A business process is not a single application, but rather a flow of tasks and, often, documents that typically involve many people, departments and enterprises. Even if automated, the process probably taps into many databases and programs. But that kind of ubiquity can make business process prone to the errors and inefficiencies that come from poor coordination, communication and data integration.
Disaster recovery was a low priority for many government agencies until the flood of terrorist attacks, hurricanes and other disasters of recent years. Now disaster recovery, ensuring that IT works uninterruptedly, is a key component of the continuity of operations plans that government expects industry to help it carry out.
To further a spirit of cooperation, agencies also are beginning to share information from disparate databases by sending some of that data to common data warehouses, where it can be merged, queried and analyzed.
Many government agencies, if they have not already done so, soon will face the issue of what technology they should use to connect remote workers, and they'll be looking to integrators to help make a decision.
If ever a technology seemed tailored to the needs of government, it is service-oriented architecture. SOAs link disparate systems, but still make federal agencies think.
Intelligence is an imperfect science. Just ask CIA or the 9/11 Commission. Or EDS Corp., the contractor tasked with wrangling thousands of legacy systems into the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet. When EDS started the job, the Navy thought it had about 5,000 applications to integrate. EDS found more than 100,000.
Recent developments in financial software for government are closely tracking directives that emphasize lines of business, strategic plans and project portfolios.
At some point, you're not just working, you're working with others. Ideally, your colleagues are wherever you are, whenever you need them, with access to all the materials and resources needed for the task at hand.
