Cheriyan: More Centers of Excellence coming
The new Centers of Excellence at the Departments of Defense and Labor will not be the last, said the head of GSA's Technology Transformation Service.
The General Services Administration recently announced the Department of Labor as the newest partner in its Centers of Excellence (CoE) program, but Technology Transformation Service Director Anil Cheriyan said on Feb. 21 that more agency participants are on the way.
"There are a few more in the pipeline," Cheriyan told FCW after a presentation on the agency's Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program at the National Press Club. GSA has been working to first build communities of practices around technologies such as robotic automation processing, he said, and can then spin up agencies' adoption of those technologies. The Labor Department CoE participation is focused on RPA.
In the year since he came to GSA from the private sector, Cheriyan has looked to broaden and deepen the CoE program. He has previously said identity management and RPA were logical additions to the CoE effort.
Launched in 2017, the CoE program has focused on customer experience, contact center transformation, data center modernization, cloud adoption, data analytics, artificial intelligence and now RPA.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have also introduced legislation to cement the CoE program into law.
Cheriyan said GSA and Labor Department officials were producing a playbook for RPA. The playbook, he said, is still in the approval process, but should help agencies understand how RPA can be implemented.