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Modern App Development Crucial for Improved Government Innovation

Staff, Appian
October 24, 2013

Industries of all kinds need to align themselves with the latest technology innovations, and the government by no means gets apass. Most notably at the Federal level, government agencies continue to approach technology and ITdevelopment with atraditional way of thinking, along with the idea that mobile development should be viewed as an add-on.

Appian's Vice President of Federal Sales, Chris O'Connell, recently shared his thoughts with InformationWeek Government on this outdated approach to IT. In this guest commentary,Chris explains how government innovation is lagging behind because technology efforts are tied up in large, long-life cycle ERP and custom development applications as opposed to allowing technology vendors to provide modernized, efficient business platforms.

According toChris, government concerns over cyber security are a leading reason why federal agencies are hesitant to adopt new platforms,which allowfor improved social collaboration and decision-making. Though security threatsvalidate thishesitation, it cannot continue to be the reason for not implementing modern apps for agency-wide programs, especially for mobile platforms. Applications built today that lack mobilecapabilities will be a legacyfrom themomentthey aredeployed.

Chris furtherexplains how the government views mobile applications as a device-by-device development process.Mobile must bedeployed to all devices at once, free of coding, andthere are platforms that offer this today."By adopting that shift in attitude, agencies can be spared the expense of in-house development, and no longer need to engage system integrators,"Chris says. "Let vendors take on the responsibility for simplifying the applications that connect big data, the cloud, social media and mobility. Let government focus on the innovative services that arise from those new applications. That's a true investment in the long term."

Be sure to read Chris' full piece and if you would like tolearn more about Appian's role in the Federal government, check out our BPM for Government page.

Mike Ingrisano

Media Relations Manager

Mike Ingrisano