/06/armys-2023-it-cyber-budget-request-aims-to-push-digital-transformation-further-faster/#respond Mon, 13 Jun 2022 14:38:06 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4100010 var config_4097573 = {"options":{"theme":"hbidc_default"},"extensions":{"Playlist":[]},"episode":{"media":{"mp3":"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/pdst.fm\/e\/chrt.fm\/track\/E2G895\/aw.noxsolutions.com\/launchpod\/federal-drive\/mp3\/061022_Jason_web_bn4k_178813a3.mp3?awCollectionId=1146&awEpisodeId=f72fc79f-f20e-4a1b-bb5d-d615178813a3&awNetwork=322"},"coverUrl":"https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/FD1500-150x150.jpg","title":"Army hoping budget request for digital transformation will come through","description":"[hbidcpodcast podcastid='4097573']nn<em>Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive\u2019s daily audio interviews on\u00a0<\/em><a href="https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/federal-drive-with-tom-temin\/id1270799277?mt=2"><i>Apple Podcasts<\/i><\/a><em>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href="https:\/\/www.podcastone.com\/federal-drive-with-tom-temin?pid=1753589">PodcastOne<\/a>.<\/em>nnThe Army is expecting fiscal 2023 to be a big year for its digital transformation efforts.nnThe question, as with most agency programs, is whether Congress will deliver on the Army\u2019s budget request.nn[caption id="attachment_4072886" align="alignright" width="300"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-4072886" src="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/IMG_1678-300x224.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="224" \/> Dr. Raj Iyer is the Army's CIO.[\/caption]nn\u201cFiscal 2023, for us, is that year of inflection when it comes to our digital transformation journey,\u201d said Raj Iyer, the Army\u2019s chief information officer, during a press briefing on June 9. \u201cWe need to make sure that the investments that we have are appropriately aligned to the Army's priorities and to the Defense Department priorities, quite honestly through the release of the National Defense Strategy.\u201dnnThe Army will have to support those priorities, as Iyer and Lt. Gen. John Morrison, the Army\u2019s G6, laid them out in the October <a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/defense-main\/2021\/10\/armys-new-digital-strategy-looks-well-beyond-nuts-and-bolts-of-it-modernization\/">digital transformation strategy<\/a>, through mostly a flat budget request and buttressed by savings from IT modernization efforts.nnIyer said the Army\u2019s IT and cybersecurity budget request is $16.6 billion in 2023, which is the largest of all DoD services. The request makes up slightly less than 10% of the <a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/army\/2022\/03\/armys-2023-budget-will-remain-relatively-flat-temporarily-shrink-end-strength\/">Army\u2019s total budget<\/a> request of $180 billion.nnThis was the first time the Army detailed its 2023 IT and cyber budget request since President Joe Biden sent his <a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/defense-main\/2022\/03\/dod-budget-contains-big-pay-raise-and-largest-research-investment-ever\/">spending wish list<\/a> to Congress in March.nnInside that $16.6 billion request is $2 billion for cybersecurity, including offensive and defensive operations, network operations and research and development.nnIyer said the bulk of their IT and cyber investment will go to network support and modernization.nn\u201cThis is about $9.8 billion. This is clearly supporting all the way from the tactical edge, including the support of current operations, all the way to investments we're making the cloud,\u201d Iyer said. \u201cGen. Morrison has spoken about the unified network at a number of events\u2026but 2023 really is also our opportunity to scale our cloud efforts that we have made some tremendous progress in 2021 and 2022. We're seeing about a $290 million investment in cloud in 2023 to continue to further our cloud migration journey. There's some tremendous activity across the Army right now in terms of operationalizing the cloud that we've established in what we call c-Army.\u201dn<h2>Spending less on legacy technology<\/h2>nThe Army also is asking for about $220 million for artificial intelligence and data related initiatives.nnIyer said he expects his operations and maintenance (O&M) budget to support current and legacy IT to be slightly lower in 2023 compared to this year as well.nnOver the last few years, the Army has been on a path to reduce reliance on old technology and consolidate tools.nnIyer said by moving to Office 365 and through other consolidation efforts, his office has found money to reinvest in modernization.nn\u201cOne is the convergence of our networks as part of our unified network strategy. We're looking at converging 42 networks across the Army into that single, unified network. What that will do really is start to consolidate all of the tools into a common service catalog, get us to a common set of processes and to standardization across the network. That will inherently result in in cost savings into 2023,\u201d Iyer said. \u201cBeyond that, there's some other things that we have done in terms of reducing our bills for 2023 based on our current spending. One of them really is the recent decision to complete or finish out our enterprise IT-as-a-service pilots. We had three contracts in place at three pilot locations that we had selected. Most recently, based on the results and the lessons learned, we have come to a conclusion that we have good data in order to be able to deploy some common services that are cloud enabled across all Army locations worldwide.\u201dnnHe said O365 is one example of those services. He said his office deploy a standard virtual desktop infrastructure as well in the coming years.nnMorrison added that some of the decisions to find savings means getting rid of technology altogether like video teleconferencing hardware and software since the Army can use the capabilities through O365.nn\u201cAs enterprise capabilities come online, we just need to be ruthless in our governance of it to make sure that we did keep the best of legacy capabilities and we don't hang on to something just to hang on to it,\u201d Morrison said. \u201cI think we are putting the mechanisms in place to really start getting after that. We're continuing to shut data centers. We are continuing to leverage the great capabilities that come with c-Army. We're not doing it at the speed and tempo that we probably can. And quite frankly, Dr. Iyer and I had a discussion just earlier [on June 9] about reinvigorating those efforts because even though we're past what the goals that had been set for the Army from an efficiency perspective, but I would submit to you more importantly from an operational effectiveness perspective, we need to move a little bit faster and harmonize with this hybrid cloud operational environments. That will only drive us faster toward data centricity. It will only drive us toward a unified network that can support multi-domain operations.\u201dn<h2>5 ERPs, 150 support systems<\/h2>nOne of Iyer\u2019s biggest and boldest priorities for 2023 that, over the long term, should result in significant cost savings is modernizing the Army\u2019s business systems.nnThe Army plans to spend $1.4 billion on maintaining five enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for financial management, human resources and the like as well as 150 support systems.nnIyer said many of these ERP and related systems are more than 20 years old and ready to be updated and moved the cloud.nnThe Army has been focused on reducing and modernizing its business systems for the last decade. In 2017, the service reported it <a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/dod-reporters-notebook-jared-serbu\/2017\/04\/army-plans-cut-number-business-systems-half\/">cut the number<\/a> of business systems to 400 from 800. In 2020, it upgraded the <a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/it-modernization\/2020\/01\/army-va-taking-on-major-enterprise-financial-system-transformation-projects-next-year\/">General Fund Enterprise Business System<\/a> to be more of a shared service for other Defense agencies and had plans to take the system to the cloud.nn\u201cOur marquee effort in 2023 is going to be our implementation or initial prototyping for our new enterprise business systems convergence,\u201d he said. \u201cWe're trying to converge them into a single architecture or into a single system if we can. If we have one integrated capability, then, more importantly, the data that we can pass across that spectrum of operations for analytics. It is a massive, multi-year modernization effort. We fully expect that it will be as high as 10 years for us to get to that modernization effort. But the approach that we're taking isn't a big bang approach that we've typically used in the past. This is going to meet be more of an evolutionary modernization approach.\u201dnnAlong with the budget request, Iyer said the Army will take another key step this summer when the Program Executive Office-Enterprise Information Systems (PEO-EIS) will release a call for white papers under an other transaction agreement (OTA) approach to better understand what industry has to offer.nn\u201cSince we are going to use an OTA process for this acquisition, there is going to be a lot of interaction with the industry to figure out what's out there that the Army can adopt rapidly, as well as, ensure we have a future proof architecture,\u201d Iyer said. \u201cWe expect to award multiple prototypes in early 2023. These would run anywhere from 12-to-18 months. Then at the end of that effort, just like any OTA, we will get to a production contract by down selecting one of those prototypes to be our production solution.\u201dnnIyer said while the OTA will not be prescriptive, the Army wants to see how industry responds with ideas that include using a modular architecture, supports data exchange through application programming interfaces (APIs) and micro services and is cloud native.nn\u201cWe'll be looking at how flexible the solution will be in terms of its ability to implement Army unique processes wherever we have them, without the need to customize commercial off the shelf products,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is going to be evolutionary modernization as we are doing this in an agile approach. We will let the functional priorities define what those increments will be, and then we will look at the risk profile to look at how quickly we can get those turned on. That will determine the level of funding and the timeline for implementation. From an implementation perspective, one of the things that we're going to we're going to be pushing an industry for is to truly do this using dev\/sec\/ops and in an agile manner, which means that we are looking for functionality to be available or released to users on rapid sprints, not taking years to do this. This is all about getting functionality in the hands of the user rapidly through agile development.\u201d"}};

