Ask the CIO

  • John Owens, the Patent and Trademark Office's CIO, said the agency used to spend 85 percent of its IT budget on operations and maintenance (O&M) support and 15 percent on development, modernization and enhancements (DME) of systems. Now, the agency spends 50 percent on each. That change has allowed it to upgrade IT systems without additional money.

    September 12, 2012
  • Gino Magnifico, the ACC's chief information officer, said his component is helping to lead an Armywide effort to develop a new contract writing system. It's not just a technology refresh, however. It's about improving the business processes. September 6, 2012

    September 06, 2012
  • CIO Robyn East is leading an effort to create an enterprise data warehouse with procurement, financial and human resources information. August 23, 2012

    August 23, 2012
  • The National Records and Archives Administration will modify its Electronic Records System for the first time since it went into the operations and maintenance phase. Mike Wash, NARA's CIO, said the use of Technical Direction Letters is one of the key lessons learned from the TechStat session ERA went through in 2010.

    August 16, 2012
  • Thomas Bayer, the SEC CIO, said he reduced his operations and maintenance spending by $15.5 million last year and used those savings for business and mission systems.

    August 09, 2012
  • Susan Swart left the State Department for the International Monetary Fund CIO. She reflects on her successes and the change in federal technology.

    August 02, 2012
  • The long-awaited, problematic case management application met full operational capability in May. Jeff Johnson, the FBI's CTO, said about 30,000 employees have been using Sentinel for about a month. The $451 million program modernizes the FBI's workflow and document management system.

    August 01, 2012
  • The Federal Network Security branch is performing Red and Blue teaming exercises to expose the soft spaces in agency networks and harden them. DHS has conducted five Red Teams and 28 Blue Team exercises in 2012. Federal CIOs and CISOs must request the Red Teams to analyze their networks. The agency receives a report on the biggest risks it faces. July 26, 2012

    July 26, 2012
  • The CIO said he's using an agile approach to keep large programs on track and looking to the cloud to improve the agency's business processes. Jul 19, 2012(Encore presentation August 27, 2012)

    July 19, 2012
  • The Justice Department's Executive Office of Immigration Review is implementing phase four of their E-World initiative to bring e-filing capabilities to attorneys. July 12, 2012

    July 12, 2012
  • The U.S. Agency for International Development saw their FISMA scores drop to an F grade. Jerry Horton, USAID's chief information officer, said they will fix their shortcomings this year. June 21, 2012

    June 21, 2012
  • OMB highlights successes of 25-point strategy on its 18-month anniversary. Federal CIO Steve VanRoekel said agencies saved $100 million from moving email to the cloud. There now are more than 1,000 qualified program managers in the new job series. The IT reform plan helps institute culture change from CIOs on down. June 7, 2012(Encore presentation July 5, 2012)

    June 08, 2012
  • CIO Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence said better systems at posts, camps and stations will let soldiers train on the same equipment as they use in the field. The move to the cloud, data center consolidation and enterprise email are pushing the Army toward a data-centric approach. May 31, 2012

    May 31, 2012
  • The Financial Management Service moved many of its day-to-day IT operations to the Bureau of Public Debt. FMS is providing oversight and guidance for IT systems in return. John Kopec, FMS's chief information officer, said his next set of priorities is to use business intelligence and analytics tools on the data from the shared service providers. May 24, 2012

    May 24, 2012

ASK THE CIO

ASK THE CIO

THURSDAYS @ 10 & 2 p.m.

Weekly interviews with federal agency chief information officers about the latest directives, challenges and successes. Follow Jason on Twitter. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Podcast One.