Budget Surplus Is a Dirty Word

http://www.bdtheme.com

In stark contrast to its 2021 numbers, the US Federal Government expects to end this fiscal year (2022) with a surplus of $308 billion dollars according to the Congressional Budget Office. (As opposed to last year’s $226 billion deficit.) While that excess fuels clickable headlines for politicians, it’s not great news if your agency or department uses less budget than you predicted—while possibly falling short of longer term goals such as software modernization.

“Use it, or lose it” is a real thing that has caused Federal Government agencies and departments to lose or cut over $127 billion between 2009 and 2019. In one stark example from 2019, the Department of Defense had to return $80 billion in unused budget.

 

The average amount of budget fund cancelation is about 1.6% annually.”

 

According to the Government Accountability Office, the average amount of budget fund cancelation is about 1.6% annually. While that number doesn’t sound large, it can have an erosive effect on your budget and create a downward trend that can be more difficult to reverse down the road when increases could be genuinely needed. And while the examples above are government figures, the principle is the same in the private sector—or even more tightly policed.

So, what can you do as we near the end of your fiscal year if you find yourself with that ugly surplus—even of a measly one or two percent or less? We’ve got four suggestions for you:

 

1. NOTCH YOUR ARROWS FOR NEXT YEAR

Take some time to cast ahead to your fiscal 2023 strategy. What updates and improvements would you like to see by the end of next year?

Knowing that you have money in your coffers ahead of time, consider what additional resources, technology, or assistance will help you achieve those goals. Are there moderate investments such as modernization planning that you can make this year that could give you wiggle room should the vagaries of budget and crisis change your situation next year? Are there plans you’d like to lock in now?

As you envision what next year should look like, consider software modernization. One smart use of funds ahead of a modernization project is using the final couple of months of this year to get an assessment for your program. It only took TSRI six weeks to assess the entire AT&T billing system with 961,780 lines of code and comments through our JANUS Studio®, delivering an Application Blueprint® that enabled them to begin the next phases of their modernization more efficiently.

 

It only took TSRI six weeks to assess the entire AT&T billing system with 961,780 lines of code.”

 

 

2. UPSKILL YOUR TEAM

Professional development does more than grow your organizational toolkit of capabilities; it also helps employee retention during a time of 3.5% unemployment.


In a fascinating 2022 learning and development study, LinkedIn found that the #1 driver of workplace culture (and so, retention) is opportunities to learn and grow. And in a time where languages like COBOL and Ada don’t even rank in the top ten searched languages, training in modern languages can also pay off for your organization. In a Microsoft-sponsored study, IDC found that IT professionals who have achieved a relevant role-based technical certification perform on average 26% better than their uncertified colleagues with the same responsibilities. Certifying your people is worth the investment.

 

3. UPGRADE YOUR TECHNOLOGY

If you have money left over, it’s a great time to provide your teams with technology that matches both the needs of a more mobile, more connected, and more secure world.

These can be affordable, pointed investments that can pay off with increased productivity, security, and employee satisfaction while positioning your teams to face changing needs. As you consider your options, think in terms of:

Mobility: More powerful and secure laptops and tablets

Business processes: Point of sale for retail, connected medical devices

Cloud computing: New as-a-Service applications, storage devices, and subscriptions

Cybersecurity: Assess and upgrade your current measures

Automation: Software, AI, and services to automate large, repetitive, or formerly impossible tasks

Let’s talk about that last one.

 

4. GET A FIRM HANDLE ON YOUR CURRENT CODE

Even if you’re not planning on modernizing code, poorly written or undocumented applications that are written in hard-to-understand languages can be a huge IT operating expense for you.

A Harris poll found that developers spend an average of 17 hours a week (42% of their time) dealing with bad code. Basic understanding of code content should be a prerequisite for any software-managing organization: know what’s there. But with millions, or tens of millions of lines of code, that can be very difficult or impossible to do manually.

 

Developers spend an average of 17 hours a week (42% of their time) dealing with bad code.”

 

 

That’s where TSRI DocsRev makes a powerful investment in all 365 days of 2023—and beyond.

DocsRev is automated code documentation-as-a-Service. It allows users with varying experience levels to quickly familiarize themselves with the structure and flow of the application through easily navigable diagrams, hyperlinking code, and other UML artifacts and graphics. It’s powered by the same automated tools our clients have trusted to document the world’s most critical applications since 1995. Now our technology is available to you as a simply-priced and easy-to-manage service that keeps you up to date on what’s really in your code.

In addition to giving you always-current code documentation, DocsRev apprises you on your application's current complexity, structure, control flow, data flow, similarity, and dead code. All you need to do is upload your latest code baseline to receive complete and detailed documentation. 

