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Adopting new technologies made easier with government BPM

Ben Farrell
October 17, 2013

Government CIOs have a tough road ahead of them. From investments into improved record keeping and sharing technologies to increased demand for smart grid deployments and efficiency-providing tools, IT investments are rising over the next few years in every corner of the nation.

In the past, opinions on government IT performance have been low, but leaders are working toward key changes that will provide more substantial support and streamline the capabilities of federal, state and local technologies. However, in order to facilitate these improvements, many will have to improve their process management software as well.

Government BPM solutions provide many benefits, from helping to improve flexibility to providing key support for modern technology solutions such as cloud or mobile computing. In 2010, Vivek Kundra released a 25-Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management. That strategy outlined spending and processes needed to keep government technology improvements on track and up to the task of handling IT demands over time. Kundra targeted the primary weakness of government IT - spending, and sought to better manage it.

"Despite spending more than $600 billion on information technology over the past decade, the federal government has achieved little of the productivity improvements that private industry has realized from IT," Kundra wrote. "Too often, federal IT projects run over budget, behind schedule, or fail to deliver promised functionality. Many projects use 'grand design' approaches that aim to deliver functionality every few years, rather than breaking projects into more manageable chunks and demanding new functionality every few quarters. In addition, the federal government too often relies on large, custom, proprietary systems when 'light technologies' or shared services exist."

The "manageable chunks" that Kundra refers to are one of the key advantages that BPM software can provide for government offices. Investing in process management solutions helps to streamline projects and ensure that tasks are accomplished in an orderly, logical way that helps keep them on track and on budget.

Cloud and mobile BPM solutions in particular are valuable for government offices by implementing these trends in a secure and optimized manner. They bring the flexibility and scalability of cloud or the remote support of mobility that any organization can benefit from to government operations while maintaining privacy and compliance standards. Ultimately, this will boost the value of these technologies and eliminate many of the current concerns plaguing government IT.

Ben Farrell

Director of Corporate Communications

Ben Farrell