Consolidation in a complex and aging enterprise IT environment

Federal agencies are under mounting pressure to do more with less — and nowhere is that tension more acute than in their IT environments. Decades of incremental investment have produced sprawling, fragmented portfolios that are expensive to maintain, difficult to secure and not always aligned with mission priorities. At the same time, agencies are navigating conflicting priorities as they strive to maintain aging legacy infrastructure, while simultaneously driving modernization. Managing both is not just complex, it is incredibly demanding. 

I shared my views on IT consolidation on this platform after capping a 30+ year career in government IT (see Hard lessons: A CIO’s playbook for consolidation — Nextgov/FCW).

I find I have more to share. IT consolidation, done smartly, offers a path forward. It also requires more than technological decisions. It demands commitment, an IT vision and strategy, strong leadership, disciplined planning, dedicated change management and a clear-eyed view of real and potential barriers and risks.

Key agency challenges

Before embarking on IT consolidation, agencies should honestly and openly confront the conditions that can make the journey difficult. The most common challenges:

• Workforce restructuring and skill gaps;
• Budget constraints;
• Legacy systems that are too hard to kill;
• Siloed organizations across the enterprise;
• Data fragmentation;
• Customer records are fragmented across systems with no unified view;
• Poor oversight of IT, generally (e.g., shadow IT operations, decentralized procurements, poor FITARA compliance);
• Conflicting mission priorities, portfolio bloat, inefficiencies and security vulnerabilities.

The case for consolidation

Done well, IT consolidation delivers meaningful, lasting returns across multiple dimensions:

• Savings and Efficiency gains. They achieve economies of scale, reduce costly duplication of systems and workforce and improve vendor negotiations.
• Operational Improvements. Consolidation simplifies complex operations with enterprise process reengineering, automation and workload handoffs.
• Reduced Portfolio Complexity. Consolidation provides clarity into business unit portfolios to eradicate bloat, shadow IT and duplication.
• Improved Customer Experience. The effort can transform data into an enterprise asset, not a business unit asset, enabling improvements to end-to-end user experience for customer services.
• Control and Security. Consolidation drives standardization and careful management of internal controls, cybersecurity and performance management.

The cumulative result is an IT environment that is leaner, more secure and better positioned to support the agency’s mission.

Follow a structured playbook — foundational work

Successful consolidation does not happen by luck or good intentions. It requires a deliberate, sequenced and structured approach grounded in the following elements:

• Gaining Executive Buy-In
• Establishing Clear Goals and Outcomes
• Designing a Transformation Program Management Office (PMO)
• Achieving Consensus on Risk Tolerance
• Defining a Strategic Communications Strategy

A phased implementation approach

With the foundational pieces in place, agencies should execute consolidation in phases. A phased approach is not meant to be bureaucratic, but instead is meant to be a disciplined, structured approach to keep organizational transformation on track, hold officials accountable, manage risks and affirm and measure clearly defined outcomes.

Don’t ignore the strategic communications strategy

While mentioned above as a critical element, one of the most frequently underestimated elements of IT consolidation is communication. Agencies should implement a deliberate, coordinated communications strategy that sets requirements, aligns stakeholders, establishes performance metrics and drives adoption for IT consolidation across the enterprise. The strategy must be scalable, and clearly articulate the purpose and benefits for consolidation, establish expectations for the organizational and technical change required and provide standardized frameworks for unified messaging.

The time to act is now

IT consolidation is not optional. If you don’t undertake it now, it may be forced upon you. The path and practices to succeed are understood and have been used before. Agencies that approach consolidation with executive commitment, effective planning, disciplined execution, change management and strong communications WILL achieve the desired outcomes and meaningful results. What matters is whether leadership is ready. 

Darren Ash is an Executive Advisor at Management Science and Innovation. He was formerly the chief information officer at the Department of the Interior, assistant chief information officer for the FPAC Mission Area and chief information officer at the Farm Service Agency. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior or the U.S. government.