IT Roadblocks: A Shared Pain

Quick, tell me three top reasons why U.S. Federal Agencies can’t adopt advanced technologies faster.

If you said leadership, legacy and workforce, you win! Your prize is … um … well, you win the satisfaction of being right.

In a recent survey by Accenture, focused mainly on the adoption of intelligent technologies in the public sector, the three top hindrances were:

• Legacy systems;
• Lack of leadership support or understanding of potential;
• Lack of internal skills or the ability to hire.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the U.S. Federal Government regards these as key obstacles. They have been for years. What is more enlightening in the report is the finding that these are actually global problems.

Download the report

Accenture’s research included nine countries: Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Singapore, the U.S. and the United Kingdom, and a total of 774 respondents. All of them reported similar hurdles, even while they are also all making progress.

The survey specifies six categories of intelligent technology, including advanced analytics/predictive modeling, biometrics/identity analytics and intelligent process automation.  In the U.S., that first category is the one most widely already implemented, reported by 70 percent of the U.S. respondents.

Digital transformation is a huge undertaking, and factors such as the need to work around legacy systems, or to convince leaders who don’t understand the potential benefits of bringing in new technologies, only make it harder.

The right technologies provided by the right industry partners can help ease the burden. Don’t despair of the complexities though — the rest of the world is right there with you.