Nearly every large organization is dependent on legacy IT systems to some degree. Deeply ingrained into existing processes and requiring highly specialized support, these systems are frequently both critically necessary and a ticking time bomb of risk. For the United States, legacy technology is nearly ubiquitous in government IT systems. This has given rise to numerous problems when circumstances require rapid change, such as the issues unemployment systems across the nation faced as a result of the deluge of applications following early pandemic shutdowns. As part of a new modernization effort, the Internal Revenue Service is partnering with a major digital workflow company to help update and consolidate its IT systems.
ServiceNow recently announced that it secured a five-year contract with the IRS to provide its low-code development platform to help consolidate 12 legacy systems into a single platform of record. The digital transformation effort will be conducted in partnership with Carahsoft Technology Corp. and Intact Technology.
“For far too long, federal agencies have been tasked with performing some of the most important work in our nation using disparate systems that are often decades-old,” said Steve Walters, Vice President of the federal ServiceNow team. “As a new generation of employees enter the workforce and citizens’ digital expectations increase, ServiceNow and the IRS will provide IRS employees with modern technology to meet the needs of taxpayers at scale.”
The effort will be focused on integrating solutions for IRS employees to manage their workflows, improve documentation of incident assessments, and ultimately ease the process of taking two to three million calls per day from U.S. taxpayers during the height of tax season. Consolidating legacy systems into a newer, more user-friendly platform will lead to significant gains in productivity and customer service.
With the federal government committed to modernizing its IT systems and the White House requesting an IT topline of $109.4 billion, conditions could not be better to retire legacy systems that have in some cases been in place for decades. While the work involved is both extensive and expensive, the U.S. Government’s investment in IT modernization will pay off for years to come.
