WashingtonExec 2015 Market Outlook Series
We look forward to a new year and new opportunities for innovation and growth in the government contracting community. This past year, we experienced an increased emphasis on cybersecurity, the government’s procurement process and a perpetual focus on doing more with less.
WashingtonExec reached out to those most knowledgeable and experienced in the federal contracting space. We asked executives in and around the beltway for insight regarding where they see the government contracting community headed in 2015. Topics discussed include M&A activity, cloud computing, privacy issues, data collection, healthcare IT, defense and more.
Accenture Federal Services‘ Digital Managing Director Lisa Mitnick believes agencies will focus their resources to meet the needs of their digital citizens.
The new digital reality for the federal government isn’t all that new. Citizens expect the same standards and convenience in their government online experiences as they now receive from commercial enterprises. The difference in 2015 is that most agencies will focus resources and ideas to more aggressively meet the needs of their digital citizens, investing in user-centered design to drive a more user friendly, personalized and convenient experience. Here are the top five trends we’ll see in the federal digital space:
- Omni Channels: Agencies will increase investment in modern web content management platforms that enable dynamic, personalized, omni-channel user experiences. Content will become more personalized, recommending topics and links based on previous visits to the channel for both web and mobile systems.
- Collaboration: We will see increased collaboration within the federal workforce as well as with citizens leveraging social media channels. Beyond Facebook and Twitter, agencies will adopt technologies that will break down silos (Lync, Cloud Source) and encourage use of collaboration tools that will breakdown how people work and seek answers to questions from citizens.
- It Takes an App Village: Agencies will realize they can’t simply put an app in their app store and expect it will be used and used effectively. Education and marketing to increase awareness and understanding will increase adoption and improve the citizen experience. Adoption is everyone’s responsibility.
- Internet of Everything: 2015 will be a year of leveraging the Internet of Things, with agencies experimenting with a wide range of possibilities including remote health monitoring applications to lower cost of care delivery and improve health outcomes to the use of sensors for tracking everything from heating and cooling in buildings to fleet maintenance to asset management.
- Innovation: Yes, the federal government is innovative and that trend will become more important and relevant for digital citizens as agencies collaborate with commercial and private-sector companies to make data more readily available. This will allow the government to share data with commercial industry to discover new and innovative solutions based on information the government already collects.
Related: 2014 GovCon Award Nominee Interview with Accenture Federal Services’ Chief Executive David Moskovitz