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

The Army is expecting fiscal 2023 to be a big year for its digital transformation efforts.

The question, as with most agency programs, is whether Congress will deliver on the Army’s budget request.

Dr. Raj Iyer is the Army’s CIO.

“Fiscal 2023, for us, is that year of inflection when it comes to our digital transformation journey,” said Raj Iyer, the Army’s chief information officer, during a press briefing on June 9. “We need to make sure that the investments that we have are appropriately aligned to the Army’s priorities and to the Defense Department priorities, quite honestly through the release of the National Defense Strategy.”

The Army will have to support those priorities, as Iyer and Lt. Gen. John Morrison, the Army’s G6, laid them out in the October digital transformation strategy, through mostly a flat budget request and buttressed by savings from IT modernization efforts.

Iyer said the Army’s IT and cybersecurity budget request is $16.6 billion in 2023, which is the largest of all DoD services. The request makes up slightly less than 10% of the Army’s total budget request of $180 billion.

This was the first time the Army detailed its 2023 IT and cyber budget request since President Joe Biden sent his spending wish list to Congress in March.

Inside that $16.6 billion request is $2 billion for cybersecurity, including offensive and defensive operations, network operations and research and development.

Iyer said the bulk of their IT and cyber investment will go to network support and modernization.

“This is about $9.8 billion. This is clearly supporting all the way from the tactical edge, including the support of current operations, all the way to investments we’re making the cloud,” Iyer said. “Gen. Morrison has spoken about the unified network at a number of events…but 2023 really is also our opportunity to scale our cloud efforts that we have made some tremendous progress in 2021 and 2022. We’re seeing about a $290 million investment in cloud in 2023 to continue to further our cloud migration journey. There’s some tremendous activity across the Army right now in terms of operationalizing the cloud that we’ve established in what we call c-Army.”

Spending less on legacy technology

The Army also is asking for about $220 million for artificial intelligence and data related initiatives.

Iyer said he expects his operations and maintenance (O&M) budget to support current and legacy IT to be slightly lower in 2023 compared to this year as well.

Over the last few years, the Army has been on a path to reduce reliance on old technology and consolidate tools.

Iyer said by moving to Office 365 and through other consolidation efforts, his office has found money to reinvest in modernization.

“One is the convergence of our networks as part of our unified network strategy. We’re looking at converging 42 networks across the Army into that single, unified network. What that will do really is start to consolidate all of the tools into a common service catalog, get us to a common set of processes and to standardization across the network. That will inherently result in in cost savings into 2023,” Iyer said. “Beyond that, there’s some other things that we have done in terms of reducing our bills for 2023 based on our current spending. One of them really is the recent decision to complete or finish out our enterprise IT-as-a-service pilots. We had three contracts in place at three pilot locations that we had selected. Most recently, based on the results and the lessons learned, we have come to a conclusion that we have good data in order to be able to deploy some common services that are cloud enabled across all Army locations worldwide.”

He said O365 is one example of those services. He said his office deploy a standard virtual desktop infrastructure as well in the coming years.

Morrison added that some of the decisions to find savings means getting rid of technology altogether like video teleconferencing hardware and software since the Army can use the capabilities through O365.

“As enterprise capabilities come online, we just need to be ruthless in our governance of it to make sure that we did keep the best of legacy capabilities and we don’t hang on to something just to hang on to it,” Morrison said. “I think we are putting the mechanisms in place to really start getting after that. We’re continuing to shut data centers. We are continuing to leverage the great capabilities that come with c-Army. We’re not doing it at the speed and tempo that we probably can. And quite frankly, Dr. Iyer and I had a discussion just earlier [on June 9] about reinvigorating those efforts because even though we’re past what the goals that had been set for the Army from an efficiency perspective, but I would submit to you more importantly from an operational effectiveness perspective, we need to move a little bit faster and harmonize with this hybrid cloud operational environments. That will only drive us faster toward data centricity. It will only drive us toward a unified network that can support multi-domain operations.”

5 ERPs, 150 support systems

One of Iyer’s biggest and boldest priorities for 2023 that, over the long term, should result in significant cost savings is modernizing the Army’s business systems.

The Army plans to spend $1.4 billion on maintaining five enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for financial management, human resources and the like as well as 150 support systems.

Iyer said many of these ERP and related systems are more than 20 years old and ready to be updated and moved the cloud.

The Army has been focused on reducing and modernizing its business systems for the last decade. In 2017, the service reported it cut the number of business systems to 400 from 800. In 2020, it upgraded the General Fund Enterprise Business System to be more of a shared service for other Defense agencies and had plans to take the system to the cloud.

“Our marquee effort in 2023 is going to be our implementation or initial prototyping for our new enterprise business systems convergence,” he said. “We’re trying to converge them into a single architecture or into a single system if we can. If we have one integrated capability, then, more importantly, the data that we can pass across that spectrum of operations for analytics. It is a massive, multi-year modernization effort. We fully expect that it will be as high as 10 years for us to get to that modernization effort. But the approach that we’re taking isn’t a big bang approach that we’ve typically used in the past. This is going to meet be more of an evolutionary modernization approach.”