Trusted by major organizations around the world for application maintenance and development, DocsRev frees you from uncertainty by letting you easily inspect and identify external calls, utilities, and interfaces. DocsRev shows you what your code is actually up to by automatically exposing EXEC statements your application is using such as SQL, CICS, and more.

 

Let’s Make Your 2023 Budget Process Go Smoothly

Throughout next year and beyond, your code will change based on your needs. To make sure you have the right views into whatever happens in your code, the DocsRev team is continually adding new views, graphs, indices, diagrams, and other features to its documentation set.

---

Proven by Decades of Results. Prove It for Yourself. 
For decades, TSRI clients have been discovering a dramatically faster, more accurate, and less expensive AI-based and automated modernization process. We’ve earned a place as the go-to resource for enterprise corporations, government, military, healthcare, and more. Now prove it for yourself. Find out how the proprietary TSRI modernization process delivers future-ready, cloud-based code in any modern language in a fraction of the time. 

See Case Studies 
Learn About Our Technology 
Get Started on Your Modernization Journey Today! 

Federal IT Modernization Regulation is Coming: What you Need to Know…

http://www.bdtheme.com

What's in the Bill?
The Federal government is finally getting around to mandating the modernization of legacy IT systems within government agencies with the bipartisan Legacy IT Reduction Bill of 2022. If passed—and its bipartisan support from the likes of sponsors John Cornyn, (R-TX) and Maggie Hansen (D-NH) indicate that it probably will—the bill will seek to address the security, efficiency, and cost issues that arise from the ongoing use of antiquated systems and software languages throughout governmental agencies.

The bill will assert two basic mandates for government agencies.

1.   IT Inventory - In the first year after the bill’s passage, agencies will be required to submit an inventory of all legacy IT systems they use, operate, or maintain. Then every five years, that inventory must be updated. The inventories will also need to prioritize agencies’ top 10 systems in need of modernization, the most recent update or technology refresh the system went through, and the cost and contractor who maintains the system in addition to other details.

2.   Modernization Plan - Within two years of passage, agencies must submit their IT modernization plan to congress. In addition to the inventory, the plans submitted must include which systems the agency prioritized for modernization, retirement or disposal, and the steps the agency will take to modernize those systems.

 

"The funds are there now in the TMF, the question is, which agencies will get ahead of the regulation and access the funding before it is depleted?"

 

The Money Question: How Will Mandated Modernization be Funded?
While the bill does not create a funding source for modernization, it does mention existing sources of funding. Primarily, it references the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) as one of the main programs that agencies will likely work with to support the plan along with the IT working capital funds (though working capital funds have had some trouble getting off the ground), and the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), which is primarily concerned with security.

These are programs by application; not all government agencies get the kind of congressionally supported budgetary increases that the Internal Revenue Service received this year for IT modernization. The 2022 omnibus spending bill passed by congress allocated $275 million to the IRS to be used for business systems modernization. This increase of $52 million above previously enacted funding will help the agency modernize its legacy IT systems and improve IRS web applications. The size of the increase—and the willingness of Congress to allocate it—indicate the importance Congress has placed on getting modernization done across agencies.

Among the sources of funding we’ve mentioned, the TMF has proven to be the most successful in delivering funds to programs. Created by the Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2017, the TMF offers support to help agencies get ahead of the inevitable, while improving their services to the public, cost efficiencies, and security by making modernization funding available. So far, the TMF has received $175 million through the annual budget process and $1 billion through the American Rescue Plan to fund modernization projects.

 

A Track Record of TMF Success - with 99.67% Automation
With The Legacy IT Reduction Act of 2022 likely to pass, TSRI has a resounding track record of successfully supporting agencies in modernizing outdated legacy information technology systems. Our recent modernization project for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was the first to leverage the funds available through the TMF.

HUD partnered with TSRI and GovCIO using TMF funds to modernize several of its critical systems on a legacy Unisys mainframe. TSRI provided automated code conversion of more than 1.3 million lines of the client's COBOL applications, with hierarchical DMS and relational RDMS databases, to the Microsoft Azure cloud. TSRI implemented Java as the target language and Microsoft SQL Server as the target relational database at 99.67% automation levels.

It was a remarkable success. On day one after the production systems were switched over to the cloud, the new system supported 25,356 users and 299,715 transactions with only three user problems reported.  The positive results could be seen in the first 30 days during which the new system disbursed billions of dollars in program funds to eligible users without a single error. The modernization program has proven well worth the investment of TMF funds and the effort of HUD.

 

Watch This Space and Get Ahead of the Regulations
The HUD modernization project provides a solid model for soon-to-be-mandated modernization programs that agencies across the government will need to address soon. The funds are there now in the TMF, the question is, which agencies will get ahead of the regulation and access the funding before it is depleted?

As of March 30, 2022, the bill has been successfully voted out of the senate committee and recommended to the full Senate commending that the bill is considered further on the floor. We’ll keep you updated on its progress through this blog.

 

Get ahead of mandated modernization, contact TSRI now

 

---

TSRI is Here for You 
As a leading provider of software modernization services, TSRI enables technology readiness for the cloud and other modern architecture environments. We bring software applications into the future quickly, accurately, and efficiently with low risk and minimal business disruption, accomplishing in months what would otherwise take years. 

TSRI – Software Modernization Assured
See Case Studies 
Learn About Our Technology 
Get Started on Your Modernization Journey Today!

Taking a Low-Risk Approach to Mainframe Modernization — HUD

http://www.bdtheme.com


How do you transform the slow pace of technological innovation within a federal agency into an opportunity for innovation and IT systems modernization? Start by taking a cue from the partnership between TSRI and GovCIO. With backing from the Federal Government’s Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) our joint teams propelled the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from an outdated twentieth-century Unisys COBOL system into modern, service-oriented Java that was performant and functionally equivalent.

TSRI worked with GovGIO on their process designed to successfully migrate the applications to the Microsoft Azure cloud. They started by defining the five key project goals and taking an inventory of system components, including intersecting platforms. Once we had identified what the unique technical challenges were and how to address each, we created testing strategies and migrated the data stores for each system. Finally, we executed an automated code conversion and refactored the legacy COBOL code.

TSRI’s partnership with GovCIO executed a rapid, holistic mainframe migration process for HUD that has improved their organizational performance while minimizing risk. On day one after the productions systems were switched over from the Unisys mainframe to the Microsoft Azure cloud, the new system supported 25,356 users and 299,715 transactions with only three user problems reported. These are the HUD systems that manage, store, and protect all the personal financial and employment-related eligibility information for FHA insured financing. Given the criticality of the data managed every day by HUD, it was important that the migration run without impact on operations. The result could be seen in the first 30 days during which the new system disbursed just over $2.7 billion dollars in HUD program funds without a single error.

 

Review the details of how TSRI and GovCIO successfully executed this complex modernization project in our recently published case study.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 9 Low-Risk Steps That Led to Success

You might be surprised that HUD and other government agencies still run their IT on mainframes using COBOL (first released in the 1950’s), or MUMPS (from the 1970’s). Running on these aging platforms presents an extensive list of challenges to these agencies: data management, growing storage, collaboration, security, etc. The modernization process typically involves risk, time, and significant expense. It’s understandable that a large agency like HUD would want to select a partner they knew could deliver a low-risk, high-accuracy result.

Working together, we adhered to GovCIO’s nine-step best-practices process that resulted in modernizing systems to modern cloud architectures that can now evolve with HUD, while preventing negative impacts to their mission, day-to-day operations, and security.

 

 

For more details on the nine-step process that enabled HUD to enter the cloud age, read our latest white paper with GovCIO.

A first-person account of HUD’s modernization process with Roger Knapp – Executive Vice President and HUD Program Manager

Only a few engineers know what it feels like to lead a major government agency through an automated mainframe modernization. Roger Knapp is one of them and has been working in the field for over 30 years. As Executive VP of Engineering & Service Delivery at TSRI, Roger has unique insights on the HUD project. He sat down to share them in an interview with GovCIO as part of their Partner Spotlight.

In a short chat, he shares how the TSRI-GovCIO team overcame the challenges not only of modernizing a nationally mission-critical system at risk of obsolescence, but also how to deal with the presence of dynamic SQL data in the legacy application logic.

Get the story straight from Roger in his interview with GovCIO.

 

 

TSRI is Here for You

As a leading provider of software modernization services, TSRI enables technology readiness for the cloud and other modern architecture environments. We bring software applications into the future quickly, accurately, and efficiently with low risk and minimal business disruption, accomplishing in months what would otherwise take years.

See Case Studies

Learn About Our Technology

Get Started on your Modernization Journey Today!

Video: Modernizing HUD from Unisys Mainframe to Cloud with Roger Knapp

http://www.bdtheme.com

Only a few engineers know how it feels to lead a major government agency through an automated mainframe modernization for multiple applications from COBOL to Java on the Microsoft Azure cloud. TSRI’s Executive Vice President of Engineering & Service Delivery, Roger Knapp, is one of them!

