More Cloud, Fewer Contact Centers Predicted For FedsMore Cloud, Fewer Contact Centers Predicted For Feds

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A consolidation of contact centers, a major surge in cloud computing adoption, and some of the first positive effects from work mandated by the Open Government Directive are among the top trends research firm IDC predicts will come out the government IT space this year.

The firm made its top 10 predictions for 2011, a list that includes some obvious scenarios, and some that are a little more surprising.

The No. 1 choice -- that the federal government will undertake a consolidation of its contact centers in the same way it's broadly cutting back on data centers -- is a bit of a red herring. Unlike the case with the number of data centers -- which ballooned significantly in a short amount of time – there isn't a lot of extra real estate in government customer service centers, call centers, help desks, and the like.

However, the federal government will realize it can achieve efficiencies by consolidating their numbers, a move it will undertake in 2011, according to IDC. Agencies will use shared services, cloud computing, and more electronic self-service opportunities to achieve contact center consolidation, the firm said.

With U.S. CIO Vivek Kundra late last year mandating a "cloud first" strategy for agency IT reform, it's not unexpected that 2011 will be the year of the cloud for the Obama administration's IT operations. IDC predicts both private and public clouds will reach critical mass in the federal government based on Kundra's policies and cloud computing's overall role in improving IT operations across all federal agencies.

Agencies also will start to feel the positive effects of the Open Government Directive, a December 2009 presidential mandate to leverage technology to foster transparency, better collaboration among agencies, and improved engagement with the public. "2011 is the year in which collaboration and cooperation with other government entities will begin to take hold as a result of these foundational efforts, delivering integrated information and services to citizens," according to IDC.

Those citizens also will start getting in on the open government action in 2011 as well, predicted IDC. The firm believes that people will begin to design, build, and deploy custom government services by creating mashups of available government data and service components.

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The year will see some organizational changes at the federal IT level as well, IDC predicted. The agency's number 7 prediction for the year is that the government's IT operating expenses will overtake its capital expenses. The move to cloud computing and away from making IT equipment purchases -- the latter of which fall into the capital expenses category – will drive this trend, the firm said.

The nature of a cloud computing model -- in which computing capacity is paid for as an ongoing operational service and not a one-off expenditure -- makes payment for services an operating expense. This change will eventually eliminate capital expenses in federal IT departments, according to IDC.

Another organizational change that will happen in 2011 for federal IT departments is that line of business and program owners will begin guiding the procurement of IT, with government IT and procurement organizations taking a backseat, according to IDC. In the past, it was the other way around, the firm said, which resulted in a waste of money, time, and resources because many bad decisions were made by people who didn't understand the particular needs of a project. "Government business and program owners are now at the point where they will begin to more heavily influence IT applications and solution decisions to achieve desired outcomes," according to IDC.

Not all of IDC's predictions for government IT in 2011 were positive. Ninth on the list is that rising information management and open-records challenges will begin to have a negative impact on agency operations. These problems will prevent access to critical operational information required for decision making and mission deployment, the firm said.

Government agencies are collapsing under the weight of the information they gather and store because they don't have adequate systems to handle the workload. This is a situation that must be remedied, the firm said. "Effective, secure management of information, with easy and timely retrieval that minimizes any burden on the public, is crucial for government agencies to meet their mission requirements and efficiently serve citizens," according to IDC.

Other predictions for 2011 include a tipping point for mobile devices and technologies that will change how and where government employees work; an evolution of "smart governments" that leverage strategic technology frameworks to meet specific policy goals; and consolidation in the IT industry that serves the government, which will lead to changes in IT procurement, according to the firm.

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Top 10 Government IT Predictions For 2011

Top 10 Government Stories Of 2010

Obama's Tech Tools