“The use of Software as a Service (SaaS) capacities have shown considerable potential for widely reducing the costs of modernizing federal agencies, particularly in terms of alleviating the operating costs and scope of human capital required to update their IT systems.”
“Among larger federal agencies, the Department of Veterans Affairs has already implemented SaaS within its efforts to standardize operating procedures across the agency and assist with broader cloud computing transformation. This has allowed VA to roll out software updates to existing employees more quickly while technically onboarding new employees more easily as well.”
“’We switched to Microsoft 365 to get all of our email onto the platforms that most of our employees are using. Then we expanded out to Word and Excel so we could benefit from the fast releases and leverage OneDrive in those products,’ said Drew Myklegard, executive director of demand management at VA, in a GovFocus interview.”
“Myklegard also noted this has synced with the VA’s switch to a public cloud platform, one that has expedited the delivery of software and technical updates across the agency as a whole.”
“’We also have switched to mostly cloud-provided CRM and ERP just for the ability to add tens of thousands of employees who are able to get those expected software releases,’ Myklegard said.”
“Agencies looking to leverage SaaS should analyze its direct benefits for their specific modernization programs and map out how to incorporate these in advance…”
“Myklegard noted that SaaS has particular value for large agencies with an expansive workforce and scope of mission responsibilities, with SaaS allowing departments to more easily manage large quantities of data and internal communications even amidst software updates and broader IT transformation…” Read the full article here.
Source: Software as a Service Reduces Cost of Modernization – By Adam Patterson, August 10, 2021. GovernmentCIO.
