Accenture's survey of 200 federal government executives in early 2018 assessed the state of digital process automation, identifying barriers to modernization and focusing on the implications for service delivery. The findings reveal that most agencies face significant challenges in digitization, with many processes still requiring manual intervention and operational data being underutilized. The report emphasizes the need for system-based business rules, executive leadership in digital strategies, and the adoption of key technologies to enhance process efficiency.

1. DIGITAL
PROCESS
ACCELERATION
SURVEY RESULTS

2. To assess the current state of digital process
automation within the federal government, Accenture
engaged Market Connections to survey 200 federal
government executives across both defense and
civilian agencies. The survey was fielded in February-
March 2018. These were program leaders with mission,
business or operational responsibilities for business
processes and service delivery within their agency.

3. Where do agencies
currently stand in
their digital
modernization
efforts for these
key functions?
What are the
key barriers to
modernization?
What functional
areas will be
impacted, and
what technologies
will be deployed?
OUR GOAL WAS
TO UNDERSTAND:
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved.

4. DIGITIZED
Integrated, automated
and optimized, with the added
ability to dynamically reconfigure
workflow and business rules to
address ad hoc requirements
(e.g., automated adjudication for
exception handling, redirecting
workflow due to surge in demand)
As a benchmark for digital transformation of
business processes, we defined a framework
for measuring overall maturity:
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved.
Further analysis of the survey findings is presented in the Accelerating Digital Process
Automation report available at Accenture.com.
MANUAL
Paper exchange or email
integration with ad hoc
INTEGRATED
Standardized and
integrated but still
requiring significant
manual processing
AUTOMATED
Integrated and automated
with limited manual intervention
for exception handling as needed
OPTIMIZED
Integrated and automated with active
use of performance monitoring
and analytics for continuous
process improvement

5. Mostfederalbusiness processes
serve external audiences
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Are the majority of your service or business process interactions:
Citizen-facing
Public Sector (including state and local
government and non-government)
Intra-agency (internal to a single agency)
Inter-agency (cross-federal government)
Industry-facing (commercial business
partners and/or regulated industries
Other

6. Process automation is limited
across federal agencies
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 6
Paper
exchange or
email
integration
with ad hoc
execution
MANUAL
12%
Standardized &
integrated, but
requiring
significant
manual
processing
INTEGRATED
46%
Integrated &
automated; limited
manual intervention
for exception
handling, as
needed
AUTOMATED
23%
Integrate &
automated; active
use of performance
monitoring &
analytics for
continuous process
improvement
OPTIMIZED
12%
Integrated, automated
& optimized; added
ability to dynamically
reconfigure workflow
and business rules to
address ad hoc
requirements
DIGITIZED
6%
Majority of business processes

7. Full value of operational data
not being realized
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 7
What is the current state of the operational data supporting
your business processes and service delivery?
Highly accessible,
integrated and well-
structured
High Value
30%
Collected and trusted,
but poorly structured
Moderate Value
62%
Questionable quality and
veracity, and stored in silos
with minimal interoperability
Limited Value
4%

8. Automated business rules
only partially implemented
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 8
How would you define the system-based business rules and logic
supporting your business processes and service delivery?
Business rules and logic are
very well documented and
fully implemented within
business process systems
Business rules and logic are
reasonably well documented
and partially implemented
within business process
systems
Business rules and logic
have significant gaps due to
reliance on legacy technology
and/or ad hoc (independent)
decision-making
22% 23%55%

9. Agencies are meeting expectations,
not setting them
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 9
Unsure / NA Much less than expected Less than expected Meets expectations Exceeds expectations
To what extent does your organization meet expectations for business
processes and service delivery in the following areas?
Customer satisfaction
Data quality and processing error rates
Processing or transaction time
Transaction or operational costs

10. Most agencies
attempting to modernize
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 10
For the specific programs or processes that you support, which best
describes to the extent of your agency’s efforts to modernize and
digitize processes and service delivery strategy?

11. Bottom line focus behind
efforts to digitize
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 11
What are top drivers or
objectives behind your
efforts to digitize?

