TechAmerica Foundation Examines Federal Civil Agency IT Budgets At Its 2014 Conference
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
On the second day of TechAmerica Foundation’s Vision Federal Market Forecast Conference, participants came together to examine ways to provide technological innovations and cost-effective solutions to cash-strapped federal civilian agencies. Nearly 300 representatives from industry and government attended the 50th annual event, held in Falls Church, VA, last week.
The conference opened with a keynote address from Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO of CompTIA, who noted: “Civilian agencies have six IT priorities for the coming fiscal year: cybersecurity, cloud migration, increased use of mobile technology, Big Data crunching, shared services, and seeking ways for technology to reduce overall agency budgets.” The real challenge comes, he said, when budgets shrink and CIOs are left to balance their priorities with less money.
The conference presentations on Day 2 sought to address those challenges, and included breakout panel sessions on individual agencies and departments. The panels engaged in discussions of budgets, top concerns, external and internal drivers, the culture of acquisitions, business opportunities, and industry needs. Then each session crafted a message to the IT industry from each specific agency.
“Despite budget pressures, the federal government remains a large potential market for companies that are fully invested in it,” said Elizabeth Hyman, executive vice president, TechAmerica in an October 27 press release. “The Vision Forecast helps IT companies gain a competitive edge in the federal marketplace by gleaning valuable insight into the future of government spending.”
Kim Pack, a Vision volunteer, provided a technology outlook on the growth of new technologies in federal civilian agencies and their changing budgetary and spending priorities. The session also included analysis by Mike Pozmantier from Homeland Security, who leads their Transition to Practice Program in the office of the Science and Technology Directorate, and GSA’s Greg Godbout, deputy associate administrator of the Office of Strategic Innovation and executive director of innovation incubator program, who discussed how they’re innovating the federal IT acquisition and development process.
One point was clear from the conference: The obstacle is not technology, but rather the workforce and acquisition process. There are, however, some forward thinking government groups making a difference, including GSA18F and DHS’ Transition to Practice (TTP), according to conference findings.
According to the overall forecast, there are still some serious long-term economic challenges to federal IT budget growth, but they do not eliminate opportunities. The civil IT budget is flat in near term, but should grow with discretionary spending. The defense IT budget faces near-term pressure with inflation-level increases over five years.
“Cost savings continue to be a high priority as spending is shifted between different investment priorities,” said Vision Strategic Forecast Council Chair Robert Haas in the October 27 statement. “Budget constraints are forcing agencies to limit extras and focus on IT as a commodity. Any budget uncertainty will constrain technology migration.”
Haas added, “Cybersecurity concerns continue to challenge the agencies with security issues slowing the adoption of new technologies. Even in the Department of Defense, where cybersecurity has been more formalized as a mission, challenges remain. Cloud computing, mobility and information sharing still face cultural and security issues. This is where industry can assist government customers.”