Along with the budget request, Iyer said the Army will take another key step this summer when the Program Executive Office-Enterprise Information Systems (PEO-EIS) will release a call for white papers under an other transaction agreement (OTA) approach to better understand what industry has to offer.

“Since we are going to use an OTA process for this acquisition, there is going to be a lot of interaction with the industry to figure out what’s out there that the Army can adopt rapidly, as well as, ensure we have a future proof architecture,” Iyer said. “We expect to award multiple prototypes in early 2023. These would run anywhere from 12-to-18 months. Then at the end of that effort, just like any OTA, we will get to a production contract by down selecting one of those prototypes to be our production solution.”

Iyer said while the OTA will not be prescriptive, the Army wants to see how industry responds with ideas that include using a modular architecture, supports data exchange through application programming interfaces (APIs) and micro services and is cloud native.

“We’ll be looking at how flexible the solution will be in terms of its ability to implement Army unique processes wherever we have them, without the need to customize commercial off the shelf products,” he said. “This is going to be evolutionary modernization as we are doing this in an agile approach. We will let the functional priorities define what those increments will be, and then we will look at the risk profile to look at how quickly we can get those turned on. That will determine the level of funding and the timeline for implementation. From an implementation perspective, one of the things that we’re going to we’re going to be pushing an industry for is to truly do this using dev/sec/ops and in an agile manner, which means that we are looking for functionality to be available or released to users on rapid sprints, not taking years to do this. This is all about getting functionality in the hands of the user rapidly through agile development.”

]]>
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New VA portals provide simplicity, transparency to vendor interactions https://federalnewsnetwork.com/shared-services/2022/06/new-va-portals-provide-simplicity-transparency-to-vendor-interactions/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/shared-services/2022/06/new-va-portals-provide-simplicity-transparency-to-vendor-interactions/#respond Mon, 13 Jun 2022 12:44:25 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4096213 The Department of Veterans Affairs is trying to streamline how contractors interact with the department. Last month it announced the Pathfinder site, a new digital one-stop shop for contractors looking to work with the VA. On June 7, that website officially went live.

“This is a focused point of entry to selling and innovating with VA for our industry partners,” said Michael Parrish, VA’s chief acquisition officer, in a press release. “It fills a gap we’ve found in the acquisition lifecycle by creating the fusion of acquisition and innovation with this intelligent system.”

Parrish said last month that the new Pathfinder site will help vendors that haven’t worked with VA before getting certified through SAM.gov. But the site will also pre-filter to show only VA-specific solicitations.

“One of the great things about [the Pathfinder tool] is that it does provide a connection to that more innovative area,” said Charles Worthington, chief technology officer for VA’s Office of Information Technology. “So in cases where it’s a solution that the community thinks might help solve a problem that VA has, there is a path that it’ll lead you down, that can kind of flag you into that.”

Luwanda Jones, deputy chief information officer at VA, said during a VA Advanced Planning Brief to Industry on June 8 that the site will also facilitate vendor engagement scheduling. Eventually, she said, it will replace the VA’s IT Vendor Management Office scheduling email.

But Pathfinder isn’t the only way VA is trying to make it easier for vendors to work with them. Worthington said VA is trying to build a culture of transparency on the IT side, especially with vendors, in order to make it easier for them to integrate solutions. That’s evidenced in the new Lighthouse program, Worthington said.

Previously, he said, the team behind Lighthouse was primarily focused on vendors building third-party applications on top of VA services. For example, that might include a veteran linking their VA medical records to an approved health care app on their phone.

But now that team is turning its focus to internal interfaces as well.

“You’re going to be seeing more about this in the coming weeks and months. But what we’re really hoping to do is for all the different systems that run within our VA internal environment, we want to document the interfaces that those systems provide, and make it easy for teams to use those interfaces,” Worthington said. “We want to focus on making it easy for teams to leverage existing capabilities that are existing in other systems. And Lighthouse is a key way that’s going to help us do that. So more to come on this but keep your eyes open. And really, teams should be thinking about the core transactional capabilities of whatever system you’re working on. Exposing those to other systems in a standard way with an API is really the approach that has been most successful for integrating systems at VA, and we’re going to be leaning into that even more with our Lighthouse Developer Experience platform.”

Worthington also mentioned a VA design portal that’s intended to provide style and format guidance to contractors working with VA, in order to match the look and feel of the VA website. The idea is to ensure consistency across all communications involving the VA. Worthington said that can range from as simple as whether or not to capitalize the V in veterans, to technical minutiae like fonts, margins and color palettes.

Finally, Worthington discussed a shared service for notifications that VA is beginning to implement on its internal network. It will allow vendors to send personalized notifications to veterans via email or text. So, for example, they can let veterans know their application was received, or their prescription was updated. Worthington said the service is already integrated with VA’s veteran profile databases, as well as with its veterans preference engines. It also has a high level of trust with email providers, meaning it’s more likely to bypass spam filters.

