The U.S. Coast Guard plans to roll out its digital transformation strategy within the next few weeks, aiming to shift the service from largely analog processes to a fully digital military organization, a senior official said during a recent panel session.
Lindsay Abbott, chief of the Coast Guard’s Technical Readiness Transformation Office, said the strategy is tied to major technology investments under the service’s Force Design 2028 effort and recent congressional funding.
“We’re looking to make sure that those technology investments are sustainable and that the workforce is well equipped to really capitalize on those investments, and not just have to rely on our IT service centers to deliver technology,” Abbot said Dec. 16 during SAP’s Public Sector Summit in Washington, D.C.
A key priority will be identifying parts of the organization that still rely on manual, paper-based processes. Abbott cited interactions between boarding agents and the public, such as routine boat inspections, that are still conducted with pen and paper.
She said the Coast Guard is seeking to automate those processes incrementally, rather than waiting years to complete large platform modernizations.
The goal, Abbott said, is to “improve daily operations for service members while broader modernization efforts continue.”
Abbott also highlighted automation efforts related to workforce growth.
Unlike some federal agencies working to reduce their workforces, Abbott explained that the Coast Guard plans to add about 15,000 personnel over the next four years, nearly a 25% increase.
As a result of the upcoming workforce growth, “streamlining human capital and human resources processes is a high priority,” for the Coast Guard, she said.