Making budgets work for innovation was the topic of a panel at the recent Federal Forum 2014 in Washington, DC. At a time when budgets are flat, federal IT decision makers are constantly challenged to do more with less. This was the common theme during a panel featuring, Kirit Amin, Deputy Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer from the Department of Commerce (DoC), and John Skudlarek, Deputy Chief Information Officer of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Finding innovative ways to do more with less is a common issue that cuts across government agencies, impacting IT budgets perhaps more strongly as new models for providing and supporting information technology are at odds with the federal government’s procurement processes. However, the panelists shared some encouraging advice on making budgets work for—not against—innovation.
Traditionally, government IT was about procuring hardware and software and then spending billions of dollars maintaining and updating those systems. However, Skudlarek pointed out that feeding billions of dollars into operations and maintenance stifles innovation by diverting both funds and human resources maintaining outdated systems instead of freeing up those resources for innovation. Change can be hard, Skudlarek recognized, especially in a culture so deeply entrenched in policies and procedures that support the philosophy of “own it and maintain it.” However, he urged, agencies need to be “ruthless” about ensuring systems that are up and running are delivering value and cutting them if they’re no longer mission-critical or secure.
Amin pointed out that the reality is that, in this day and age of commoditized IT and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), the question must be asked: is the federal government best served managing technology or is it better and more cost-effective to outsource that management? Getting buy-in to this new mentality, though, will be a challenge, Amin stressed, as people and processes are the hardest things to change, not the technology.
To see a change, there must be public and private partnerships. The shift is not only in changing the mentality of the government sector, but industry partners need to also identify ways to work with agencies and help them transition from the current acquisition model to a new one.
So what does the future hold for making budgets work for innovation?
Amin believes the way forward is “crawl-walk-run.” He cited as-a-service as “low-hanging fruit” that will help agencies shift the way they do business, enabling them to free themselves from the albatross of legacy systems. To move forward with procurement processes that enable innovation, agencies must start communicating with each other about how they were able to work around Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). Industry must play a role helping educate and build more flexible procurement processes. In order to best serve its citizens, it is mission-critical that the federal government be empowered to embrace innovation.
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