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OMB outlines plan to maximize COVID-era IT modernization funds from Congress https://federalnewsnetwork.com/it-modernization/2022/06/omb-outlines-plan-to-maximize-covid-era-it-modernization-funds-from-congress/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/it-modernization/2022/06/omb-outlines-plan-to-maximize-covid-era-it-modernization-funds-from-congress/#respond Fri, 10 Jun 2022 21:51:17 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4098267 var config_4103386 = {"options":{"theme":"hbidc_default"},"extensions":{"Playlist":[]},"episode":{"media":{"mp3":"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/pdst.fm\/e\/chrt.fm\/track\/E2G895\/aw.noxsolutions.com\/launchpod\/federal-drive\/mp3\/061522_Jory_web_sbf1_7f08a4a0.mp3?awCollectionId=1146&awEpisodeId=2b57f187-caa9-4ee1-9024-24157f08a4a0&awNetwork=322"},"coverUrl":"https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/FD1500-150x150.jpg","title":"OMB outlines plan to maximize COVID-era IT modernization funds from Congress","description":"[hbidcpodcast podcastid='4103386']nn<em>Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive\u2019s daily audio interviews on\u00a0<\/em><a href="https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/federal-drive-with-tom-temin\/id1270799277?mt=2"><i>Apple Podcasts<\/i><\/a><em>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href="https:\/\/www.podcastone.com\/federal-drive-with-tom-temin?pid=1753589">PodcastOne<\/a>.<\/em>nnThe Biden administration, following a windfall of IT modernization dollars Congress approved through COVID-19 spending, is outlining its vision of how it will make the most of this money.nnThe Office of Management and Budget <a href="https:\/\/www.cio.gov\/assets\/files\/Federal-IT-Operating-Plan-June-2022.pdf">released a plan Friday<\/a> detailing projects made possible through three governmentwide IT modernization funds, as well as upcoming plans on where it will spend more money.nnThe IT Operating Plan offers insights into how the administration will spend the remaining hundreds of millions of IT modernization dollars Congress approved as part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP).nnFederal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana said the plan, in part, serves as a response to Congress, which in its omnibus spending bill for 2022, directed OMB to come up with a strategy to \u201cmaximize the impact\u201d of money granted to several IT modernization funds.nn\u201cWe recognize the significant investment that Congress has made in securing and modernizing federal IT and have assembled this plan to explain how we ensure the wise investment of each dollar Congress has entrusted to us towards its highest use \u2014 creating the most impact for the American people,\u201d Martorana wrote.nnThe plan outlines future spending across four priorities: cybersecurity, IT modernization, digital-first customer experience and data as a strategic asset.nnThe funding outlined in the plan falls into three governmentwide funds.nnOMB plans to spend what\u2019s left of the $200 million Congress gave its IT Oversight and Reform (ITOR) Account to hire technical experts who can lead modernization projects across government.nnThat hiring push includes software engineers, IT specialists, designers, product managers and acquisition specialists.nn\u201cTechnical talent is essential to accomplish the mission and fundamental duties of the government while avoiding the risks that come with outsourcing. They also provide essential guidance and feedback to industry partners and contractors to ensure project requirements are met,\u201d the plan states.nnThe General Services Administration will use what\u2019s left of the $150 million that went to its Federal Citizen Services Fund to improve customer experience across several dozen agencies and programs designated as High-Impact Service Providers.nnThe Technology Modernization Fund, which received an unprecedented $1 billion through ARP, will use its remaining funds in part to identify new opportunities for shared services across government.nnThese funds collectively backed the creation of Login.gov, a shared identity solution that the Biden administration sees as the backbone for moving more government services online.nnMost of these funds also led to the development U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) in 2015, which helped agencies build websites that have a consistent look at feel to them.nnITOR generally supports IT projects at OMB and the U.S. Digital Service. Recent projects backed by ITOR include COVIDTests.gov, the IRS\u2019s website for the expanded child tax credit, and an overhaul of the Agriculture Department\u2019s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.nnFCSF, which supports an array of dot-gov websites, including USA.gov, data.gov, digital.gov and search.gov also funds GSA\u2019s Technology Transformation Services and its new U.S. Digital Corps.nnThe TMF in fiscal 2021 invested $321 million in IT modernization projects that generally demonstrated a strong return on investment.nn<a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/technology-main\/2022\/05\/tmf-backs-nara-digitizing-vets-records-usda-moving-to-zero-trust\/">The fund's most recent investments<\/a> will help the National Archives and Records Administration overcome a backlog in requests for military services records from veterans and their families.nnThe TMF is also helping USDA invest in zero-trust cybersecurity architecture, given the agency\u2019s role as a shared service provider to other agencies and as the source of many public-facing government services.nnThe fund has gone through waves of feast and famine, with Congress approving little to no funding for some fiscal years.nnWhile the TMF has more money than it ever has since its creation in 2017, the TMF board has 130 proposals from 60 agencies and components, totaling over $2.5 billion.nnSen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) who championed efforts to pass the Modernizing Government Technology Act that created the TMF, is leading a coalition seeking $300 million for the TMF in the FY 2023 budget.nn\u201cThis is an effort worth pursuing, recognizing that it\u2019s both going to take more funding and continued improvement of the system to make sure we get the full value of that dollar,\u201d Warner said in an interview.nnWarner said the goals of the TMF remain a \u201cwork in progress,\u201d and pointed to the recent <a href="https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/products\/gao-22-105117">Government Accountability Office findings<\/a> that show some projects haven\u2019t recouped as much savings as initially expected.nn\u201cThe problem is, the scope of the problem is so large, and this is a new enough initiative,\u201d Warner said.nn\u201cWe still need to do a better job of thinking about capital investments in a different way. The Technology Modernization Fund is at least a step in the direction,\u201d he added.n<h2>U.S. Digital Corps welcomes its first fellows<\/h2>nGSA's U.S. Digital Corps, meanwhile, is welcoming its first cohort of fellows into government service.nnU.S. Digital Corps selected about 40 fellows from more than 1,000 applications. The program is focused on bringing early career technologists into government to contribute to high-impact efforts across the federal government.nnDave Zvenyach, the director of GSA's Technology Transformation Services, said fellows are working at\u00a013 agencies to create a \u201cmore effective, equitable government.\u201dnnAmong the projects, fellows will join the Veteran Affairs Department\u2019s digital experience product team, where they\u2019ll work on online tools to help veterans access VA benefits.nnAnother group of fellows will work with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to help implement the Biden administration\u2019s executive orders on cybersecurity and zero trust.nnCISA\u2019s fellows will also help the agency develop vulnerability, risk and resilience assessments.nnFellows will also work will assist the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in developing online tools meant to help the public locate and access behavioral health treatment.nnZvenyach said working out of TTS will work towards simplifying the public\u2019s access to benefits and services on USA.gov \u2013 both the English and Spanish versions of the site.nnTTS \u00a0fellows will also help secure Login.gov from security threats, and work with federal employees to develop ideas of how technology can improve the public\u2019s experience with the 10X program.nnThe Office of Personnel Management will bring on two fellows to improve human capital management across the federal government.nnMartorana said the U.S. Digital Corps reached out to traditionally underrepresented communities in tech across 47 states and territories.nn\u201cCreating new ways to bring technology talent into the federal government is crucial to our efforts to protect, serve, and inspire the American people in today\u2019s digital age,\u201d she said."}};

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

The Biden administration, following a windfall of IT modernization dollars Congress approved through COVID-19 spending, is outlining its vision of how it will make the most of this money.

The Office of Management and Budget released a plan Friday detailing projects made possible through three governmentwide IT modernization funds, as well as upcoming plans on where it will spend more money.

The IT Operating Plan offers insights into how the administration will spend the remaining hundreds of millions of IT modernization dollars Congress approved as part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP).

Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana said the plan, in part, serves as a response to Congress, which in its omnibus spending bill for 2022, directed OMB to come up with a strategy to “maximize the impact” of money granted to several IT modernization funds.

“We recognize the significant investment that Congress has made in securing and modernizing federal IT and have assembled this plan to explain how we ensure the wise investment of each dollar Congress has entrusted to us towards its highest use — creating the most impact for the American people,” Martorana wrote.

The plan outlines future spending across four priorities: cybersecurity, IT modernization, digital-first customer experience and data as a strategic asset.

The funding outlined in the plan falls into three governmentwide funds.

OMB plans to spend what’s left of the $200 million Congress gave its IT Oversight and Reform (ITOR) Account to hire technical experts who can lead modernization projects across government.

That hiring push includes software engineers, IT specialists, designers, product managers and acquisition specialists.

