It is an inherent human trait to always strive to do things better. Perhaps it is the roots of evolution that pushes us to continually improve both personally and professionally. From an organizational perspective, in many ways government operates like a living organism that strives to be more efficient and more effective.
Similar to the natural evolutionary process, government agencies are often slow to adjust to a changing environment. Its levels of checks and balances and the importance placed on consistency in constituent service, demands caution in achieving its goals.
As a result, procurement, case management, grants management, acquisition and human resources can all be mired in inefficient processes. When this happens, government agencies can lose sight of their core goals ands missions.
From a technology perspective, government often gets weighed down by Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) systems that can be cumbersome to install and manage. It's ironic that once in place, the COTS systems procured on the promise of flexibility cannot effectively be changed to meet new and emerging needs.
So, is the "nature of the government beast" all about built in inefficiencies?
We believe not. Government is on the verge of experiencing an "effectiveness revolution." New mandates from the Obama Administration are dictating that government be more transparent, collaborative, less complex and run more cost-effectively = better!
So, with that, we are officially launching the Better Gov blog hosted by Appian. The purpose of this blog is to chart the course of this fundamental shift in federal agency efficiency through Business Process Management (BPM).
So, strap on your boots and come along with us for a ride that will take us to the promise land, a better government.