12. Reducing the number of manual
interventions and/or process steps
Accelerating end-to-end processing
Simplifying how end-users interact with
systems to share input and enter data
Expanding the use of automated business rules
management to reduce errors and improve consistency
Improving how systems and/or case workers generate
output (e.g. reports, correspondence) for end-users
Creating more insightful and timely
performance monitoring and alerting
Making more relevant or contextual information available
to case workers and customer service representatives
Streamlining processes
is a key functional focus
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 12
Which functional areas do you especially
hope to improve through digitization?

13. Failure to digitize risks ability to
deliver critical services
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 13
What could be the impact if your organization fails to
digitize processes and service delivery strategy?
Increased cybersecurity or digital trust vulnerabilities
Inability to comply with regulatory mandates
No significant impact
Increased processing or transactional costs
Inability to meet performance objectives
Inability to fully support escalating program demands
Inability to meet heightened user demands

14. Lack of funding
Compliance or other
regulatory constraints
Lack of technology
Contractual constraints and vendor
lock-in with current service providers
Lack of organizational
consensus
Information silos
Lack of talent
Poor data quality
Lack of executive
leadership/buy-in
Workforce rules
Funding, legacy tech leading barriers
to digitizing processes
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 14
What are the
barriers or
inhibitors to
digitizing
processes and
service delivery
strategy?

15. Agencies pursuing
enterprise-level approaches
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 15
Is your department/agency approaching digital process and service
delivery and related modernization strategies systematically at the
enterprise-level for all operations, opportunistically on a case-by-case
basis, or do you follow a hybrid of both approaches?
Enterprise-level
(agency-wide)
approach
Hybrid of both
approaches
Program or
functional-level (case
by case) approach
37% 30%34%

16. EXECUTIVE, PROGRAM LEADERS
LEADING THE WAY
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 16
Who is leading your enterprise digital process
and service delivery strategy?
Executive Leadership
Program (Mission/Business/ Operational) Leadership
IT
Hybrid (IT + Program)
Other
Dedicated Digital Transformation Office

17. No consensus on modernize vs.
Replace legacy platform
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 17
Which do you believe is the more effective strategy for updating
the current IT environment to support your business processes
and service delivery?
Reengineer and/or
re-platform existing
systems to meet
current expectations
and requirements
46.5%
MODERNIZE
Replace existing
systems entirely with
new modern systems
45%
REPLACE
*8.5% Unsure

18. Biggest factors impacting
digital process modernization
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 18
What percentage of
respondents marked
the following factors
for ensuring the
success of the
modernization or
transformation
initiatives supporting
their digital
processes and
service delivery as
very important?
Workforce Training &
Upskilling
Measurable Program
Objectives
Real-time Analytics &
Performance Monitoring
Organizational or
Workflow Redesign
Cross-Agency Governance
Agile & Iterative
Software Development
Business Process
Reengineering Methodologies
Commercial Best Practices
Design Thinking &
User Research
Digital Centers of Excellence

19. Top technologies
for digital process modernization
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 19
How important are
the following
technologies to
your organization’s
long-term digital
process and
service delivery
strategy?
Self-Service Reporting & Data
Visualization
Digital Process
Automation Platforms
Cloud-based
Systems of Record
Cloud Infrastructure
Self-Service Technologies
Predictive and
Streaming Analytics
Multi-channel
User Experience (UX)
Cloud-based Systems
of Engagement
Natural Language Interfaces
Artificial Intelligence
& Machine Learning
Robotic Process Automation

20. A go slow approach
to digital process modernization
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 20
Which technologies
have you already
considered or
adopted to support
your long-term digital
process and service
delivery strategy?
Cloud-based
Systems of Engagement
Cloud Infrastructure
Self-Service Technologies
Digital Process
Automation Platforms
Self-Service Reporting
& Data Visualization
Cloud-based
Systems of Record
Predictive and
Streaming Analytics
Multi-channel
User Experience (UX)
Natural Language Interfaces
Artificial Intelligence
& Machine Learning
Robotic Process Automation

21. THANK YOU