“Technical talent is essential to accomplish the mission and fundamental duties of the government while avoiding the risks that come with outsourcing. They also provide essential guidance and feedback to industry partners and contractors to ensure project requirements are met,” the plan states.

The General Services Administration will use what’s left of the $150 million that went to its Federal Citizen Services Fund to improve customer experience across several dozen agencies and programs designated as High-Impact Service Providers.

The Technology Modernization Fund, which received an unprecedented $1 billion through ARP, will use its remaining funds in part to identify new opportunities for shared services across government.

These funds collectively backed the creation of Login.gov, a shared identity solution that the Biden administration sees as the backbone for moving more government services online.

Most of these funds also led to the development U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) in 2015, which helped agencies build websites that have a consistent look at feel to them.

ITOR generally supports IT projects at OMB and the U.S. Digital Service. Recent projects backed by ITOR include COVIDTests.gov, the IRS’s website for the expanded child tax credit, and an overhaul of the Agriculture Department’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

FCSF, which supports an array of dot-gov websites, including USA.gov, data.gov, digital.gov and search.gov also funds GSA’s Technology Transformation Services and its new U.S. Digital Corps.

The TMF in fiscal 2021 invested $321 million in IT modernization projects that generally demonstrated a strong return on investment.

The fund’s most recent investments will help the National Archives and Records Administration overcome a backlog in requests for military services records from veterans and their families.

The TMF is also helping USDA invest in zero-trust cybersecurity architecture, given the agency’s role as a shared service provider to other agencies and as the source of many public-facing government services.

The fund has gone through waves of feast and famine, with Congress approving little to no funding for some fiscal years.

While the TMF has more money than it ever has since its creation in 2017, the TMF board has 130 proposals from 60 agencies and components, totaling over $2.5 billion.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) who championed efforts to pass the Modernizing Government Technology Act that created the TMF, is leading a coalition seeking $300 million for the TMF in the FY 2023 budget.

“This is an effort worth pursuing, recognizing that it’s both going to take more funding and continued improvement of the system to make sure we get the full value of that dollar,” Warner said in an interview.

Warner said the goals of the TMF remain a “work in progress,” and pointed to the recent Government Accountability Office findings that show some projects haven’t recouped as much savings as initially expected.

“The problem is, the scope of the problem is so large, and this is a new enough initiative,” Warner said.

“We still need to do a better job of thinking about capital investments in a different way. The Technology Modernization Fund is at least a step in the direction,” he added.

U.S. Digital Corps welcomes its first fellows

GSA’s U.S. Digital Corps, meanwhile, is welcoming its first cohort of fellows into government service.

U.S. Digital Corps selected about 40 fellows from more than 1,000 applications. The program is focused on bringing early career technologists into government to contribute to high-impact efforts across the federal government.

Dave Zvenyach, the director of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services, said fellows are working at 13 agencies to create a “more effective, equitable government.”

Among the projects, fellows will join the Veteran Affairs Department’s digital experience product team, where they’ll work on online tools to help veterans access VA benefits.

Another group of fellows will work with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to help implement the Biden administration’s executive orders on cybersecurity and zero trust.

CISA’s fellows will also help the agency develop vulnerability, risk and resilience assessments.

Fellows will also work will assist the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in developing online tools meant to help the public locate and access behavioral health treatment.

Zvenyach said working out of TTS will work towards simplifying the public’s access to benefits and services on USA.gov – both the English and Spanish versions of the site.

TTS  fellows will also help secure Login.gov from security threats, and work with federal employees to develop ideas of how technology can improve the public’s experience with the 10X program.

The Office of Personnel Management will bring on two fellows to improve human capital management across the federal government.

Martorana said the U.S. Digital Corps reached out to traditionally underrepresented communities in tech across 47 states and territories.

“Creating new ways to bring technology talent into the federal government is crucial to our efforts to protect, serve, and inspire the American people in today’s digital age,” she said.

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TSP board scales up customer service staff after major system update https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tsp/2022/06/tsp-board-scales-up-customer-service-staff-after-major-system-update/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tsp/2022/06/tsp-board-scales-up-customer-service-staff-after-major-system-update/#respond Thu, 09 Jun 2022 17:27:55 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4096094 The agency in charge of the Thrift Savings Plan added 185 new customer service representatives this week to try to handle record-high call volumes from participants.

The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board plans to add even more staff as needed. That’s after a major update to TSP’s system on June 1 caused an influx of calls from participants experiencing difficulties accessing their account data.

Many participants who tried calling ThriftLine, TSP’s customer service office, said they were on hold for a long time, some for more than six hours. On Twitter, one participant shared a phone screenshot of a third call attempt, on the line for multiple hours.

The board tweeted on June 9 that ThriftLine call volumes are “very high.” In response, FRTIB created a “current known issues” landing page to try to help participants resolve a few issues without calling customer service. Common issues include account holds and missing data on both beneficiaries and historical account information. More details about known issues are available when users log in to My Account, the board said.

Overall, 90% of participants who have tried to log in to their account have been successful, but FRTIB Director of External Affairs Kim Weaver said in an email to Federal News Network that right now, the board is focused on helping those who are struggling.

“While most participants are able to successfully navigate the system, our priority right now is resolving the issues and challenges for people having difficulty,” Weaver said. “We are committed to helping those people set up their accounts as soon as possible.”

As part of the June 1 update, the board transitioned to a new recordkeeping system, in charge of maintaining eligibility records, managing payroll data, processing transactions, issuing account statements, providing online access and offering responsive customer support to participants.

The system update requires a one-time setup process that all TSP users must complete.

Many participants reached out to Federal News Network to share concerns about the new system. Some said they cannot log in to their account. Others said once they logged in, there was missing information. Several participants, for example, said once they logged in to the new My Account, they couldn’t access financial information prior to June 1.

“The new login system has bugs, it does not recognize existing personal info, it freezes up all the time, it constantly changes required inputs and it does not allow access to existing accounts … All historical data is gone,” one participant wrote in an email to Federal News Network.

The recordkeeper transition requires moving a large amount of data and transferring account information for about 6.5 million TSP participants. Weaver said participants now have access to year-to-date employee contributions for 2022.

But some information is not yet available for participants to see in their accounts. The board is on track for its plan to make 10 years of prior year-ending account balances available online in mid-June.

“Historical statements, documents and other messages from the prior system have not been transferred to the new My Account. If participants need access to historical documents, they will need to request them by calling ThriftLine,” Weaver said (this website has contact information for TSP customer service).

Aside from historical data, some participants said their beneficiary information was inaccurate in the interface.

Weaver said “for a small number of participants,” the board didn’t transfer beneficiary information to the new system because it didn’t meet data quality standards. The board encourages all participants to review and confirm their beneficiary information.

Weaver said the missing data is only a perception on the user end – the board has all the correct information in store.

“Rest assured that we still have their previous beneficiary designations and they will be followed should it be necessary,” she said.

Some participants also said they are unable to get loans processed because of missing or inaccurate information. One participant who wants to take out a loan expressed frustrations about trying to get in touch with customer service.

