The IRS: Investing in a Digital Customer Experience
Recently, the Government Accountability Office released a report highlighting key recommendations for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to improve in its cost estimation policies and practices after receiving a significant investment from COVID-19 relief funding and the Inflation Reduction Act. In tandem, these key recommendations align with the vision of IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, which he refers to in his 1-year anniversary speech where he states the IRS needs to grow, modernize, and adapt to better engage in a transformative digital world.
Summit consultant Marcus Schmidt and director Sarah Cunningham discuss how important it is for technology, people, and culture to come together to pull a federal agency into the digital age. Read more on the Summit blog.
Summit Founding Partner Albert Lee Wins Award from OrangeSlices AI
Summit is thrilled to announce that founding partner and senior economist Albert Lee, PhD, has been recognized by OrangeSlices AI as a recipient of the 2024 Engage Federal Financial Honoree award. Lee exhibits outstanding leadership and innovative engagement strategies in the federal government and industry partner ecosystems. The 2024 Engage Federal Financial Honoree award from OrangeSlices AI involved nomination, evaluation, and selection by a panel of peers as an exceptional leader from across government and industry.
Summit Partner Anthony Curcio Speaks at Credit Specialists Conference
On June 25, Summit partner Anthony Curcio delivered a presentation on the estimation process utilized by the president and Congress for farm loans, focusing particularly on the evolution of credit subsidy rates across different farm loan programs over the last decade.
Summit has previously worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency to provide comprehensive federal credit reform support services for a portfolio of direct loans and loan guarantees that exceed $90 billion, including support for credit subsidy calculation for budget formulation and annual reestimate purposes, cash flow modeling, maintenance of cash flow models, reestimate analysis, federal credit and technical advisory services, and federal credit training. Learn more about our work here.
Summit Prime Projects over $1 Million per Year in Revenue Appraised at Level 3 CMMI
As Summit Consulting is committed to continuous improvement and closing the capability gap, the firm’s prime projects over $1 million per year in revenue have been appraised at level 3 of ISACA’s Capability Maturity Model Integration.
What does this mean? • We use organizational standards and tailoring to address project and work characteristics. • Our projects use and contribute to organizational assets. • We focus on achieving both project and organizational performance objectives. • We’re dedicated to continuous performance improvement and producing the highest quality of products and services.
Our continuing pursuit of quality and process improvements brings added benefits to our clients through more efficient and cost-effective management of their critical initiatives.
Summit Hosts Webinar Featuring Multiple Perspectives on Affordable Housing
On April 18, Summit held an insightful webinar featuring researcher and developer panelists discussing the intersection of creating fair housing units and residents’ ability to afford adequate housing. Experts included Corey West of Summit Consulting, Vidur Gupta of Beekin, David Jaffee of the University of North Florida, Joel Patterson of Dantes Partners, Richard Koss of Recursion Co., and Bob Simpson of the Multifamily Impact Council.
Viewers gained valuable perspectives on ensuring equitable access to housing opportunities through currently implemented and potential strategies and were able to engage with the leading experts and contribute to the dialogue.
Director Samuel Dugger Attends Project Summit Business Analyst World Conference
Summit director Samuel Dugger—pictured above with Amy Ruddell, Project World Business Analyst World vice president—recently attended business analyst presentations at the Project Summit conference, which focused on business analysis tools, facilitation (including facilitation, analysis, collaboration, and elicitation techniques), artificial intelligence (AI), and the future of the business analyst profession. What stood out to him most was the emphasis on AI and its impact on decision-making with proper prompting. Read Dugger’s recap here.
Subject-Matter Expert Kenneth Kuchno Speaks on Panel at the Broadband Communities Summit
At the Broadband Communities Summit held in Houston, Texas, Summit SME Kenneth Kuchno participated in a panel titled “How Do You Ensure the Long-Term Sustainability of Rural Projects?”. The panel’s focus was to discuss how to ensure that rural connectivity projects are sustainable in the long run and how to engage with the right stakeholders to make sure that broadband projects thrive for years to come. Read about Kuchno's experience on the panel here.
MPHA Welcomes Researchers Examining Onsite Educational Services for Public Housing Residents
In this article, reproduced in its entirety from the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) blog, writer Abbie Wilson talks about the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s study of educational services at public housing developments. The study is being conducted by Summit Consulting and Child Trends. Read the full article and learn more about the study on the Summit blog.