Get the story straight from Roger in his interview with GovCIO about his experiences modernizing multiple applications for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
 

 

Also, be sure to check out TSRI’s case study to learn more about our work with GovCIO to transform multiple Mainframe Unisys 2200 COBOL with DMS2200 databases to Java with a factory-style process. The modernized systems were deployed on the Microsoft Azure Cloud and hook directly into the Microsoft Azure DevOps pipeline!

 

Read HUD Case Study

 

 

 

 

 

 

TSRI utilized the same proven JANUS Studio® modernization solution, process, and approach we have leveraged for our other IBM, Tandem, Unisys, and other mainframe modernizations. During the project, TSRI provided “As-Is” and “To-Be” application documentation. We utilized our powerful refactoring engine to improve code quality, maintainability, readability, and security to meet the HUD’s needs.  HUD’s modernized applications (CHUMS, F42d/CAIVRS, and LOCCS) are live, in production, and being actively maintained by Java developers.

This program was also the first-ever modernization utilizing the U.S. Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) distributed by the General Services Administration (GSA) and hailed as a resounding success! Maria Roat, the deputy federal chief information officer, shared in a CompTIA webinar that the U.S. government’s technology modernization fund (TMF) is about accelerating projects and enabling multi-year funding. 

“HUD mainframe modernization, there’s a playbook coming out of that. So other agencies, they’re going through their mainframe modernization, they can take lessons learned from HUD and apply that,” she said. “As we as we look to scale and accelerate the board, there’s a lot of things that we’ve already done over the last three years, as we’ve matured, that we can apply to the future funding.”

TMF allowed HUD to move off the mainframe completely, get OPEX savings and achieve an amazing reduction in TCO for the Department (80%+ compared to the mainframe TCO).

Download the full case study and learn more.

 

TSRI is Here for You 
As a leading provider of software modernization services, TSRI enables technology readiness for the cloud and other modern architecture environments. We bring software applications into the future quickly, accurately, and efficiently with low risk and minimal business disruption, accomplishing in months what would otherwise take years. 

See Case Studies 
Learn About Our Technology 
Get Started on Your Modernization Journey Today! 

Modernize your High Value Assets Using Government TMF Funding

http://www.bdtheme.com

capitol buildingModernization of High Value Assets (HVAs) and software systems is more urgent than ever. In the past year, tens of millions of U.S. citizens have leveraged critical online systems to manage their livelihood and health during the COVID-19 pandemic. With such a heavy reliance on these systems, now is the time for the federal government’s critically important HVAs systems to keep up with citizens’ growing needs.

 

The Technology Modernization Fund was established in 2017 to support government and civic agencies to bring their critical software infrastructure into the modern age. On May 12 of this year, President Biden issued a comprehensive executive order that gave direction to federal departments and agencies to strengthen the government’s cybersecurity posture. The order establishes a requirement to modernize systems and implement stronger cybersecurity standards by moving agencies and their contract partners to secure cloud services and a zero-trust architecture, which uses identity management protocols to verify that every user of a system interacts with the appropriate levels of security access. This order also mandated deployment of multifactor authentication and encryption.

 

According to Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha, the White House is pushing federal agencies toward a “zero-trust paradigm.” With the pressure on, many agencies are struggling with the magnitude of such an undertaking and are, justifiably, fearful of the perceived security and down-time risks associated with modernization.

 

Modernizing an HVA doesn’t have to be risky

 

Using a graceful, automated approach to leverage modernization solutions can result in a very low risk modernization. By implementing a step-by-step cloud migration while keeping legacy systems running in parallel, an automated modernization can happen quickly, safely, and reliably.

 

TSRI has over 25 years of experience undertaking migrations of this kind (see below).

 

  • TSRI’s Work is the “Playbook” for Future Government Modernization
    A large percentage of TSRI’s work over the past 25 years has been the modernization of critical government and military software applications. If fact, our recent work with HUD was called the “playbook” for future government modernization.

 

  • Modernize Quickly and Maintain Business-as-Usual in the Process
    Our technology enables HVAs to be modernized rapidly and without business disruption.

 

  • Cloud-Ready, Cloud-certified — AWS & Beyond
    As a certified AWS partner for mainframe modernization, TSRI helps organizations take advantage of the Technology Modernization Fund to transform and secure their applications for cloud deployment on AWS and other leading platforms.

 

 

Ready to modernize? Reach out to us to learn more and get started!

 

 

 

 

 

-----

 

TSRI is Here for You

As a leading provider of software modernization services, TSRI enables technology readiness for the cloud and other modern architecture environments. We bring software applications into the future quickly, accurately, and efficiently with low risk and minimal business disruption, accomplishing in months what would otherwise take years.

 

See Case Studies

Learn About Our Technology

Get started on your modernization journey today!