“The TSP help line personnel have all been great, but the first line of help can’t do much, and can only transfer you to the loan department or their next line supervisor… we’ve had several dropped calls, which is demoralizing after hours on hold,” the TSP user wrote in an email to Federal News Network. “As it stands, the system thinks our accounts are new, so it says we can only borrow a little over half of what we’re actually allowed to borrow…we cannot get in touch with anyone in loan processing.”

Weaver said the board is aware that the issues are causing confusion and frustration. But on the back end, all data is accurate.

“Our financial and loan conversions balanced to the penny,” Weaver said. “We are continuing to monitor potential issues and are working to address them as rapidly as possible. We will be publishing additional information regarding known issues to tsp.gov and in My Account.”

For some users, certain internet browsers seem to work better than others to load the website. Participants shared online that Microsoft Edge seems to be the best browser to use, while Google Chrome and Safari don’t work as well.

“This seems to be an intermittent issue and one we have not been able to replicate at-scale in our environment. While we are continuing to troubleshoot, we’ve been advising participants to try a different browser. Our team is investigating what may be causing this issue,” Weaver said.

The goal of the new My Account interface and recordkeeper transition is to ensure the safety of participants’ investments by adding more layers of security, as well as anti-fraud protections. But Weaver said the board understands that the changes have caused challenges for some participants trying to set up accounts.

“We understand our participants’ frustration and apologize for the inconvenience. We’re working to address issues as rapidly as possible, and we appreciate their patience,” she said.

In the meantime, the board is continuing normal processes, enrollments and transactions.

“Our financial management systems are up and running. Contributions are being processed. Loans, withdrawals and mutual fund window enrollments are happening. TSP savings remain invested in the funds participants have chosen. More than 1,100 participants have rolled money into the TSP. More than 12,000 withdrawals requests have been received,” Weaver said.

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Pentagon’s CDAO aims to scale ‘different operating model’ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2022/06/pentagons-cdao-aims-to-scale-different-operating-model/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2022/06/pentagons-cdao-aims-to-scale-different-operating-model/#respond Wed, 08 Jun 2022 17:49:48 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4094443 var config_4105686 = {"options":{"theme":"hbidc_default"},"extensions":{"Playlist":[]},"episode":{"media":{"mp3":"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/pdst.fm\/e\/chrt.fm\/track\/E2G895\/aw.noxsolutions.com\/launchpod\/federal-drive\/mp3\/061622_Justin_web_r1su_4a26113f.mp3?awCollectionId=1146&awEpisodeId=3ac25a87-42f2-4c97-9f72-89354a26113f&awNetwork=322"},"coverUrl":"https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/FD1500-150x150.jpg","title":"Pentagon\u2019s CDAO aims to scale \u2018different operating model\u2019","description":"[hbidcpodcast podcastid='4105686']nnThe Pentagon\u2019s new chief digital and artificial intelligence office is quickly bringing together multiple tech specialists under one roof in the latest bid to scale a \u201cdifferent operating model\u201d for delivering digital technologies across the Defense Department.nnThe CDAO hit full operational capability on June 1 and is hosting an online \u201cDoD Digital and AI Symposium\u201d this week. The office <a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/defense-main\/2022\/02\/dod-names-cio-as-acting-official-to-deliver-end-to-end-integration-on-data-ai\/">merges<\/a> the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the Defense Digital Service, the chief data officer and the Advancing Analytics (Advana) platform that originated in the DoD comptroller\u2019s office.nnMargie Palmieri, the deputy chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, compared it to a major merger and acquisition activity in industry.nn\u201cCompanies go into mergers and acquisitions to be competitive,\u201d she said on day one of the symposium. \u201cAnd that's exactly what the Department of Defense is doing. We are increasing our competitive advantage by bringing these different groups together. And for the first time in my career of over 15 years in government at this point, all the right levers of change and influence are coming into play in the CDAO.\u201dnnWhile recognizing that DoD\u2019s industrial age acquisition approaches are still appropriate for the thousands of aircraft, ships and vehicles the Pentagon buys every year, Palmieri said software, digital technologies and data analytics require an alternative approach to scale across DoD. The various organizations coming together under the CDAO all have experience in piloting alternative approaches to the Pentagon\u2019s traditional development and buying processes.nn\u201cThis team coming together to show what a different operating model looks like is one of our top priorities,\u201d Palmieria said.n<h2>Who\u2019s on the CDAO team<\/h2>nIn late April, the Pentagon announced Craig Martell would be the first chief digital and AI officer. Martell was most recently head of machine learning at Lyft, previously led machine learning at Dropbox, and he led a number of AI initiatives at LinkedIn. He also was a tenured computer science professor at the Naval Postgraduate School.nn\u201cI'm doing it because of the mission,\u201d Martell said during the symposium. \u201cIt's extremely important that we get this right. And there are not a lot of folks who have the intersection of AI and a government background. And when the deputy secretary of defense calls you up and says, \u2018We would like you to take this job,\u2019 you have to think really hard about why you wouldn't take the job, and not the other way around. And I think getting this mission right is extremely important.\u201dnnAs the No. 2 at the CDAO, Palmieri has more than a decade of DoD experience, most recently as special assistant to the vice chief of naval operations. She was also founding director of the Navy Digital Warfare Office, a relatively new organization focused on data analytics and Project Overmatch, the sea service\u2019s contribution to the military\u2019s Joint All Domain Command and Control concept.nnThe CDAO also has filled out its ranks with officials from the JAIC, DDS, the CDO\u2019s office, Advana and other DoD organizations:n<ul>n \t<li>Clark Cully, previously DoD\u2019s deputy chief data officer, is now the deputy CDAO for policy, strategy and governance.<\/li>n \t<li>Sharothi Pikar is the deputy CDAO for acquisition and AI assurance. She joined the JAIC in the spring to lead acquisitions. She also previously held positions as acquisition executive at U.S. Cyber Command and as the associate director for cyber strategies in the office of the under secretary for research and engineering.<\/li>n \t<li>William Streilein, who had a long career at MIT Lincoln Labs before joining the JAIC as chief technology officer this spring, is now CTO for the CDAO.<\/li>n \t<li>Joe Larson, currently chief of Project Maven, is leaving the project to be Deputy CDAO for Algorithmic Warfare. Larson helped co-found Project Maven, the Pentagon\u2019s AI pathfinder program, which is n<a href="https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/intelligence-community\/2022\/04\/pentagon-shifting-project-maven-marquee-artificial-intelligence-initiative-to-nga\/">ow transitioning to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.<\/a><\/li>n \t<li>Greg Little is the deputy CDAO for enterprise capabilities. He was previously deputy comptroller for enterprise data and business performance. Little was also program lead for Advana, a big data program that now falls under the purview of the CDAO.<\/li>n \t<li>Katie Olsen, who was the deputy director of the Defense Digital Service, is now the deputy CDAO for digital services.<\/li>n<\/ul>nThe DDS in particular excelled at bringing tech talent from outside the government into DoD for temporary tours of duty to work on high-profile problems. Recently, DDS led Project Rabbit, an effort to allow employers to verify their previous or current Afghan employees seeking asylum in the United States.nnOlsen says she think the CDAO can help scale the DDS model.nn\u201cWe've been a ragtag team of 50 to 60 people, give or take, for the past seven years,\u201d Olsen said during the symposium. \u201cI'm excited about being part of the CDAO because I think it's an opportunity to replicate and scale that talent and the [idea that] when you give smart people agency to do things, what can happen.\u201dn<h2>CDAO operating model<\/h2>nPalmieri said the groundwork laid by CDAO\u2019s predecessor organizations have helped establish good practices for how to approach digital and AI technologies within DoD.nn\u201cThe good news is everything that the department has to do to scale digital analytics and AI is relatively known at this point,\u201d she said.nnIn particular, she said determining the right \u201cfeedback loop\u201d between users and developers will be key as CDAO looks to tailor the budget, requirements and acquisition processes to its technology goals.nn\u201cWe really see the opportunity for the CDAO to put together a different operating model for how do you actually deliver these types of capabilities in a meaningful way to users and create a more rapid feedback loop where requirements, acquisition and funding are all in response to that capability need, instead of driving the pace, as happens today.\u201dnnFormer Google chief executive Eric Schmidt told Martell he should avoid a wholesale reliance on prime contracting. Schmidt has been highly influential in driving DoD\u2019s technology organizations and strategies in recent years as chairman of the Defense Innovation Board and then co-chairman of the National Security Commission on AI.nn\u201cMy guess is that at the end of the day, your success will be your own software people in the government, as well as essentially small firms where you're essentially contracting with a firm, but it's really one person. And then you'll have some priming. If you start with a full private approach, you'll never get there.\u201dnnMartell said it will likely be a combination of in-house coders and contracted work, suggesting a collaborative approach.nn\u201cWe're not going to grow the talent fast enough to have all of the coders in government to do what we need to do,\u201d he said. \u201cWe're not going to replicate these agile new AI companies. But if we have the authority to say, \u2018You're sitting with us, and you're our agile team, and you're going through the loop with us as we're building it,\u2019 I think we have a greater chance of success.\u201d"}};

