3 Key Takeaways from FY17 Submission Guidelines

by Chris Wiedemann, Senior Analyst

If you’ve noticed program managers and office directors running around in a frenzy the past few weeks, know it was justified. The Office of Management and Budget just released their FY17 budget submission guidance, meaning program managers have to start the request process all over again. These are always trying times for the people calling the budgetary shots, since they’re faced with the difficult task of balancing current mission requirements, detailed business case justifications for next year’s budget, and estimating funding requirements for October 2016, all at once. At immixGroup, we preach the importance of getting your product baked into system requirements before they are written. The budget request process is the best time to do it.

Here are three key takeaways in the FY17 budget submission guidance that will be front of mind to IT program managers right now:

1. Digital services
   Agencies requested a total of $105 million in FY16 to establish digital services groups. Look for that number to increase in FY17, with supporting requirements around agile application development and business process management

2. Fraud, waste, and abuse detection
   If you sell to the Department of Labor, Education, HHS, HUD, SSA, Treasury, or USDA, look to integrate your business intelligence and analytics technologies into their fraud detection programs now.

3. Legislative implementation
   The Digital Accountability and Transparency (DATA) Act and the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) are on the books and must be written into budgets. As a result, program managers will be faced with a host of new reporting requirements. In particular, expect PMs at the headquarters Chief Information Office to have new needs around data integration, data mining, and visualization.

Again, it’s vital for COTS vendors to start targeting the FY17 budget now, since this is a golden opportunity to get your tools and capabilities built into program language right from the start. Reach out to your customers now, leverage your understanding of their mission (and the role you can play in it), and get them thinking about how much they need your solution. This way, you won’t be responding to solicitations as they come – you’ll have solicitations written for you.

Need help identifying top decision-makers and opportunities within government? Contact immixGroup’s industry-leading Market Intelligence team today to learn about specific offices and contacts that have a pressing need for your solution.