The way government thinks about digital transformation needs to change, said Washington D.C. Chief Technology Officer\u00a0Archana Vemulapalli.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole modernization concept has to change,\u201d she\u00a0said\u00a0in a panel discussion Thursday at the Digital Transformation Summit, presented by Dell EMC and produced by FedScoop. \u201cWe always think about modernization as a separate\u00a0one-off effort, but it\u2019s a very core part of delivering service.\u201d<\/p>\n
Government should take a page from other government agencies, Vemulapalli said, like transportation departments. <\/p>\n
\u201cLook at our roads \u2014\u00a0we put money aside to invest in our roads, to patch them, to repave them every couple of years,\u201d Vemulapalli said. \u201cTechnology is the same thing. It\u2019s a very core part of delivering service. You can\u2019t deploy a system that\u2019s 15 years old, and then say, \u2018Oh yeah, we can let it sit for 15 years and then have to modernize in 15 years.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, modernization should be an evolving process, the D.C. CTO said. In the district, Vemulapalli said the Office of the Chief Technology Officer that\u00a0she oversees works with the city\u2019s chief financial officer to develop a mechanism that\u00a0allows the department to think differently about the modernization process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like me having a street with potholes for 15 years and saying, \u2018Oh, can we fix it quickly?\u2019\u201d Vemulapalli said. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t accept that, so I think that as technologists, that\u2019s part of the frustration for a lot of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
In D.C., it\u2019s a constant process, Vemulapalli said \u2014\u00a0but one that could potentially save the district, and other governments across the country, billions of dollars.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you get into that mindset, then you don\u2019t have to do these drastic multi-billion dollar investments to go in and fix something because you waited until the end,\u201d Vemulapalli said. \u201cIf you\u2019re making a very strategic investment, you probably won\u2019t spend as much.\u201d<\/p>\n
The situation is complicated when emerging technology is factored into the discussion, the CTO said, but the process and approach remains the same \u2014\u00a0it all comes down to having the right workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s a technology crisis in government,\u201d Vemulapalli said. \u201cThe challenge is that while the private sector recognizes the role of what digitization means and how it needs to be managed, in the government\u00a0we haven’t really done that as much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Government needs to focus on managing its digitization and building a workforce around the\u00a0emerging technologies included in that process, rather than hiring for those positions after the technologies have arrived, she said.\u00a0Without having the right leaders in place to manage the influx of new technologies, vendors\u00a0could take advantage of unprepared government leaders, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we\u2019re your customer and you\u2019re a really smart person giving me brilliant advice, but I don\u2019t have the ability to consume it, I\u2019m not going to implement it the right way,\u201d Vemulapalli said. \u201cIf you come in, and you have an agenda that\u2019s not with the best of intents, I will not know the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
That concern and a lack of IT\u00a0governance\u00a0won\u2019t go away anytime soon, she said, and\u00a0as technology continues to evolve and and grow, the potential for error will also\u00a0grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of well-intentioned people, but I think well intentions only last so long and government really has to start looking at how they\u2019re setting up their technology departments and what leadership do you bring in,\u201d Vemulapalli said. \u201cWe need to have policy and a position on how this environment is coming into our cities and what it means, and we\u2019re playing catch up in a way that we’re not able to sustain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If states and cities want to change the way they operate, they need first to look toward effective leadership and attracting and retaining the right people, says the district’s chief technology officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":39356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":true,"story_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20650,20649,20648,20647,4676],"tags":[300,13703,5275,5270,809,642,4,173,83,51,46,35,29,23,12,6,5],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[],"class_list":["post-6221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-analytics","category-emerging-tech","category-digital-services","category-modernization","category-city","tag-d-c","tag-digital-services","tag-data-analytics","tag-workforce","tag-dell-technologies","tag-archana-vemulapalli","tag-tech-news","tag-washington","tag-modernization","tag-emerging-technology","tag-big-data","tag-chief-technology-officer-cto","tag-states","tag-innovation","tag-state-local-news","tag-software","tag-it-infrastructure"],"yoast_head":"\n