“Don’t call the $10.5 million infusion of funding the Department of Veterans Affairs received to modernize its identity management platform an “award” or a “loan.”
Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana prefers to call it an ‘investment’ by the Technology Modernization Fund Board. Martorana said the TMF Board is making an investment in VA to help veterans have seamless and secure access to digital services and benefits…”
“Raylene Yung, the executive director of the TMF program management office at the General Services Administration, said an investment like the one in VA is as much about modernizing an agency’s services as it is demonstrating the power of shared services across government.
‘The first part of it is really building out that shared service, making sure that it works and can scale. That’s a great example of login.gov, which actually is used by over 40 million users across a few dozen federal agencies,’ she said. ‘Then there’s that other side of the agency adoption of a shared service and that’s a great example of what the VA is doing. You have the two sides of the coin, and together through developing the shared service and then agencies adopting the shared service, that’s when you really get that governmentwide benefit. You can kind of have that build once and use many leverage that you get out of every taxpayer dollar that goes into both sides.’…”
“Through the TMF investment, VA will move away from a fragmented identity and access management approach for veterans and their care givers. VA will use the TMF to implement Login.gov as a single, modern and easy to use sign-in service.
‘[T]his project will support the seamless transition of existing users to Login.gov. Second, VA will create an in-person identity verification option for veterans unable to sign up online. Finally, VA will pilot physical security keys for multi-factor authentication to improve accessibility and make digital services more secure,’ the TMF website stated. ‘This investment will not only improve the experience of veterans accessing VA benefits and services, but also reduce VA costs and the risk of fraud’…” Read the full article here.
Source: Federal CIO Martorana says agencies adjusting to TMF 2.0 model – By Jason Miller, May 2, 2022. Federal News Network.
