3 important IT trends to watch in 2017—Part II

By Chris Wiedemann, consultant

It happens every time a new president takes the reins: People pontificate on what life will be like with the new administration.

Like most business sectors, the Trump administration’s potential effects on the government IT industry is a mystery. But there’s a safe bet that certain public sector IT priorities, like cloud, cybersecurity, analytics and overall IT modernization, will remain the same. You’ll see similar trends at the Department of Defense and the military branches.

Here are three Civilian IT opportunities to watch in the coming year:

1.The Department of Transportation spending thaw

At the beginning of FY16, IT purchasing across DOT was frozen until leadership could accurately measure spending levels. The freeze was lifted in Q3 and DOT has returned to pushing out a healthy amount of IT solicitations, which means there will be an influx of more opportunities in FY17.

One area to watch is the DOT Common Operating Environment, which was designed to consolidate the department’s IT infrastructures at the HQ level and roll out a cost-effective IT infrastructure platform that has been expanding to broader IT services.

COE has a modest amount of funding for cutting-edge technology, so companies with solutions in enterprise infrastructure, application performance management and improving automation for departmental processes should jump on this opportunity.

2. A more modern U.S. Department of Agriculture

USDA is revamping how it handles grants management with state governments, and three of the department’s service centers have focused their efforts on creating faster and more accurate business and loan services. The plan is to build out customer loan application and engagement apps for farmers and rural communities. The new loan systems will need to work with other service center systems, which means there will be a need for application development, information sharing and customer relationship management solutions.

USDA is also leaning on the tech sector for ideas on how to design and implement its next-generation IT plans. There’s opportunity for contractors to reach out to decision makers at HQ and the disparate agencies to help shape those plans.

USDA is also reviewing which of its systems can be transitioned to the cloud, so implementation will be a major trend in FY17 at USDA and its IT organizations, especially the National Information Technology Center and Client Technology Services.

3. More analytics for better health care

Advanced analytics to measure health care outcomes rather than health care volume will be a primary focus at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. The Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health will also be looking to advanced analytics for better decision making.

One specific project to focus on is CMS’ Hospital Quality Reporting, which is the platform that supports the agency’s health care quality measurement efforts. The organization needs IT solutions for data integration, public-private collaboration, data/case management, customer relationship management and analytics.

Also be on the lookout for analytics requirements for CMS’ Physician Quality Reporting System, which measures the quality of individual physicians. The need will be business intelligence analytics, data management and integration and data security.

Looking for more insight on Civilian spending in 2017? Listen to our recent FY17 Civilian Budget Briefing. ICYMI, we also highlighted Department of Defense IT trends earlier this week.