Ross Wilkers
Operational efficiency, mobility, smart government and economic stability will be the key themes of government investment in information technology for 2012, according to a forecast from IDC Government Insights.
As covered by InformationWeek, IDC predicts governments at all levels will spend nearly $82.4 billion on hardware, software and IT services in 2012.
IDC found that mobility will be the top governance issue in 2012 as governments move beyond managing the devices to using mobility to address broader business issues. Governments are expected to see significant growth in mobile applications and devices, IDC said. Some agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, are already moving towards a “bring-your-own-device” approach.
Governments are also expected to experiment more with social media. Agencies are already using social media for two-way communication, as NASA has used Twitter to connect people with the space program. The space agency invited Twitter followers to watch the launch of anĀ Earth-observing satellite.
Governments will also explore options for data mining and analytics. This prediction comes more than two months after the Federal Reserve System announced it was soliciting proposals for a tool that can monitor and analyze comments on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
