Summer Myatt
Michael Shrader, vice president of Intelligence and Innovative Solutions at Carahsoft, recently spoke with ExecutiveBiz about where the greatest opportunity lies in the government space during our latest Executive Spotlight interview.
Shrader manages relationships with more than 250 tech vendors selling to all segments of the government market, in addition to overseeing work with thousands of Carahsoft partners.
In his conversation with ExecutiveBiz, Shrader discussed everything from the skills gap to artificial intelligence.
Where is there the greatest opportunity in the government space right now?
There is tremendous opportunity in the government space around modernization, which is a top priority for many public sector agencies. There’s so much innovation happening in the private technology sector, and the government is working to modernize its infrastructure to reap the benefits of that innovation, which range from improved citizen services to more efficient workflows.
The rapid pace of innovation has created an inherent skills gap in the government space, yet by working more closely with industry, the government can strengthen workforce skillsets. In fact, many technology vendors are offering training programs to government customers.
Altogether, I see tremendous opportunities for industry and government to work together.
Why is there such a gap between government and industry as things currently stand?
One thing slowing down adoption in the government space is the approach to contracting. The status quo is multi-year budget cycles that are long and arduous. They make it tough to keep up with how quickly innovative technology is hitting the market.
That said, there are more dollars being set aside for rapid prototyping and R&D. But these efforts often get stuck in the lab, so to speak. It’s rare that they’re converted to production level environments at this point. So, there’s still a huge chasm to cross.
What challenges exist from a vendor perspective?
Navigating the government space has its own challenges and nuances that vendors must be aware of. Of course, it’s easier to navigate the market with the right partner. We are constantly onboarding new emerging technology vendors that are being drawn into the government market one way or another.
For new smaller vendors, the first step is to get the company listed on foundational contract vehicles, which give them broad routes to the government market. At the same time, we assign them a sales team to help them gain access through trade shows, events, tactical marketing programs and the like. Basically, we’re brought in as an integrated part of a vendor’s public sector go-to-market team.
This approach has proven tremendously successful: we worked with Splunk, Cloudera and Octa in their earliest stages and helped them scale. Overall, having the right partner and an open, collaborative culture are crucial components of success.
There’s been so much buzz around artificial intelligence. Are you seeing opportunity in government for AI?
There are many promising AI use cases in government. For example, we’ve seen AI and machine learning drive better access to healthcare. The explosion of generative AI specifically offers a ubiquitous use case for all agencies, departments and levels of governments.
Still, most government agencies are probably 12 to 18 months away from turning interest in AI into actual spend and adoption. While interest has been growing, many agencies lack the infrastructure required of AI, as large-language models run on accelerated computing. Government agencies likely won’t be ready to scale AI into production-level environments unless they upgrade their infrastructure and compute capabilities. That’s why modernization must be a top priority.
This point extends beyond generative AI as well; computer vision, advanced robotics and predictive analytics all require modernization. Vendors are much better equipped to keep up with the pace of innovation happening, which is why open collaboration between industry and public sector is key.
