“BYOD is about offering choice to customers. By embracing the consumerization of Information Technology (IT), the government can address the personal preferences of its employees, offering them increased mobility and better integration of their personal and work lives. It also enables employees the flexibility to work in a way that optimizes their productivity.”

The above is from the new Federal agency “Bring Your Own Device” toolkit published by the Digital Services Advisory Group and Federal Chief Information Officers Council. The toolkit provides a list of key considerations to inform an agency BYOD policy, as well as a series of sample policies and three case studies on agencies that have put BYOD into practice. For all of this, the document has nothing to say about how – from a practical mobile app provisioning perspective – agencies can most effectively and securely accomodate BYOD. Appian has the answer through our revolutionary and highly-secure “write once, deploy anywhere” Mobile BPM platform.

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Tags: , BPM for Government, BYOD, Government 2.0, mobile app development, mobile BPM

The Federal Bureau of Investigation launched its new case management system, called Sentinel, last month. Sentinel moves the agency off of paper files and into the 21st Century world of electronically stored and shared case information. This should be good news – and it is, to a degree. Sentinel will make it easier for agency agents to do their jobs, track vital case information, and share that information with other law enforcement and national defense organizations.

Now here’s the bad news (and it’s really bad): The system took a total of 12 years and more than $600 million to complete. These numbers, reported in the Wall Street Journal, include the more than three years and roughly $170 million spent on an earlier digital project called Trilogy that never produced a useable case management system.

What an outrageous waste of time and taxpayer dollars! We the People deserve better, plain and simple. And the fact is, we could have better – better government agency performance supported by better government IT, delivered more quickly and at a fraction of the cost of traditional development approaches – if more agency IT teams would embrace business process management software. The most forward-thinking agencies have already paved the way and proved the value.

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Tags: , application development, BPM for Government, Case Management, Government 2.0, mobile BPM, Social BPM

Vivek Kundra, the first Federal Government CIO, was the keynote speaker at a trade show I attended last week.  This was my first time hearing him tell his personal story of leading government IT transformation.  Vivek recounted a number of specific government IT failures with dollars attached on a scale I’m not used to working with.  It’s no wonder that every agency CIO now finds themselves on the hot seat.

Compounding the challenge for agency CIOs is a series of new initiatives from the Office of the Federal CIO.  These initiatives provide important guidelines CIOs are required to follow in the quest for more effective and cost efficient applications.  However, those guidelines do not lay out a specific approach likely to lead to success, leaving it up to CIOs and their staffs to find their own way.

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Tags: , Appian, BPM for Federal Acquisitions, BPM for Government, Business Process Management, Business Process Management and Government, Government 2.0, Government and Efficiency, Process Improvement for Government

I’m the father of two young boys. It’s clear to me that the more Charlie and Henry learn to share, the better it is for everybody. Their play is more rewarding. They learn from each other. I don’t have to buy them two of everything.

Federal CIO Steven Van Roekel wants federal agency CIOs to embrace precisely that same lesson. Earlier this month, he announced finalization of the Federal IT Shared Services Strategy. This is big news, and BPM software can play a big role in helping government IT become “good sharers.”

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Tags: , Appian Cloud, BPM for Government, Government 2.0, Government and Efficiency, shared services, steven vanroekel

As reported on Federal News Radio, a new cybersecurity bill introduced in the Senate includes a focus on federal procurement deficiencies. The bill would “order agencies to make sure they buy genuine products from vendors with a secure supply chain.” The sources calling for stricter federal procurement measures are numerous: the Obama administration’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, the Federal CIO’s 25-Point Plan for federal IT reform, even the “green” movement, just to name a few.

As Appian’s VP of Sales Chris O’Connell writes on AOL Government, “Nowhere is the need for improvement and reform greater than in the federal procurement process.” Chris is well-versed on the this topic, as he has been instrumental in the deployment of Appian’s Acquisition Business Management solution for customers including DISA, the U.S. Marines, the GSA and more.

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Tags: , BPM for Federal Acquisitions, BPM for Government, Business Process Management, federal contracting, federal procurement, Government 2.0

As reported in Federal Computer Week, a January 19 report from the Defense Business Board (DBB) states that “pursuing IT efficiencies could save DoD between 25 and 50 percent on annual expenditures, while also improving mission effectiveness and achieving return on investment even ahead of schedule.”

The report outlines a four-step approach of “normalizing, standardizing and rationalizing applications; rationalizing and consolidating data centers; rationalizing data and security; and then migrating appropriate components to the cloud.” The DBB urged the department to act decisively in these areas, warning that the consequences could otherwise be disastrous.

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Tags: , BPM for Government, BPM in the Cloud, Business Process Management and Government, Cloud Computing, defense business board, Government 2.0

Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel is pushing a “single door” policy for contractors doing business with U.S. federal agencies through the creation of vendor management organizations (VMOs). Federal acquisition/procurement is something we think about all the time at Appian, for a number of reasons.

First, like the rest of the country, we are concerned about federal fiscal policy and wringing out wasteful spending. Second, we believe BPM software provides a new opportunity to transform agency acquisition practices. Our Acquisition Business Management (ABM) solution allows federal purchasing organizations to increase the efficiency, visibility and mission-alignment of all pre-award, award, and post-award activities within the acquisition lifecycle.

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Tags: , Appian 6, BPM for Federal Acquisitions, BPM for Government, Business Process Management, Government 2.0, steven vanroekel

New Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel has pledged to continue the policies of his predecessor, Vivek Kundra – and to extend them even further in driving innovation in government IT. In Silicon Valley for his first public speech earlier this week, VanRoekel outlined a vision that includes continuation of Kundra’s “Cloud First” policy, while also emphasizing utilization of the latest innovations in mobile devices and collaboration tools to create what he called a “Future First” agenda. This is precisely the agenda that Appian has been advocating to our government (and commercial) customers through our Cloud BPM, Mobile BPM and Social BPM.

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Tags: , BPM for Government, BPM in the Cloud, Government 2.0, mobile BPM, Social, Social BPM, steven vanroekel

Today, government IT pros have a great opportunity for a crash-course on best practices in building secure, on-demand clouds for their federal agencies. InformationWeek is hosting the GovCloud 2011 event at the Reagan Pavilion in Washington, D.C. Appian is an event sponsor, in keeping with our strong commitment to Cloud BPM for the federal market.

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Tags: , BPM for Government, BPM in the Cloud, Cloud Computing, Government 2.0, Informationweek

This morning we announced that Amazon Web Services has named Appian an official solution partner for the new AWS GovCloud (US). AWS GovCloud (US) is an AWS Region designed to allow U.S. government agencies and contractors to move more sensitive workloads into the cloud by addressing their specific regulatory and compliance requirements. This will help quiet some of the “exaggerated security fears” that are being voiced by opponents of federal cloud computing. It is also significant to Appian in that it is a deepening our our 3-pronged relationship with Amazon.

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Tags: , Amazon Web Services, BPM in the Cloud, Cloud Computing, federal cloud, GovCloud (US), Government 2.0