white houseThe United States Government (USG) is in dire need of strong, visionary CIO leadership to fix the myriad of Information Technology (IT) issues which plague the numerous disparate government agencies such a position is designed to oversee. The USG has long needed visionary leadership, but the current proliferation of IT assets deployed throughout the agencies is at a boiling point – a point requiring reconciliation before a major collapse occurs.

One of the main problems plaguing the USG is the lack of across-the-board IT standards. There is no single body overseeing all USG IT issues, so each agency ultimately makes decisions based on what they perceive to be the best strategy for their single agency. In most cases, decisions made by these single agencies are counterproductive and are not inline with industry standard best practices and do not promote interoperability or sharing with other USG agencies.

Government-wide standards are not the only important reason for a visionary CIO sitting atop all USG IT decision – it is the 21st century and Americans need a leader who understands current IT issues; who is not afraid of the internet and the never-ending social networking phenomenon; who is not some career bureaucrat more interested in getting what is “owed” to him.

America demands a true leader who comprehends these issues and is capable of propelling the USG to the IT stratosphere.

So what are some of the issues a CIO could potential solve?

  • IT asset procurement is a nightmare. The Federal Acquisition Regulations are inundated with a myriad of rules designed to ensure equal opportunity when acquiring products. However, this voluminous document does not take in to account the numerous differences between procuring IT equipment and buying tanks, jets and ships. The very rules charged with ensuring fair and balanced acquisition for operational requirements (ie. equipment for conducting wartime operations) render purchasing IT assets overly complicated.
  • Effective communication of the strategic value IT plays throughout the USG is imperative. Information technology does not only allow the USG workforce to perform their every day tasks but plays a much more vital role. The CIO needs to effectively communicate this value to directly to the President in order for IT to be taken more seriously. Unfortunately, leadership merely looks at IT as a simple and quick means of solving problems, rather than solving problems with IT as one of the variables.
  • Allowing IT to be an enabler for USG agencies and for the people is necessary. In the age of the Internet the USG continues to consume an awfully hefty amount of paper. Through CIO leadership, the Internet and IT can effectively lower the reliance on paper-based products, reduce costs and enable simpler and more efficient means of communication among USG agencies and American citizens.
  • The USG is, by and large, close-minded and stuck in a single way of doing business. As industry and consumer habits change based on new and innovative IT products emerge, the USG sticks with the same products day in and day out. As an example, Apple products have the current generations mindshare – young people are buying Mac’s like they are going out of style. Meanwhile, the USG continues to ignore Mac as a viable platform. A CIO can change the way the USG bureaucrat think by enforcing a policy which allows any product to have potential application.

When I speak of visionary, I am not talking visionary in the Steve Jobs sense of the word. But visionary in that this leader needs to take USG IT to a whole new level – there needs to be some form of a paradigm shift in the way we operate. Without such a profound change the USG will continue to fall behind other countries more capable of out-of-the-box thinking.

A visionary CIO should capable of engaging conversation among the entire IT workforce rather than solely speaking with upper-management. We need streamlined processes which enable improved techniques without allowing the government to be fleeced by contractors looking to get rich.

Being in the business that I am, I would love to see improved leadership at the USG-wide CIO level. More than just improved leadership, but visionary leadership – someone who is not afraid to do things differently, regardless of all the old, crusty upper-management types who are incapable of understanding that the USG requires a philosophical change in the way business is conducted.

Until such a change can be enabled, the USG will continue to remain in the distance, far behind its potential. The lack of vision unfortunately will remain a negative influence which affects every one of us who have to work with the USG in some capacity.