Purpose
Why Pluribus Exists
Pluribus Digital helps government change agents realize their digital services vision by providing the implementation capabilities to design, develop, and deliver high-impact digital products that serve the public good.
Expanded Explanation of Our Purpose
Our target client is a government change agent. Many leaders in government strive to implement the vision (nicely articulated in the book Recoding America by Jennifer Pahlka) of how government can succeed in the digital age. That is not easy. These dedicated public servants need help from many places, including contractors that can be true partners in accelerating that vision. The right contractor is wind in their sails. The wrong contractor is yet another anchor holding them down.
We help implement their digital service vision. To succeed in the digital age, government must take advantage of technology and new expectations to build government services that are either 100% digital in form or have a digital core. This is a mindset shift from “IT” as a back-office function supporting mostly people, paper, and facilities. The public has new expectations for how they interact with service providers and their governments. The digital service vision entails a government that delivers excellent digitally-powered services and modern customer experiences to the public.
We provide targeted capabilities to meet this need. We have staff that are expert in the core skills involved in building modern digital products: design, engineering, management. We focus further on skills most needed to build government products.
We build high-impact products that affect real mission outcomes. They serve many people in important ways. We focus where improvements in the products yield big changes in those outcomes.
The products serve the public good. We help people get access to government services, making their lives better. They help our economy thrive and/or help vulnerable people. We do not focus on defense or law enforcement missions. We historically serve the federal government but remain open to other public service clients including state/local governments, non-profits, or possibly public-good-oriented missions in commercial companies.
What We Don't Do
Our purpose is intentionally focused. We want to be great at a few things instead of being OK at doing anything for anyone. We are not a fit for:
Technology work centered outside of digital product delivery: Others do that work better. As examples, we don't do work that is primarily: networking, cyber security, low/no code, technology strategic planning, agile coaching, or helpdesk. Some of our work may contain elements of these things, but we don't do work that centers on any of these. Those that specialize can provide a better value and higher delivery quality in such cases.
Commodity IT work: Others can do it cheaper. Some technology needs aren't mission-critical and the government is best served to focus on lower cost providers. This is typically the case for system functions that are "back office" or otherwise not a core part of direct service delivery. Financial and accounting, HR, or learning management systems are examples where lower-cost off-the-shelf products are a fine fit.
Commercial work, or government defense or law enforcement missions: Others meet this need. Although still part of government, defense and law enforcement mission areas are their own industry of sorts - typically requiring specific administrative requirements and clearances.