Outpacing Innovation, Pt. 2: The Path to Future State

Government entities and enterprises alike continuously see their objectives and requirements change as a result of the rapid advancement of technology. Innovation drives increasing opportunity—but also uncertainty—and organizations face a daunting wave of questions as they consider the right path forward to enable change in their technology estate:

• How do we minimize the risks associated with enterprise-wide technology modernization?
• How should our operational, technical, and mission challenges inform our modernization efforts?
• How do we cultivate a workforce with the required skills, and reimagine our practices and processes, to support sustainable technology acceleration?
• How do we adopt emerging technologies and integrate these with existing systems while remaining secure and resilient?

Closing the Gap Between Current and Future State

It’s not a lack of interest or intent holding organizations back from modernizing their technology estates. Most organizations are aware of the need to pursue technology modernization by adopting innovative new technology solutions, developing new skills throughout the workforce, and adapting critical processes to become less rigid.

And yet, the ability to plan, manage, and execute modernization initiatives still eludes technology leaders, in both public and private sectors. This is most often due to operational inefficiencies, technical shortcomings, and reliance on the practices and processes of the past.

But organizations are failing to take full advantage as they do not have access to the competencies, expertise, or technical delivery practices to overcome the challenges presented. So, how to begin closing the large gap between the current state and desired destination?

A strategic approach to technology modernization must move beyond simply introducing new technically feasible solutions or driving process innovation. Both government entities and commercial enterprises must look beyond the implementation of new tools and investment in new systems. They must:

• Understand how technology change impacts operational, technical, and mission challenges
• Map and mitigate risks of technology modernization
• Be proactive in finding compelling ways to demonstrate ROI and realized benefits to all stakeholders
• Adopt new practices, processes, and tools that enable the rapid delivery of working software
• Establish the standardized, predictable delivery of solutions in line with organizational needs
• Acquire the technical expertise and experience necessary to support current and future state
• Build a robust cybersecurity program that is capable of protecting the organization
• Build workload resiliency

Technology Maturity Transcends Public and Private Sector

A large gap separates most organizations’ current technological maturity and their ideal future state. This is true across the government and commercial sectors alike. And for many organizations, that gap is more expansive than they realize.

Most organizations are struggling to gain full value from their technology, lacking the skills to move swiftly, and are ineffectual at enabling innovation. There are, of course, some considerations that may make technology modernization more difficult for public sector organizations, such as policies and funding. However, businesses in regulated industries, such as finance, also face challenges tied to legal and regulatory compliance, and similar issues.

For all organizations, it is vital to find transformation leaders with the vision to identify the specific challenges holding the unique organization back, and design effective, flexible solutions that can solve those challenges and enable accelerated innovation.

Mastering Technology Modernization

Organizations stand to realize significant advantages from successful technology modernization strategies. Gaining greater insights and improved decision-making through better data analytics, for example, can deliver enormous advances in areas such as healthcare, helping to improve patient care and even cure diseases.

Similarly, organizations with more flexible software delivery models will be able to respond more quickly to change, developing more sustainable solutions to adapt to rapid shifts in requirements and mission-critical priorities.

Removing obsolete, inefficient legacy systems, for example from government agencies, will also free up budget and resources that can be reinvested in providing more valuable services to public citizens.

Global governments are indeed investing heavily in transforming their respective public and private sectors to build more agile, economically stable, equitable and secure ecosystems for their citizens. Accelerating innovation and technology are key to that transformation.

To take advantage of the unprecedented opportunities, and minimize the risks, of technology modernization, organizations must be future-minded, find diverse, multidisciplined skill sets, and engender agile, flexible practices that can deliver solutions at pace and adapt as requirements continue to change.

Only by embracing this trend can organizations confidently outwit the evolving complexity they face and begin to capitalize on the monumental opportunities it represents. Achieving this requires a diverse blend of talent and technology that can design solutions to outsmart the biggest, most perplexing challenges facing the world today. For those who act efficiently and strategically, the path will be truly transformational.

Contact Guidehouse to learn more about how we facilitate pragmatic solutions for modernization that integrate the full spectrum of innovation.