IT modernization used to be an overwhelming concept, often evoking fears of spending billions of dollars with no guarantees of success. While it used to pose the threat of taking years to implement, that is no longer the reality. Low-code has changed the game, allowing agencies to accelerate modernization timelines to the point where they can see an impact in a matter of months, not years. To continue this evolution, Booz Allen and Appian have partnered to develop “Mission Advancers,” re-usable components that combine Booz Allen’s IT modernization expertise with the Appian Low-code Automation Platform to accelerate the modernization journey. Mission Advancers include Integrators, Scalers, Work Management Services, and Analyzers that can be applied to support a variety of use cases.
Integrators
Mission integrators allow business owners to connect their data through application programming interfaces (API) and event streaming. Both APIs and event streams are reusable, open-source integrators that enhance customer experience, including digital intake forms and portals using human-centered design. Booz Allen and Appian worked together to develop common reusable mission services like correspondence generation and tabular worksheets, which create a singular user experience that allows processors and adjudicators to view the information in side-by-side columns rather than from separate systems on different monitors.
Scalers
While other IT organizations require six to nine months to deploy platforms, Booz Allen’s open-source solution, the Solution Delivery Platform (SDP), is cloud-native and allows software development teams to be up and running in less than a day. When merged with the Appian Low-Code Automation Platform, Booz Allen’s SDP offers client missions the ability to scale to achieve release velocity without compromising on quality or security allowing organizations to rapidly surge their workforce. This surge results in a dramatically reduced learning curve through common components and design patterns, meaning employees can operate across multiple submission programs.
Services
Booz Allen has a proven track record of reimagining IT transformation. This expertise, combined with the Appian Low-Code Automation Platform that incorporates agile and DevSecOps methods, allows the business owner to get directly involved in the application development process and design custom workflows. To support this process, Booz Allen leverages standardized and automated forms, tasks, and workflows to increase the speed of delivery.
Analyzers
Booz Allen developed services that allow dashboards to be integrated within Appian, whose built-in analytics encourage evidence-based decision making at management, operational, and user levels. Booz Allen’s reusable AI and machine learning supplement these analytics by performing compare functions, including predictive alignments or textual comparisons. That saves employees time that they can then spend on more valuable, complex analyses.
Analytics is directly integrated at all levels including transactional for a processer or adjudicator to keep track of daily totals, to operational levels for managers or directors who must ensure regulatory deadlines are achieved, and C-Suite who need the big picture of when statutory caps will be met.
Demonstrated Impact
Various federal agencies have already benefited from using these Mission Advancers. Common outcomes include:
- Streamlined intake process and correspondences, for example, eliminated the issuance of paper certifications and directly send digital boarding passes to users and electronically transfer data to downstream Federal Agencies;
- Automated manual processes to reduce processing times and increase decision quality, for example, reduced manual analyst reviews by 67% and processing 97% of specific forms through an auto-certification process, including the ability for filers to reuse processed forms to greatly reduce filer burden;
- Streamlined workflow, automated routing, case alerts, and reference data to drive more consistent decision-making, for example, plug and play APIs that are enabled by self-guided forms, advanced form and field validation, reusable reference data, importing data across forms, and responsive feedback on application status and post-submission activities, to eliminate the burden of receiving and then mailing paper forms across agencies.
Booz Allen is partnering with federal health agencies to modernize regulatory and compliance reviews to keep pace with global supply chains and the increasing complexity of medical products. Through our Booz Allen Partner Network, the firm is also developing solutions for these to improve effectiveness and efficiency in collaboration within and across teams using automated processes.
As health agencies embark on IT modernization journeys, they seek to achieve a common end state of enterprise (e.g., scalable workflows, data and analytics that is responsive to future needs) and public health value (enhanced decision making through improved data access and use). With a Booz Allen and Appian partnership, we will continue to integrate the latest cloud services and platforms to create singular digital solution to help achieve these goals.
This blog post was reprinted with permission from Federal News Network.
