George DelPrete is a principal and IT service line leader at Grant Thornton LLP.
The convergence of four technologies – social media, mobile computing, analytics and cloud-based computing (SMAC) – is fueling a revolution in communication, politics, business and personal freedom.
The federal government is part of that revolution. For example, law enforcement and intelligence organizations nationwide leverage real-time data from citizens and use biometrics to better investigate threats and crimes. The City of Boston has partnered with the traffic app, Waze, to enhance coordination of traffic signals. Myriad jurisdictions are using 311 numbers to monitor their delivery of services to citizens.
A recent report on technology convergence from the TechAmerica Convergence Commission, in which Grant Thornton participated, outlines the challenges and opportunities that leveraging SMAC technologies presents to government. Individually, these technologies are game changers. But when combined, they provide powerful new possibilities to improve government’s mission performance and service delivery to its citizens.
Chief Information Officers play a key role in the SMAC convergence process. The CIO must lead the way for the agency, creating the roadmap that will result in convergence success. Where does this roadmap start? Below are seven steps that should yield results within as little as 180 days:
1. Develop the elevator pitch, a crisp, brief value proposition that identifies three to five SMAC benefits.
- Could we unlock data we own to enable citizens to help solve some of our big challenges?
- Could we mobile-enable a business process or application to improve efficiency in the field?
- Could we link data across the organization to make better decisions?
2. Craft a SMAC-transformation concept of operations. The concept of operations will describe the purpose of your initiative, the environment, resources required, and other information project stakeholders will need to support the initiative. It should lay out how you will generate, evaluate, test, and implement ideas, as well as measure and track them. Remember to use agile design and development techniques using Scaled Agile and Kanban. Key questions answered by the conops:
- What business challenges can be solved?
- What stakeholders do we need to engage?
- How ready is my infrastructure?
3. Form a governance process. Develop cross-functional teams of mission and IT experts to identify ways SMAC can be leveraged to improve delivery of services. Develop a stakeholder map; identify two to three influential leaders who can help make this effort a success. In parallel, build your innovation team from a cross-section of the business and other organizations that will implement your transformation. And remember, a commitment from your agency head will pay tremendous dividends.
4. Solicit ideas and build use cases. Now is the time to identify your transformation projects. Outline how you will gradually apply SMAC to key business and technology processes. Define the criteria you will use to prioritize convergence ideas; identify objectives/goals for each pilot, and constantly gather ideas.
5. Identify how you will leverage and protect organizational data. Work with data scientists and business owners to make data available to workers and citizens at a moment’s notice. Start with low-risk data that can be opened without negative impact on individuals or the organization. Build in use of API development and documentation for possible implementation to Data.gov and challenge.gov. Perhaps most importantly, to identify risks and threats, conduct a security assessment of how you intend to use the data and the security implications of that plan.
6. Evaluate internal or external options for mobile and analytic development – capabilities, contracts, scalability. Modify as needed. Partnerships will be key to creating a SMAC roadmap. Do you have vehicles in place that enable you to buy the development and hosting capabilities you need? Are there other vehicles within your agency or across government that could provide such services?
7. Develop, test, correct, deploy, refine, repeat. You’ll need to create repeatable processes to guide execution of each SMAC initiative. Develop outcomes of each initiative including timeline, resource needs, and acquisition strategy, if needed. Focus on iterative, small efforts, built quickly in sprints of less than a week. Using agile will improve the ability to manage changing priorities, improve productivity, enable faster delivery, and reduce risk. The end result will be a series of small projects that yield big results.
The road to adoption of SMAC convergence will be full of hills, twists and turns but can be a true game changer. A careful, thoughtful implementation is worth it – as the report suggests, “By guiding the requisite organizational/cultural, procedural, and infrastructure changes necessary to implement a strategic roadmap, the CIO can lead his/her organization to greater efficiencies, superior performance, and more satisfied customers.” Convergence is the future of government performance.
