Six trends reshaping the 2016 market

Digital Management Inc. today released its 2016 Top Six Federal Digital Trends Report, highlighting key issues to expect in the government marketplace in 2016.

The first trend is proactive security management and monitoring being an immediate need for government agencies.

“There’s a lot of chatter about cybersecurity, but the pusher is to really have an active posture around monitoring your security proactively,” said Sam Ganga, president of DMI’s Government Mobility Solutions Group. “That’s where we’re suggesting with our first trend. Without that, you’re sort of in a reactive posture.”

The second trend is a shift from a data management focus to a data science focus.

“[This trend] is not a play on words as much as it is a real need to understand that data-driven decision is the need of the future,” Ganga said. Agency constituents are growing hungrier, he added, for predictive indicators and models that will alert the agency before something becomes problematic.

The third trend is that agencies are moving from cloud hosting to cloud management services.

“The discussion is going to move away from who’s the best cloud hosting provider to who is my most effective cloud management services provider,” Ganga said. “Who’s going to be the one who’s going to take a look at the universe of these hosting services available and find the best.”

This requires a level of sophistication beyond what a cloud hosting provider has, he added.

The fourth trend is digital processes and how they need a different approach.

“Digital initiatives are really not about trying to solve the same problem in a similar manner using different technologies,” Ganga said. “What we believe is necessary is a new approach to the problem itself, so it’s much more of an exercise around what does it take to meet our mission rather than what does it take to redo this procurement.”

The fifth trend is the outsourcing mobile device lifecycle management.

“The general misconception out there in the marketplace is that the most expensive part of the mobile device lifecycle is the actual purchase of the device itself,” Ganga said. In fact, he added, the most expensive part of the lifecycle is the data plan for the device.

“Looking at mobile device lifecycle from not only the entire lifecycle of the physical device itself, but everything else that rides on top of it is imperative,” Ganga said.

The sixth trend is agencies’ increasing interest in the Internet of Things.

Agencies are looking at the Internet of Things as a way to improve processes and asset utilization.

“There are so many logistic aspects to government agencies that [Internet of Things] is an area that would yield significant result if applied properly and managed properly,” Ganga said.

To view the whole report, click here.