Government-sponsored enterprises are accustomed to understanding the scope of risks found within internally developed models. GSEs must define, inventory, and assess risks and develop a standardized process that enables a thorough review. A significant challenge is that most models are proprietary, and information is limited to what the vendors will allow or to performing a full validation yourself. Summit was tasked with assisting and providing feedback to the government-sponsored enterprise model risk management team to shape the process.
The government-sponsored enterprise model risk management team now has the infrastructure in place to allow innovation within the business by establishing a process to quickly understand risks associated with AI/ML models contained within third-party software.
Curious about our other case studies? See more here.
Subject-Matter Expert Kaye Burton Talks About Making Government Modernization Work
In this blog post, Summit SME Kaye Burton explains why the traditional lift-and-shift strategy, which involves migrating existing applications and infrastructure to a new platform with minimal changes in functionality, doesn’t leverage the full potential of modernization. True modernization is about enhancing the entire ecosystem to better serve customer needs and deliver greater value. It’s also a continuous journey, not a onetime upgrade. Read the post on the Summit blog here.
☀️Summer Fun at Summit☀️
It may have been a bit chilly, but the Summit crew enjoyed the game day vibes at a recent Washington Spirit women’s soccer game! At Summit, we prioritize building strong bonds among our team members both in and out of the office. Our culture thrives on teamwork and fun, and we’re proud to work with such a talented and close-knit crew.
Summit Brings on Five Summer Associates in 2024
We are thrilled to welcome our 2024 summer associates! This intern class is joining from Auburn University, Ole Miss, Virginia Tech, William & Mary, and Washington University in St. Louis. They will be working with different teams across Summit, including business development and marketing, finance, data science, and risk management and asset projections. We are excited to have them for 10 weeks, where they will learn the ropes of consulting through hands-on projects and participate in fun office events.
Spotlight on Sarah Cunningham
AGA Honors Director Sarah Cunningham
Sarah Cunningham, CGFM, PMP, RIMS-CRMP-FED, recently earned recognition as a top reviewer for the FY 2023 Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting (CEAR) Program by AGA. Cunningham dedicated more than 40 hours to reviewing and improving government financial reports. Her expertise and thoughtful contributions made these reports clearer and more effective, creating a significant impact.
Summit Hosts Successful 10th Annual DC DataFest
The University of Maryland team Dr. J’s Data Army (pictured above) and several other teams competed against one another in a fun-filled data weekend as part of Summit Consulting and the University of Maryland Social Data Science Center’s 2024 DC DataFest.
Two teams stood out and took home top prizes: The University of Mary Washington’s Team Mentats won for best visualization and tied William and Mary’s Team Beta for best insight. Team Beta also won for best use of statistical analysis. Congratulations to all!
A special thank you to our judges, Albert Lee, Jesse Klein, PhD, and David Sena. Thank you for your time, effort, and expertise in assessing the presentations and providing valuable feedback to the student participants.
Conferences & Partnerships
Summit Presents at ACES: Unleashing Creativity 2024 Conference
On April 5, senior consultant Melissa Cichantek presented “One for Everyone: Editing for a Broad Public Audience” as part of a panel at the ACES national editing conference in San Diego. Senior consultant Jennifer Milne also attended.
Summit Attends Women in Tech Conference
Senior consultant Antonia Baker and subject-matter expert Kaye Burton attended the Women in Tech conference in Washington, D.C. on May 16. They brought a lot of valuable insights back to Summit and were particularly inspired by Ann Dunkin’s talk on “The Critical Impact of an Accelerated Tech Adoption Journey” and Dr. Denise Turley’s insightful session, “AI in Action: Lessons from the Trenches of Implementation.”
Summit Director Meets with Industry Leaders at Mortgage Bankers Association Conference
From May 19–22, director Josh Goldberg attended the MBA’s Secondary & Capital Markets Conference & Expo in New York City. Goldberg met with industry experts and fellow professionals to discuss market volatility, ESG, liquidity challenges, credit scoring changes, private-label securities, and more.
🏃Consultant Thienthanh Trinh Finishes Marathon🏃
Huge congratulations to Thienthanh Trinh for completing the Colfax Marathon in Denver!
Thienthanh’s dedication and perseverance are truly inspiring. Her marathon achievement mirrors the commitment and drive she brings to our team every day.
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