The relationship between government and industry is shifting, according to CGI Federal President Stephanie Mango, and as a result, government procurements are changing. In a new video interview with Executive Mosaic, Mango spoke about how this change is rippling across the government contracting landscape.
Mango, a two-time Wash100 Award winner, said the government is now more willing to bring industry into the procurement process earlier on, making the collaboration and innovation more seamless, fast and efficient. The evidence Mango points to is proofs of concept.
“Let’s not just write a solution, you read about it and then we figure out what to do. Let’s sit in a room together, develop the proof of concept, apply the technology to the opportunity you have and then let’s see how it actually works. Then once we do that, if it does what we want it to do, then we can do a procurement to roll out the rest of it,” Mango told Executive Mosaic’s Summer Myatt in regard to the change she’s seeing on the government side.
The changing relationship between the public and private sectors is one of three major trends — along with an increasing pressure to modernize and budget uncertainties — that Mango sees as influencing the GovCon market.
“50 years ago, government was really the only investor in technology,” Mango explained of the evolving paradigm. “They were doing all of the R&D for technology. Well now, industry, because of how much the technology has evolved, are making just as many investments, and in some cases, more investments. And so you’re starting to see government and industry work together differently to drive that mission forward.”
Hear Stephanie Mango’s thoughts on how the GovCon market is changing, along with topics like artificial intelligence and generative AI — watch her full video interview here.
For more expertise on the government R&D landscape, join the Potomac Officers Club’s 10th Annual Defense R&D Summit on Jan. 31. Decision makers from the Pentagon, government and industry will gather to discuss defense technology innovation. Register here.