For the past three years, market research firm Government Insights has compiled a list of 10 worldwide and U.S. government information technology management and spending trends. This year, the list includes some carry-overs from last year and a few surprises.
1. Infrastructure optimization and IT repurposing will replace new solutions as the top government IT trend.
2. Gov 2.0 will replace e-government as governments seek to gain value from citizen interaction and business transactions.
3. Government will begin to experiment with acquiring everything as a service, including software, infrastructure, data centers and tools.
4. Governments will try to squeeze more value from enterprise resource planning investments by acquiring additional business intelligence capabilities and further integrating back-office and front-office operations.
5. Continuing government security breaches will force governments to invest in securing information.
6. Governments will lead by example in green IT, primarily to justify public policy and regulations.
7. Government will expand its use of metrics to hold agencies accountable for IT investments, performance and program management improvements.
8. The first substantial wave of retirees will force governments to broaden the use of telework and re-examine workforce strategies.
9. Political elections and transitions will disrupt U.S. federal and state government IT investment and governance.
10. Investment in IT will accelerate in 2008, but the five-year IT government spending picture in the United States will remain relatively flat.
For the past 12 years, the Association for Federal Information Resources Management has conducted the “Annual Federal Chief Information Officer Top 10 Challenges Survey.” AFFIRM ranked 10 challenges that federal CIOs will face in 2008. Two tied for the third place and eighth place rankings.
1. Hiring and retaining skilled professionals.
2. Aligning information technology and mission goals.
3. Obtaining adequate funding for IT programs and projects.
3. Using IT to improve service to customers, stakeholders and citizens.
5. Building effective relationships in support of IT initiatives with agency senior executives, including the top agency official and the chief financial officer.
6. Managing or replacing older systems.
7. Formulating or implementing an enterprise architecture.
8. Implementing and controlling IT capital planning and investment management agencywide.
8. Balancing information sharing and security/privacy requirements.
10. Consolidating common IT business or mission functions.
