MicroStockHub/Getty Images The IT Modernization Mission Change is seldom easy. Yet for government and public sector executives, the need to modernize has never been greater, as there is a growing digital divide between constituent expectations and what many governments can offer. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the dynamic when it came to the digital imperative for government. More than ever, citizens are demanding a more connected government with integrated services, relevant experiences and self-driven service connection. Whether it’s paying taxes online or applying for benefits anytime and anywhere with the ease experienced in other aspects of their lives, citizens are seeking a government that is as modern as the technology they use in their daily lives. A failure to move forward with modernization efforts will only lead to a decline in government agencies’ ability to deliver services and potentially reinforce the prevailing view of government as inefficient, out of touch and ambivalent to the needs of its constituents. Today, some agencies are relying on legacy systems running programs that are more than a quarter century old and can no longer be supported or updated. Converting systems and applications of that age, scale and complexity to modern cloud-based solutions is difficult. […]