How CenturyLink’s Business Transformation Can Help Federal Agencies Achieve Their IT Modernization Goals

Many of the government agencies we talk to ask us how they can leverage what we’re doing to transform our own business to help them achieve their agency’s IT modernization goals.

We live in a connected world, and companies are using technology to become data-driven, analyzing data about their customers and then acting on their findings to improve their products and services.

But the whole process of transforming into a digital business is an endless loop, because it’s both an ongoing process and an ultimate goal. The same is true for digital government.  That’s why I say IT modernization is more than a journey; it’s a lifestyle.

Having gone through the acquisition of Level 3 Communications in late 2017, CenturyLink® has been actively transforming itself into a global technology company that enables customers to self-provision various services. We’re accomplishing this by developing a customer-focused, outcome-oriented mindset and creating faster iterative processes built for the future.

Those same forces that are driving digital transformation for businesses are also sweeping through the government. Just as businesses are looking for better ways to interact with their customers, government agencies are looking to provide more engagement and better experiences for their stakeholders and constituents.

The 2018 President’s Management Agenda called on agencies to improve the service-delivery experience for citizens. Having gone through our own integration post-merger gives us first-hand knowledge of what it takes to digitally transform into a customer-focused business and how we can use that experience to help agencies achieve their own IT modernization goals.

We understand the transformation challenges facing government, from unique budget and acquisition constraints to the reliance on legacy systems and heightened need for better cybersecurity protections.

CenturyLink has recently undergone a transformation ourselves with all the corporate acquisitions and changes we experienced over the last several years.  We’ve had to pull together legacy, disparate systems into a usable, concise format, which can be challenging, but we’ve definitely learned some lessons we can pass on.

Our team is dedicated to helping you to serve your mission while finding a path through these obstacles on the way to IT modernization.

We see three essential elements that can help you achieve your agency’s IT modernization goals:

• Network connectivity: Whether it’s developing a unified communications and collaboration solution, implementing managed network services or integrating a range of technologies into an existing framework, connectivity is at the heart of all IT service improvements. The network is the foundation that drives and allows all of these technology changes to happen.
• IT agility to both connect to and manage the cloud: Identifying and adopting the best approach to cloud hosting, whether public, private or hybrid, and integrating one, two or all three of these approaches is critical to improved cloud access and functionality.
• Security that is built-in: Multi-layered, network-based cybersecurity, including advanced security solutions that are supported by advanced threat intelligence and cybersecurity experts, is required to protect today’s infrastructure as it is exposed to an ever-changing, always active, always connected world.

We have a commitment to help you achieve all three of these essential elements. In fact, we were the first vendor to achieve authority to operate (ATO) and to win a task order under the General Services Administration’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) program. The EIS contract, along with Alliant 2, of the newest best-in-class contracts where you can order these solutions, as well as many other innovative products.

The shift to EIS is more than just a transition from one contracting vehicle to another – it’s an opportunity to create momentum for IT modernization and digital government and to acquire leadership buy-in for doing things differently.

Everyone knows that change can be difficult. But positive change can transform the way an agency does business for the better, while improving interactions with the citizens they serve. The ability to embrace change – both up and down the agency ladder – lies in part with the ability to broadly demonstrate what can be gained by making the transition to digital business and digital government.

That is something that we know all too well and stand are ready to share.

To hear more about federal agency modernization efforts, please listen to my recent podcast with Fedscoop and reach out to your CenturyLink account manager so that we can discuss how to start collaborating today.