Jane Edwards
Christopher Copeland, a managing director and chief technology officer at Accenture Federal Services, said one of the trends accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic is the emergence of democratized information technology, which is empowering federal employees to optimize their work and advance innovation.
Copeland wrote in a guest piece published Tuesday on Government Executive that democratized IT is also transforming the nature of IT departments within agencies.
“Now that mission-supporting and business-supporting employees have the wherewithal to create the tech tools they need at will to meet their individual requirements, IT shops will need to continue to accelerate the pivot from a service delivery function to becoming true partners and collaborators with their mission and business counterparts,” he noted.
He said IT departments should ensure the security of tools being developed by mission and business teams.
“This new paradigm also will require that agencies place far more priority on training their workforces to think more like technologists so they can better leverage the new technologies and capabilities available to them,” Copeland added.
