Page 5 - FCW, July/August 2018

and funding priorities.
The CIO and staff might select
targets for modernization by looking at systems built with obsolete
or inefficient software that have high maintenance costs. Getting recommendations from the users
of various systems might produce
a different list that is more focused on usability, flexibility and stability. Some questions you might ask users: Which systems make it hard for program delivery and customer service personnel to do their jobs? If we modernize this particular system or process, will anyone know or care? Involving and engaging end users and external customers will promote acceptance of change later.
Strategic visioning should also include an external environmental scan. Yours is not the only organization that has undertaken
an IT modernization program. Use your stakeholders and associates in other agencies to determine the art of the possible. You can evaluate whether they succeeded or failed and whether their model is one you want to follow. Look not only at what they did, but how they planned and managed the effort.
CenturyLink is helping federal agencies modernize their IT from the network up with powerful and secure connections. Our network solutions can help you improve operational efficiency, gain greater IT agility, and better manage threats and risk. CenturyLink is a trusted government services provider with increased
tier 1 network reach, significant
local presence, and innovative technology available on best-in-class government contacts.
Keys to Success
Experience over many years and across many agencies has identified four primary keys to success for an IT modernization effort:
•Leadership – Business leadership must establish clear goals and priorities for this effort, demonstrate a clear commitment
to those goals, and establish an IT governance structure that cuts
through the stovepipes.
•Buy-In – The effort will not succeed
unless business and technical leaders from
the various business units are committed
to the goals. This commitment can be
obtained by establishing a framework that enables the leaders to collectively identify business goals for the various IT investments.
•Resources – Leadership must
allocate sufficient resources (money
and personnel) to complete the tasks. None of the recommendations can be completed in the margins – i.e. by existing staff, through heroic efforts, using budget scraps.
•Agility – Emphasis on agility and
achieving incremental wins in small
steps, balanced by an acknowledgement
of the complexity and critical nature of
established systems. Major IT initiatives
can be crippled by too much analysis and/or the desire to design every aspect of the system at project outset.
SPONSORED CONTENT
FCW.COM/CHECKLIST