It’s all about asking the right questions. That was the conclusion we came to in an earlier blog post about how to make strategic and successful IT investments in the public sector. So let’s say you’ve asked the right questions before a critical IT investment. Everybody is on the same page about what project successRead… Read more »
When I walked into a breakout session titled “SharePoint: Best Practices,” at the 2015 Next Generation of Government Summit, I’m pretty sure I was the only person in the room who had no idea what SharePoint even was. But the Department of Defense’s Gary Cage and Christine Frost, alongside the FDIC’s Russell Maltempo gave meRead… Read more »
All of us engage with technology on a day-to-day basis. Whether you are responsible for IT operations or a budget analyst who faces daily struggles with antiquated software, we have all experienced the frustration of technology not working the way that it should. So how can you take take the lead in bringing new technologyRead… Read more »
Attention Silicon Valley talent: “Uncle Sam” wants YOU! That is, to help reinvent government via mass digitalization of citizen-facing services across the sprawling federal bureaucracy. Several generations ago, in January 1961, President John F. Kennedy famously stated in his inaugural address: Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you canRead… Read more »
“Get smart” means paying attention to co-workers, friends, family, spouse, or a partner. Nothing brings more stress to interpersonal relationships than carrying frustrations home after work. Get smart means getting smart. Being aware of all this takes work. Being smart about the law, political motivations, and social context is part of our job. It is… Read more »
The bridge between the IT world and the “real” world seems to be widening. IT folks are tackling complex technology issues of today without fully understanding how minor errors can majorly impact the everyday user. Meanwhile, us common folk don’t even understand what makes the Internet work. The two worlds can’t seem to collide, oneRead… Read more »
Federal, state and local agencies looking for cloud solutions now have a new and easy way to find and acquire commercial solutions to meet missions, achieve efficiencies and savings, and comply with federal mandates such as Cloud First.
We have all run into the office cliché similar to the saying “if all you use is a hammer everything looks like a nail.” Another way of saying this is that if all you see are nails, anything looks like a hammer. In both cases, the focus of misunderstanding is based on overlooking the particularsRead… Read more »
Pictured: RFP-EZ, a pilot project in federal IT procurement. If you’re a follower of the Department of Better Technology and our blog, you know that we’re a bit obsessed about government procurement – in fact, some of our most widely-shared posts have been on the subject. But when Clay and I first met in 2012 during ourRead… Read more »
EIS is the main component of the Network Services 2020 (NS2020) Strategy. It will replace GSA’s Networx and regional and local contracts, which many agencies currently use to acquire best-value IT, telecom, and infrastructure. Agencies will start to transition in 2017.