TMF invests more than $20.8M in 3 agencies’ cyber and CX projects
An Office of Personnel Management effort to simplify its website was among three agencies’ projects receiving more than $20.8 million in the latest round of Technology Modernization Fund investments announced Thursday.
The agency plans to improve the user experience of OPM.gov for 22 million annual visitors with the $6 million it received, while the Department of Housing and Urban Development was awarded $14.8 million for IT modernization and the Army an undisclosed amount to develop a Security Operations Center-as-a-Service (SOCaaS) framework.
More than 150 proposals from 70 agencies for $2.8 billion in funding have come in since the American Rescue Plan Act infused $1 billion into the TMF. The TMF Board in June said $100 million of those funds would be dedicated to improving customer experience across public-facing digital services and systems and addressing immediate service gaps starting in fiscal 2023.
“With these new investments, the TMF now has a portfolio of 32 investments totaling over half-a-billion dollars,” said TMF Executive Director Raylene Yung in the announcement. “But beyond funding, we’re working closely with our partners to provide them with expertise and support while also empowering their own teams to execute these projects in a way that ensures maximum benefits for the public.”
OPM will update and secure its website’s content management system in the cloud to more clearly communicate the services and benefits it offers and career information, thereby improving federal hiring, said Director Kiran Ahuja.
HUD intends to implement a cloud platform integrating legacy Federal Housing Administration Connection systems with Login.gov for identity, credential and access management allowing more than 95,000 users to self-register.
The Army’s SOCaaS project will bolster network monitoring for cybersecurity threats at 26 Organic Industrial Base (OIB) sites — depots, arsenals and ammunition plants — worth $8.5 billion.
“Funding from the TMF will help the Army to address this critical and urgent need as much as two years earlier than waiting for agency funding to become available through the regular budgeting process,” said Chief Information Officer Raj Iyer in a statement. “For the Army and its partners, this project will modernize and improve our cybersecurity posture and enhance the command and control of critical OIB.”
