TechAmerica Foundation Examines Federal Civilian Agency IT Budgets on Day Two of 2014 Vision Federal Market Forecast Conference

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Day Two of TechAmerica Foundation's Vision Federal Market Forecast Conference examined how to bring technology innovations and cost-savings to federal civilian agencies in the midst of tighter budgets. Nearly 300 industry and government executives attended the 50^th annual  Vision Federal Market Forecast Conference this week in Falls Church, Va.

Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO of CompTIA, opened the conference, noting, "Civilian agencies have six IT priorities for the coming fiscal year: cybersecurity, cloud migration, increased use of mobile technology, Big Data crunching, shared services, and seeking ways for technology to reduce overall agency budgets. But how do CIOs balance these priorities when some may see their real budgets decline?"

Presentations throughout the day sought to answer those questions. Breakout panel sessions focused on individual agencies including USDA, NASA, Department of State, Department of Energy, Department of Treasury, Department of Transportation, Department of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Veteran's Affairs, Military Health Systems and Department of Justice.  Each panel session discussed the individual agency's budget forecast, top agency issues, external and internal drivers, the acquisition culture, and business opportunities, and each session provided a message from the agency back to the IT industry.

Vision Strategic Forecast Council Chair Robert Haas noted that the long-term outlook of the federal IT budget remains constant from last year.  The civilian IT budget is flat in the near term but will grow with discretionary spending.  Cost savings continue to be a high priority as spending shifts between different investment priorities and budget constraints.  These shifts are forcing agencies to limit extras and focus on IT as a commodity.  In addition, innovation is cannibalizing budget from legacy systems, but budget uncertainty is constraining technology migration. 

The Vision Acquisition Team focused on one of the most dynamic aspects of federal business – the federal IDIQ, GSA schedule and GWAC marketplace, which account for more than half of all federal IT sales. The team explored areas such as transformation of the GSA acquisition marketplace, IT reform legislation and strategic sourcing.

Attendees asked if the upcoming election will affect federal spending, but Vision Keynoter Stan Collender, national director, financial communications, Qorvis MSLGROUP, said, "The upcoming election won't matter much in terms of the budget."   He discussed how the House will be under Republican control, but that the real play will be in the Senate.  If the Republicans get all 11 seats, there will be 56 to 44 majority. 

"That's enough to pass a budget resolution which will probably include a reconciliation which doesn't affect the civilian budget (with the exception of Medicare and Medicaid).  A stalemate on the budget will most likely continue for the next couple of years," added Collender. 

Vision volunteer Kim Pack provided a technology outlook on the growth of new technologies in federal civilian agencies and their changing budgetary and spending priorities. Pack also had Mike Pozmantier from Homeland Security, who leads their Transition to Practice Program in the office of the Science and Technology Directorate, and GSA's Greg Godbout, deputy associate administrator of the Office of Strategic Innovation and executive director of innovation incubator program, discuss how they're bringing new thinking into the federal IT acquisition and development process.

Technology today can do most of what the government says they want to be able to do five years from now.  The obstacle is not the technology but rather the workforce and acquisition process.  However, there are forward thinking government groups making a difference, including GSA18F and DHS' Transition to Practice (TTP).

The 50^th annual TechAmerica Foundation Vision Federal Market Forecast Conference provided a forum for the federal marketplace to obtain a concise, quantifiable assessment of the budgets, programs, priorities and issues.  A CD of the conference presentations is available at http://www.techamericafoundation.org/vision-cd. An overview of the media briefing on the Vision Forecast is available at http://www.slideshare.net/comptia/techamerica-foundation-vision-forecast-overview.  

About TechAmerica Foundation

Launched in 1981, the TechAmerica Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan affiliate of TechAmerica, the public sector and public advocacy department of CompTIA. The foundation disseminates award-winning industry, policy and market research covering topics such as U.S. competitiveness in a global economy, innovation in government, defense and federal IT forecasts, and technology employment and international trade indicators. It also organizes conferences and seminars, including the Vision Federal Market Forecast which was started originally by the Electronics Industry Association.

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SOURCE TechAmerica Foundation

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