The Dimensions of Innovation: Best Practices

What agencies can use to tackle digital transformation and build a technology roadmap for their future.

1. Address data quality

Innovation unfolds at the cutting edge, and so does emerging technology. But launching new tools like artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics often requires huge stockpiles of data. Consequently, agencies should consider how their data can fuel emerging technologies. Consider how data is shared, pipelined and orchestrated.

2. Adopt modern platforms

Agencies often cannot reach innovation with their legacy platforms. All too often, legacy platforms are rigid, slow and riddled with custom code. Thankfully, agencies can now gain hybrid-cloud, data and data management platforms to leverage their data by new application demands. And these platforms should drastically decrease the need for unsupported, custom code. They need to embrace prebuilt connectors and an overall configuration strategy that drastically reduce both development, security assessment and authorization time.

3. Automate your application delivery

To reduce costs, improve consistency and embed security, it’s imperative that automation eliminates manual processes. Picture software development as a modern assembly line where robots fix the robots that build electric cars.

4. Upgrade security

When it comes to innovation, agencies shouldn’t stagnate. Rather than rely on increasingly outdated business applications, agencies should monitor evolving practices such as defending network perimeters. Innovation is about inventing new approaches to old ideas, and security is no exception.

5. Refresh business models

Business models and acquisition strategies are the final piece of the puzzle. Cloud ushered in a new era of service and accountability. Now, vendors are contractually agreeing that their servers, platforms or business level software run in a known, good state. Agencies should demand vendors become more accountable for aligning with the success of their missions.

This article is an excerpt from GovLoop’s recent report, “A Comprehensive Strategy for Driving Innovation.” Download the full report here.