The Pentagon’s new chief digital and artificial intelligence office is quickly bringing together multiple tech specialists under one roof in the latest bid to scale a “different operating model” for delivering digital technologies across the Defense Department.

The CDAO hit full operational capability on June 1 and is hosting an online “DoD Digital and AI Symposium” this week. The office merges the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the Defense Digital Service, the chief data officer and the Advancing Analytics (Advana) platform that originated in the DoD comptroller’s office.

Margie Palmieri, the deputy chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, compared it to a major merger and acquisition activity in industry.

“Companies go into mergers and acquisitions to be competitive,” she said on day one of the symposium. “And that’s exactly what the Department of Defense is doing. We are increasing our competitive advantage by bringing these different groups together. And for the first time in my career of over 15 years in government at this point, all the right levers of change and influence are coming into play in the CDAO.”

While recognizing that DoD’s industrial age acquisition approaches are still appropriate for the thousands of aircraft, ships and vehicles the Pentagon buys every year, Palmieri said software, digital technologies and data analytics require an alternative approach to scale across DoD. The various organizations coming together under the CDAO all have experience in piloting alternative approaches to the Pentagon’s traditional development and buying processes.

“This team coming together to show what a different operating model looks like is one of our top priorities,” Palmieria said.

Who’s on the CDAO team

In late April, the Pentagon announced Craig Martell would be the first chief digital and AI officer. Martell was most recently head of machine learning at Lyft, previously led machine learning at Dropbox, and he led a number of AI initiatives at LinkedIn. He also was a tenured computer science professor at the Naval Postgraduate School.

“I’m doing it because of the mission,” Martell said during the symposium. “It’s extremely important that we get this right. And there are not a lot of folks who have the intersection of AI and a government background. And when the deputy secretary of defense calls you up and says, ‘We would like you to take this job,’ you have to think really hard about why you wouldn’t take the job, and not the other way around. And I think getting this mission right is extremely important.”

As the No. 2 at the CDAO, Palmieri has more than a decade of DoD experience, most recently as special assistant to the vice chief of naval operations. She was also founding director of the Navy Digital Warfare Office, a relatively new organization focused on data analytics and Project Overmatch, the sea service’s contribution to the military’s Joint All Domain Command and Control concept.

The CDAO also has filled out its ranks with officials from the JAIC, DDS, the CDO’s office, Advana and other DoD organizations:

  • Clark Cully, previously DoD’s deputy chief data officer, is now the deputy CDAO for policy, strategy and governance.
  • Sharothi Pikar is the deputy CDAO for acquisition and AI assurance. She joined the JAIC in the spring to lead acquisitions. She also previously held positions as acquisition executive at U.S. Cyber Command and as the associate director for cyber strategies in the office of the under secretary for research and engineering.
  • William Streilein, who had a long career at MIT Lincoln Labs before joining the JAIC as chief technology officer this spring, is now CTO for the CDAO.
  • Joe Larson, currently chief of Project Maven, is leaving the project to be Deputy CDAO for Algorithmic Warfare. Larson helped co-found Project Maven, the Pentagon’s AI pathfinder program, which is now transitioning to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
  • Greg Little is the deputy CDAO for enterprise capabilities. He was previously deputy comptroller for enterprise data and business performance. Little was also program lead for Advana, a big data program that now falls under the purview of the CDAO.
  • Katie Olsen, who was the deputy director of the Defense Digital Service, is now the deputy CDAO for digital services.

The DDS in particular excelled at bringing tech talent from outside the government into DoD for temporary tours of duty to work on high-profile problems. Recently, DDS led Project Rabbit, an effort to allow employers to verify their previous or current Afghan employees seeking asylum in the United States.

Olsen says she think the CDAO can help scale the DDS model.

“We’ve been a ragtag team of 50 to 60 people, give or take, for the past seven years,” Olsen said during the symposium. “I’m excited about being part of the CDAO because I think it’s an opportunity to replicate and scale that talent and the [idea that] when you give smart people agency to do things, what can happen.”

CDAO operating model

Palmieri said the groundwork laid by CDAO’s predecessor organizations have helped establish good practices for how to approach digital and AI technologies within DoD.

“The good news is everything that the department has to do to scale digital analytics and AI is relatively known at this point,” she said.

In particular, she said determining the right “feedback loop” between users and developers will be key as CDAO looks to tailor the budget, requirements and acquisition processes to its technology goals.

“We really see the opportunity for the CDAO to put together a different operating model for how do you actually deliver these types of capabilities in a meaningful way to users and create a more rapid feedback loop where requirements, acquisition and funding are all in response to that capability need, instead of driving the pace, as happens today.”

Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt told Martell he should avoid a wholesale reliance on prime contracting. Schmidt has been highly influential in driving DoD’s technology organizations and strategies in recent years as chairman of the Defense Innovation Board and then co-chairman of the National Security Commission on AI.

“My guess is that at the end of the day, your success will be your own software people in the government, as well as essentially small firms where you’re essentially contracting with a firm, but it’s really one person. And then you’ll have some priming. If you start with a full private approach, you’ll never get there.”

Martell said it will likely be a combination of in-house coders and contracted work, suggesting a collaborative approach.

“We’re not going to grow the talent fast enough to have all of the coders in government to do what we need to do,” he said. “We’re not going to replicate these agile new AI companies. But if we have the authority to say, ‘You’re sitting with us, and you’re our agile team, and you’re going through the loop with us as we’re building it,’ I think we have a greater chance of success.”

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Myth busters: dispelling employees’ common digital modernization fears https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2022/06/myth-busters-dispelling-employees-common-digital-modernization-fears/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2022/06/myth-busters-dispelling-employees-common-digital-modernization-fears/#respond Mon, 06 Jun 2022 22:29:52 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4091059 “Digital modernization” is a phrase that can conjure excitement, hesitance and confusion, sometimes all at once. Within the federal government, digital modernization can span a range of applications, from automating back-end processes, to implementing data-informed decision making, to adopting low- and no-code platforms. The value of modernization, however, is often clouded by uncertainties about how these changes will affect the workforce and its ability to deliver. This is a major challenge, as modernization is one of the most important ways agencies can accelerate mission outcomes and improve the operations, processes and systems required for mission success. Unfortunately, these benefits are not always clear from the outset, especially when modernization involves significant changes in day-to-day work.

One of the biggest hurdles federal agencies face is apprehension within the staff, stemming from misconceptions about digital modernization and how it can enable mission success. While these myths are pervasive, clear communication from mission, functional and IT leaders can counter them and highlight the value of digital modernization. As part of that communication, leaders must address four key employee concerns.

The automation boogeyman

Federal workers often worry that digital modernization and increasing use of automation will lead to a loss of jobs. Without a clear sense of how automation will take shape in the federal government, these concerns are understandable. But digital modernization is not intended to replace or concentrate jobs; rather, these initiatives strive to make work more efficient and impactful. When appropriately implemented, digital modernization streamlines workflows, automates burdensome processes, and empowers workers to focus on high-value activities that bring more benefit to their agency.

Back-end functions that are ripe for modernization include settlements, clearances, record maintenance, regulatory compliance, accounting, IT services and more. Broader initiatives — like the adoption of low/no-code platforms — can further boost efficiency and be tailored to the specific needs of an agency, without necessarily requiring advanced knowledge of computer systems.

Contrary to employee concerns, digital modernization is actually a means of enhancing their work and relieving them from the burden of outdated processes. Agency leaders should address the uncertainty around automation and communicate the myriad ways in which digital modernization will benefit the entire organization. It is not about job losses or replacement; digital modernization is essential for agencies to thrive in today’s world.

Is this really relevant?

Since digital modernization is often regarded as a technologically-complex undertaking, many workers question its relevance outside IT. This myth also arises from a lack of clarity about what digital modernization entails and how the agency will benefit from it.

Digital modernization is focused on improving mission efficiency and performance, an objective of all federal civilian employees. Between upleveling workflows, reducing unnecessary friction, and re-calibrating an organization around the end user experience, digital modernization touches on (and upgrades) agency work at all levels. In other words, digital modernization is relevant for IT leaders and workers — but also for everyone else.

The importance of these modernization initiatives is underscored by the assessment of federal workers themselves. A recent report from ICF found that 59% of federal employees are concerned digital modernization failure will negatively impact the customer experience. The workforce understands the potential impact of digital modernization on end users, which makes it even more important to clearly explain how these initiatives will affect employees and internal processes. Far from a niche undertaking, digital modernization is an all-of-government effort.

Excessive costs

A common misconception about digital modernization is that the costs of overhauling legacy processes outweigh the value of doing so. Digital modernization can revolutionize the way agencies operate and perform their mission. Given the magnitude of the challenge, it makes sense that workers would worry about the potentially exorbitant costs of successful implementation. And in the absence of a clear understanding of how digital modernization will achieve these outcomes, they wonder whether the trade-off is worth it.

The truth is, failing to modernize can generate long-run costs that are far greater than the expense of modernization. Legacy processes cannot keep up with the pace of technology. Over time, they will hold agencies back and lead to suboptimal outcomes, directly impacting the citizens that agencies exist to serve. In turn, these negative effects multiply, leading to government services that are unresponsive and unable to meet the needs of customers and stakeholders. Aging systems also increase cybersecurity risks; as time and money is spent patching legacy technology, potential vulnerabilities can be missed.

Digital modernization demonstrates the wisdom of investing now to save later. For example, moving data and systems to the cloud is a costly endeavor, but it cuts reliance on expensive on-premises infrastructure, while providing a range of benefits like an improved user experience, increased reliability, intuitive navigation of sites and databases, and more efficient workflows. This is just one of many examples that justifies the upfront costs of digital modernization. By improving the ways that agencies operate, the federal government can fulfill its job of providing vital services to citizens, now and in the future.

If it ain’t broke…

Finally, some may point to a long track record of mission success under existing processes and practices and conclude, ‘If it’s not broken, there’s no need to fix it.’ While agencies have been able to perform their mission using long-standing practices, digital modernization is crucial to futureproofing services in an increasingly digital world.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a foundational shift that is incorporating new technologies into everyday life — from vastly-expanded online services, to work-from-home infrastructure, to the growth of the digital world. Agencies must now keep pace with progress or risk falling short of their mission. Maintaining the status quo is appealing, but it simply won’t cut it. Government services cannot risk becoming mired in archaic processes. Digital modernization is crucial to meeting agency missions and serving citizens effectively.

Tying it all together

While these misconceptions regarding digital modernization can be countered and dispelled, doing so requires a unified message from mission, functional and IT leaders. They must clearly communicate the goals and intended outcomes of digital modernization initiatives. As leaders, they must not only guide the organization through these initiatives but also help employees keep aligned and focused along the way.

This job is, in many ways, as challenging as digital modernization itself; it’s also just as important. ICF’s report on federal digital modernization efforts found that 73% of surveyed federal employees think their agency lacks a clear vision for digital modernization, while a whopping 98% said they have concerns about their agency’s ability to execute its digital modernization plans over the next 12 months. There’s much work to be done, but that work is both necessary and worthwhile.

Above all, it’s important to have alignment and clear communication within the agency, reinforcing the message at every opportunity so all employees understand how they fit into the bigger picture. By unifying around what digital modernization is and how it will benefit mission performance, agencies can counter myths, realize digital modernization’s wide-ranging benefits, and position themselves for long-term success.

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