Original Broadcast Date: 1/25/26
Presented by SAP
On this edition of Fed Gov Today with Francis Rose, the focus is on how emerging technology and major management reforms are reshaping the federal government.
The program opens with a look at how the Department of Defense could benefit from greater use of digital twins. A recent Government Accountability Office report finds virtual testing environments could help the Pentagon—especially the Navy—identify and resolve problems before live testing, saving both time and money. Joe Ditchett, Industry Executive Advisor at SAP, explains how digital twins enable dynamic testing, rapid experimentation, and faster delivery of capabilities to warfighters. He emphasizes the need for agencies to move away from slow, project-based approaches and instead adopt system-level thinking that prioritizes learning, adaptability, and real-time feedback from the field.
Next, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor outlines one of the most ambitious federal workforce initiatives in decades: consolidating more than 100 human resources systems across government into a single platform by September 2027. Kupor discusses the technical and governance challenges of the effort, the importance of agency buy-in, and how strong oversight and phased implementation are designed to avoid customization pitfalls that have derailed similar efforts in the past.
Kupor also discusses OPM’s launch of the new Federal Workforce Data website, replacing the legacy FedScope platform. The new site offers more timely, granular, and user-friendly access to workforce data for journalists, researchers, Congress, and agency leaders. Finally, he provides an update on OPM’s TechForce hiring initiative, which aims to speed recruitment, improve candidate experience, and create shared pools of vetted technical talent across government.
In this segment of Fed Gov Today, Francis Rose speaks with Joe Ditchett, Industry Executive Advisor at SAP, about how digital twins could dramatically improve how the Department of Defense tests and delivers new capabilities. A recent Government Accountability Office report finds the Pentagon—particularly the Navy—is not fully leveraging digital twins to identify problems before live testing, missing opportunities to save time and money.
Ditchett explains that digital twins allow agencies to run continuous, virtual experiments using dynamic data rather than relying on slow, linear testing cycles. Instead of treating development as a series of start-and-stop projects, organizations can model systems in real time, inject new data, and learn quickly—often before hardware is ever built. This approach enables teams to test multiple scenarios simultaneously, adapt faster, and
He emphasizes that success requires a shift in mindset. Agencies must embrace open architectures, learning-driven experimentation, and decentralized decision-making to keep pace with today’s operational environment. Digital twins, Ditchett says, help turn chaos into actionable insight by capturing feedback from the field and feeding it back into testing models.
The result is speed—getting usable capabilities into the hands of warfighters and mission operators faster. By prioritizing outcomes over process and putting mission needs first, digital twins can help the Pentagon modernize testing and deliver results at the speed of relevance.
Three Key Takeaways:
In this segment of Fed Gov Today, Francis Rose sits down with Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor to discuss two major initiatives reshaping how the federal government manages its workforce: a historic HR systems consolidation and the launch of a new federal workforce data platform.
Kupor outlines OPM’s plan to consolidate more than 100 separate human resources systems across government into a single platform by September 2027. The effort, he says, is as much a governance challenge as a technical one. With more than two million federal employees and dozens of agencies involved, OPM is focused on building strong oversight structures, phased implementation, and shared requirements to avoid the customization and fragmentation that have doomed similar efforts in the past.
Kupor emphasizes that the goal is not just cost savings, but freeing HR professionals from managing outdated systems so they can focus on delivering better data, insights, and service to agency leaders, Congress, and the White House.
He also discusses the rollout of Federal Workforce Data, a modern replacement for the legacy FedScope site. The new platform offers more timely, granular, and user-friendly access to workforce data. Kupor says faster delivery, user feedback, and continuous improvement are central to OPM’s strategy—reflecting a broader shift toward agile, mission-driven government operations.
Three Key Takeaways: