Federal tech leaders are turning data into mission power.
Deliver faster. Operate smarter. Spend less. That’s the challenge echoing across federal C suites, and data modernization is central to the answer.
In our latest Federal News Network Expert Edition, leaders from across government and industry share how agencies are transforming legacy systems into mission-ready data engines:
Alyssa Hundrup, health care director at the Government Accountability Office, urges DoD and VA to go beyond “just having agreements” to share health care services and start measuring the impact of these more than 180 agreements: “There’s more … that could really take a data-informed approach.”
Duncan McCaskill, vice president of data at Maximus, reminds us that governance is everything: “Governance is your policy wrapper. … Data management is the execution of those rules every day. If you give AI terrible data, you’re going to get terrible results.”
Stuart Wagner, chief data and AI officer at the Navy, calls out the risks of inconsistent classification: “If the line is unclear, they just go, ‘Well, we can’t share.’ ”
Vice Adm. Karl Thomas, deputy chief of Naval operations for information warfare, highlights the power of AI and open architectures: “Let machines do what machines do best … so humans can make the decisions they need.”
And from the Office of Personnel Management, a full overhaul of FedScope is underway to make federal workforce data more transparent and actionable.
In every case: Data is the mission driver.
Download the full ebook to explore how these agencies are addressing modernizing their data strategy!
Evan Davis views the federal government’s modernization efforts as a strategic opportunity to rebuild trust and achieve mission success through smarter, more human-centered service design.
The recent executive order on digital design makes the timing ideal, said Davis, executive managing director for federal growth at Maximus.
The key? Agencies need to use every citizen interaction as a data point to improve systems, predict needs and personalize service, he recommended during an interview for Federal News Network’s Forward-Thinking Governmentseries.
Lean into the better design executive order
The Improving Our Nation Through Better Design EO is a natural extension of the push to improve experience and the relationship between the government and its constituents, Davis said. “That relationship needs to get built one encounter at a time.”
That matters because the public’s digital service expectations have expanded as commercial interactions have rapidly surpassed those offered in the public sector.
But right now, “there’s a recognition that these government experiences, when looked at carefully with new technology, can meet not only those new expectations but bring federal government encounters to a place where constituents feel appreciated and feel considered in those engagements,” Davis said.
With more than two decades spent helping agencies connect with their constituents, much of it spent partnering within federal contact centers, we asked Davis to share his perspective on the most effective strategies and tactics for advancing digital maturity across government.
Position contact centers as strategic intelligence hubs
For starters, it’s critical to reenvision government contact centers as far more than transactional endpoints. Davis argues that they are rich, underutilized sources of qualitative data that reveal citizen intent, frustration and unmet needs.
With artificial intelligence and analytics, agencies can mine center interactions to inform policy, improve service design and respond in real time, he said.
“I’m constantly amazed by the wealth of untapped data insights hidden within federal agency call centers,” Davis noted and added that center staff members also have a “real-time understanding of the incredible complexity of what it means to engage with the government.”
3 tactics: To take advantage of contact center data, Davis suggests that agencies should:
Analyze call transcripts for patterns in citizen needs.
Use insights to refine FAQs, digital flows and policy language.
Feed findings into broader customer experience and service improvement efforts.
With this approach, agencies — for the first time — “can truly use data to influence policy, to influence an understanding of what’s important to citizens,” he said
Build a digital-first, omnichannel foundation
Davis stressed that digital first doesn’t mean digital only. Agencies must unify systems and channels to guide citizens to the right help, whether that’s a chatbot, a human agent or a proactive SMS update. An omnichannel foundation will enable cost savings, faster service and trust-building through transparency, he said.
“Digital first is not digital separate. … How do I use that first point of contact to get people to the right place based on where they are at the moment?”
The goal, Davis explained, is to reduce the total amount of time and individual actions that citizens must take to address a need.
3 tactics: He suggested that to establish that omnichannel foundation, agencies should:
Consolidate legacy contact center systems into a scalable, modular platform.
Standardize agent interfaces and data flows.
Enable proactive outreach across channels.
“It will also give agents, regardless of the exact content that they’re responsible for, the same user interface, the same pane of glass to look at every day,” Davis said. “It will also allow them to start pulling in that huge amount of data and doing something with it to inform what next steps they should take.”
Use AI to decode intent and predict needs
Understanding why a citizen contacts an agency is often more complex than a dropdown menu can capture. Davis explained that AI can uncover true intent, match it to policy requirements and guide citizens to resolutions faster. It can also help leaders spot emerging issues before they escalate.
“AI has already proven incredibly adept at understanding true intent of the citizen’s needs” at the micro level and gives agencies more options to quickly respond appropriately, he said. And at macro level, “you can rely on AI to answer things like: What’s changed today? What do I need to know when I wake up this morning as the leader of citizen engagement?”
3 tactics: To speed response times through integrating AI capabilities, Davis recommended that agencies should:
Deploy AI-powered intelligent virtual assistant and agent assist tools.
Use AI to analyze qualitative data and surface trends.
Train models using up-to-date knowledge management systems.
Long term, by integrating AI in these ways and moving to modernized data infrastructures, Davis expects agencies will achieve a state of ongoing transformation and be able to incrementally improve and scale services.
Why tackling service systems matters now
Davis tied these tactics directly to the urgency of the moment: aging systems, rising citizen expectations and the availability of transformative technologies. Agencies must act now, not just to modernize, but to deliver on their missions more effectively, he said.
The beauty of integrating contact center data sources and analyzing that data in real time, Davis pointed out, is that agencies can begin making correlations between circumstances on an interaction that tend to lead to increased costs but also tend to lead to erosion of trust.
“We can begin looking at incredible positive change — to both provide cleaner, simpler, more cost-effective solutions but also to rebuild trust.”
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