Now add to that, all the data the government is collecting, ranging from cybersecurity to citizen interactions with websites to sensors in the field, it’s no wonder some will call this an era of data chaos.

Some experts estimate that as agencies deal with this huge growth of data, more than  90 percent of it doesn’t live in neat rows and columns. That inability to harness this data leads to complexity and lost productivity.

If agencies can get a handle on this data, it presents a great opportunity for them to save money and become more effective through the flow of information, simplified workflows and reliable data quality.

In fact, 70 federal managers partnered with citizen engagement experts and other open government organizations to develop a U.S. public participation playbook. The 12 plays combine best practices and suggested performance metrics for agencies to use to evaluate and build better services. To meet citizens’ needs, the playbook identified five main categories that should be addressed in all programs, whether digital or offline.

At the same time, as agencies look to modernize their technology, those back-end processes that help capture and feed data back to them need to change. The lift and shift approach to IT modernization isn’t a good one.

The IT modernization effort that is working its way through Congress and the White House is both a cybersecurity and effectiveness and efficiency play. As OMB said last fall, moving to modern infrastructure and cloud-based solutions is a fundamental necessity to building a digital government that is responsive to citizen needs and secure by design. Doing so will enhance agencies’ ability to protect sensitive data, reduce costs, and deliver world-class services to the public.

Moderator

Jason Miller, Federal News Radio

Jason Miller is an executive editor and reporter with Federal News Radio. As executive editor, Jason helps direct the news coverage of the station and works with reporters to ensure a broad range of coverage of federal technology, procurement, finance and human resource news.As a reporter, Jason focuses mainly on technology and procurement issues, including cybersecurity, e-government and acquisition policies and programs.

Panelists

Justin Herman, Lead, Emerging Citizen Technology Program, General Services Administration

Justin Herman leads GSA’s Emerging Citizen Technology program, which unites federal agencies through pilot programs and Communities to develop the shared resources needed to efficiently and compliantly adopt emerging technologies that agencies identify tangible business cases for and yet no resources or inadequate resources may exist, including Artificial Intelligence for Citizen Services, Virtual/Augmented Reality, Social Technology and soon Blockchain.

Marcy K. Jacobs, Design Practice Director, White House U.S. Digital Service and Acting Agency Lead, Digital Service Team, VA

Marcy is a user advocate, researcher and strategist currently leading the design practice for the U.S. Digital Service and serving as the Acting Lead of the Digital Service team at the Department of Veterans Affairs. As a proven leader, Marcy focuses on problem definition and empathy to create simple and intuitive digital experiences. At the USDS, Marcy has lead work at the Department of Justice, IRS and VA and supported efforts at State, DoD and CMS.

Ayesha D’Avena, Former Senior Advisor, Office of the Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Ayesha D’Avena is an experienced executive with more than twenty years of public and private sector management and consulting experience.  Most recently, Ms. D’Avena served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  She oversaw the implementation of the most significant transformation of Medicare in thirty years employing user-centered, customer experience best practices across all aspects of program development and execution. Her work includes both designing user-centered programs as well as helping organizations transform and re-tool to deliver and support CX-focused solutions.  She provides specialized expertise in strategic planning, digital service transformation, product development, and customer experience.

Darryl Hillery, Federal Director of Strategic Alliances, Kodak Alaris

Darryl Hillery has spent nearly 20 years delivering information management solutions for a variety of commercial and public sector clients. He has extensive experience consulting and driving digital transformation initiatives for federal, state and local agencies with the goal of removing complexity from information capture.

In his current role as Federal Director of Strategic Alliances for Kodak Alaris Information Management, Darryl is responsible for delivering an array of innovative, customized solutions that agencies need to achieve mission success in today’s rapidly changing world. Darryl is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and has deep expertise in federal logistics, workflow optimization and business process enhancement.

Darryl earned his Organizational Leadership B.S. from Nyack College. Currently, he resides in Northern Virginia with his wife and three children.

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