Following up on a prior interview with Chris Koomey, Thorben Consulting COO, titled Where Enterprise Systems Meet the Cloud in the Federal Government, we caught up with Chris to discuss the evolving AI landscape, challenges and value for government, how this WOSB is finding success in changing times, and who might be a good partner to come along on the ride.
AI Drives the Average
You cannot attend an event, look at a news feed, or virtually any GovCon website, without seeing something related to AI these days. Among the stories and the tools, and the claims, there is also still uncertainty about the role and value of AI, what it can do and what it will be.
Noting that the big fear when people talk about AI is that somehow AI is going to replace humans, Koomey says the reality is that AI is very good at giving you an average answer.
“In life, if you get an average answer, you get a B or a C. There are plenty of people that made their way in life getting Bs and Cs, and AI may be a perfect replacement for them. But if you’re pursuing excellence, are looking for that last 10 to 20%, you need people who can take it to the next level, people who have the expertise to look for and correct flaws, and to have the creativity to look for opportunities that may have been missed.”
With AI use so abundant there is the risk of a commonality in thought and action by users who reply simply on the AI. “Human creativity applied to challenges is always going to be in demand. There’s always going to be a demand for excellent outcomes, and that’s what drives us in helping modernize systems for government, in moving beyond the quick and easy to the creative, impactful and effective solutions. Creativity is where you get beyond average to exceptional.”
The AI Challenge for Government
Understanding that a fundamental problem with AI, if you’re using a commercial tool, is the sharing of federal data to public models, Thorben took an early and focused approach to ensuring AI was compliant, accessible only to those who needed it and should have it. The result was something called Secure Organisational Foundation AI.
“At this stage, it’s almost old news that you should have organization-specific AI. And people are at least aware that they shouldn’t be sharing data out. There is still action
that needs to be taken to make sure that that’s still being effective. We make sure that all the different servers, the networks, all the interfaces are communicating effectively, and that the data is being made available through a focus on infrastructure management.”
A Closer Look at Infrastructure Management
Thorben’s focus on infrastructure management views enterprise systems as something akin to the working of a city with a lot of information and signals constantly coming in from various places within that organization. “Every event, every detail is being logged but no one has the mental capacity to look at it all, to interpret it or look for patterns. A million things happen every minute and that’s where we apply AI, where we think it can have the greatest impact.”
Instead of applying Ai to customer-facing tasks where processes may not be fully developed and users are forced into endless loops of frustration, large information systems such as infrastructure, network, data, financial systems, and supply chain systems provide opportunities for AI to provide more visibility and more value into how to do it effectively.
“There is a lot of information not being handled particularly well and that’s where we see AI really helping. Coding is one example of where a quick first draft that can then be vetted and improved on is possible. That includes government low-code no-code where a single source of truth is cleaned and verified and can serve as the basis for new functions or workflows.”
This system not only allows for a standardized approach but also creates the opportunity to sift through the best applications to use. “It used to be that mainframes, hardware, network, everything was connected. The internet has allowed us to start decoupling aspects of how these systems work but that has created a disconnect. Everyone needs to know what is available, to know what is already available and what is best so they can stand on what has been done before and have that benefit of proven solutions moving forward to something new.”
Breaking Down The Value of AI for Government
When considering the role of Ai in the federal space, the goal is simple: AI should be helping drive more excellent outcomes. This can happen, in part, by allowing smaller companies with creative ideas to provide expanded services. “You may have a team of 60 or 100 or 200 people that are helping to manage a large IT system. We should be able to reduce that by 50%, 60%, 70%, because a lot of the mundane things, repetitive things are done very well using the right AI tool.”
AI is also good at following direction so it can fix things, can make sure that the versions are in line, that backups are done, that patches are added, and you can have a confidence that that’s done correctly. “When these mundane things aren’t kept up, it can allow problems to fester, so you can delegate that to AI and let the engineers focus on the harder problems.”
“We’re spending time working to improve the automated support so that projects that would have been reserved for large companies can be handled with smaller teams, opening the door for new eyes, new insights.”
Finding Succes in Changing Times
Continuing to find success within existing relationships, and opportunities to grow into new, Thorben leans on a proactive approach to being in the right place and positioning itself as the right solution. “Part of it is being attractive to the type of people that you want working on your projects. In the technology space, it used to be, if you wanted to be attractive, you just had to get people a new laptop or whatever the latest tech was. Now it is about ensuring your people have the opportunity to grow, to stay ahead of current technology, to have the opportunity to tackle and succeed at solving some really hard challenges.”
Several years ago, the company launched its own federal modernization platform, made it available on the AWS marketplace, developed relationships with several dozen companies with FedRAMP authorized products that could be integrated into the platform
Opportunity in a Changing Landscape
They say that with change, comes opportunity. That is certainly the lens with which Thorben has viewed the past year or so. “One of the great opportunities that’s come up is this move towards the commercial solutions openings, things like Army Open Solicitation. As a small business, for the first 20 plus years of our existence, we always had a buffer between us and the client. We had insight, we could provide value, but there was a big system integrator was a buffer. Now we have the opportunity to communicate directly with people that are making decisions.”
Koomey says team typically puts something out every month through the CSOs. “It’s helping us to evolve our own approaches, our own intellectual property. It gives a chance to communicate directly with clients, but it also gives us a chance to put our good ideas in there and get feedback.”
Noting these are not heavy lifts – 5 to 8 pages – there is an opportunity for industry to apply its expertise to a new problem and suggest solutions. “It gives a platform to businesses that may be new to these agencies to think about and show how they are the best at what they do.”
While Koomey notes a decrease in small business partnership opportunities with large system integrators, AI has opened a window for smalls to punch above their weight, to take on projects that once may have required 200 people and can now be managed with 20 or 30. “With change there is always an opportunity to do things differently, to evolve new relationships, to think about things in new ways. In the current environment if you’re doing what you have always done, you will be left behind.”
Change also means you need options. “You’ve got to be pushing a lot of things forward because some of them will be canceled, some of them won’t be funded, some of them will never see the light of day. It may mean having dozens of things in action to have three or four that will succeed but if you’re not in the game, you’re not, you know, you’re not going to be in a position when an opportunity does arise.”
The Partner Opportunity
Noting previously that they are always open to new relationships, Koomey says what he is looking for are companies that have really thought about the headaches and who can bring solutions. “We’re focused on is helping the government do more with less, giving them some ideas about what’s possible. Because with this time of rapid change, it’s hard to keep up even understanding what is fully available so it’s always about finding the biggest headache. and focusing there.”
“What I see now is there’s a lot of people trying to do, again, the quick and dirty, what’s easy, like where can I take information and provide it, repackage it for others, but they’re not really providing much value.”
“It’s a challenging environment. But in a challenging environment, you can’t just throw your hands up. You got to kind of dig in and keep moving forward. And yeah, that’s how we’ve always approached it. And you know, if you’re not, you know, if you’re not getting knocked down in this environment, then you’re not trying.”
Companies with relationships within the Navy, DHS, and CBP, those agencies with SAP systems that may need modernization/consolidation are prime opportunities. “We operate where the SAP meets the cloud in the federal government. And so any of those SAP systems where that’s where we can work with others to help make that happen and do it efficiently and effectively.”
“We actually have a trademark called Mastering Innovation Together. And that’s, we came up with that because that’s really how we operate with the client. Client has a problem, they want to use technology, how do I do this effectively? Our workforce is working together with other contractors, with clients, and with technology to make things better. And so that’s how we’ve continued to operate. And we’re going to, you know, we’re going to keep doing that going forward.”
