Senior Vice President of CGI Federal’s defense, intelligence and space business, Horace Blackman, was featured recently in an Executive Spotlight interview with the Potomac Officers Club to talk about his unique journey through the federal information technology market.
Since he began his career with America Online, Blackman has helped agencies like the IRS, the VA and the FDA modernize their IT systems, and he continues this work in his role at CGI Federal today.
In this excerpt from his interview, Blackman outlines the progress made thus far across the federal landscape, and the technologies that can enable us to continue innovating:
“For me, it’s always about looking at how to continue the evolution that has taken place in the last 20 years and imagining what the next 20 years will likely hold. We’ve come a long way, but we don’t realize it. Once upon a time, the idea of doing your taxes on a tablet was unthinkable (even having a tablet back then would be unthinkable)! Being able to use a mobile device to file your taxes efficiently and in a manner that doesn’t cost you a lot of money is certainly a big thing.
Filing an application for benefits for the VA used to require you to put together a C file that included hundreds of pages of paper comprising all of your military, healthcare and personnel records — some dating as far back as 30 to 40 years. We’ve gotten to a point now where you could actually file a claim electronically. It’s a big deal. As we go forward, we’re going to look at leveraging things like artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotic process automation to continue this evolution.”
To read the full Executive Spotlight with CGI Federal’s Horace Blackman, visit PotomacOfficersClub.com, where you can learn more about the platform’s membership options.