COVID-19 Influences Upward Trend in Big Data Contract Spending

Key Takeaways:

• COVID-19 obligations drove a 40% increase in big data spending from FY 2019 to FY 2020.
• Data analysis support, particularly at SBA, account for the majority of the COVID-19 big data obligations in FY 2020.
• The COVID-19 pandemic will likely contribute to the federal big data market in FY 2021 and 2022.

In recent years, the last five years to be specific, the big data federal market has seen an increasing trend in contract spending. Much of the increase is due to policy and leadership pressure on agencies to treat data as a strategic asset and advance evidence-based policymaking practices. The growing federal big data market is also driven by blossoming technology areas such as high performance computing, and artificial intelligence and machine learning, which require a high level of data readiness to expand those fields. Nonetheless, Deltek’s analysis of big data spending in the last three fiscal years (FY 2018-2020) reveals another driver in the market causing a spike in obligations from FY 2019 to 2020: COVID-19.

Source: Deltek, FPDS

Observations:

• COVID-19 obligations totaled nearly $910M in FY 2020, representing 17% of FY 2020 total big data spending.
• Contract spending increased 40% from FY 2019 to 2020, the increase would have been 17% without COVID-19 related obligations.
• Big data obligations identified as analysis support grew 248% from FY 2018 to 2020 ($370M to $1.3B) driven by COVID-19 related spending. COVID-19 analysis support obligations totaled $760M in FY 2020.
• SBA led COVID-19 big data obligations with $752M in FY 2020, followed by the Air Force ($55M), HHS ($51M) and DOD ($28M).

The COVID-19 pandemic requires immense data collection, processing and sharing by agencies to respond to the crises. I have previously written on the vitality of big data during the global pandemic, however, I want to touch on again the variety of capacities of data use in the federal space during COVID-19. Most obvious is the scientific research arena and its reliance on mounds of information and statistics for bioinformatics, epidemiology and molecular modeling research. Data analytics tools also play a role in providing insight into healthcare supplies, personal protection equipment, test kits and vaccinations, with predictive analytics helping to pre-plan distribution methods. Moreover, agencies ramped up visualization and data management capabilities to identify, prevent and recover waste, fraud and abuse of large funding disbursements.

A sampling of obligations also helps to shed light on some COVID-19 federal big data requirements:

• SBA: Data analysis and loan recommendation services for COVID-19
• VA: Palantir Gotham subscription to track and analyze COVID-19 outbreak areas, supply chain capacity, hospital inventory, social service utilization and lab diagnostics
• DOD/DHA: Pharmacy inpatient automation solution for COVID-19 disease sites
• Air Force: COVID-19 AI driven data analytics and advanced visualization software
• HHS/NIH: COVID-19 data storage and backup storage
• USDA: Additional Tableau licenses for COVID-19
• Treasury: Digital acquisition procurement reporting and tracking COVID-19 dashboard data visualization

Looking ahead, the influence of COVID-19 on federal big data spending will continue throughout FY 2021, and likely into FY 2022. Data is vital as agencies recover and readjust from the pandemic’s effects. Leaders have been relying on, and will continue to rely on, data management tools and visualization for insight into remote workforce productivity and analysis of network availability, particularly as future decisions on remote work at agencies are deliberated. Additionally, data and analytics tools supporting disease variant modeling, vaccination tracking, large disbursement funding, and pandemic effects on the economy, education, etc. are just some of the continued needs by agencies as a result of the pandemic. Stay tuned in the fall when Deltek releases its Federal Big Data Market, 2021-2023 report with further insights into the federal big data market.