HAS THE POST-DISCRIMINATION AGE DAWNED?
Set-asides and contracting preference for various classes of businesses seem like parts of a routine way of life. Yet in a way, they remain controversial. -> Read More

THE QUESTION ON EVERYONE'S LIPS: WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR ME?
While the press was confidently crowning frontrunners in the presidential nomination sweepstakes earlier this month, the voters in New Hampshire made the so-called pundits look stupid. -> Read More

INFO TECH IS NOT ABOUT THE GADGETS
Reading about and following CES confirmed my suspicion that IT progress is less about gadgets, even new technology, than it was years ago, and more about smart and secure ways of deploying technology already available. -> Read More

• At Agriculture, CIOs and CFOs are putting their heads together

  In the military, they are called two-hatters: officers with two jobs. But you’ll also find civilian agency two hatters.

  Chuck Christopherson, CIO/CFO Agriculture Department.

  Chuck Christopherson at the Agriculture Department is one such hybrid. He’s the chief information officer and the chief financial officer. With those two hats, you might think Christopherson simply has meetings with himself to decide IT spending priorities.

  But it’s not quite that simple.

  Having a single CIO/CFO “strengthens the priorities on both sides,” Christopherson says. “Often, in the financial side, if there’s a vacuum, support of IT becomes weak.” If there’s a vacuum on the IT side, the tech folks may find they are not getting the funding they need “and not understand why.”

  Christopherson is helping plan the upcoming IRMCO conference and is planning on attending again this year. He’ll be available to talk about his two-fer role, saying the CIO-CFO have a “strong connection people need to understand.”

  As a dual hatter, Christopherson tends to delegate day-to-day activities to the deputies, but is not above reaching down into the ranks to operate at a more detailed level when necessary.

  In effect running IT and finances for what he describes as the world’s eighth largest bank, Christopherson says he finds advantages in having the two functions work closely together. Being in the loans, grants and insurance business, the CIO/CFO combine has focused on IT-enabled process quality improvement according to the so-called Six Sigma philosophy.

  Five major projects concern establishing departmentwide standard processes for invoicing, grants, loans, insurance issuance and geospatial information systems. “So USDA will have one process for the whole department, with minor variations,” Christopherson says. He expects the effort to start saving the department $20 million per year, all resulting from finance and IT teams working together.

  Within the department, various bureaus are leading the individual process improvement efforts. For example, the Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service, or CREES, is in charge of the grants packages work.

  These process improvements won’t be merely for the benefit of the government.

  “Eventually we want [the processes] to be intuitive for citizens to use,” says Christopherson. Whether people visiting a USDA web site are grant seekers or vendors, for example, they should know whether their submissions meet federal requirements, whether the government has received and acknowledged the application and that it is complete, and what the estimated payment or grant date is.

  Christopherson is pushing change throughout USDA process owners. He is also sending large groups for training in project and change management at the department’s school in Greenbelt, Md. By the end of this year, he hopes 130 people will have been trained in the art and science of overhauling business processes.

  In one case, a group of people ranging from clerks to program managers dissected a human resources system operated by USDA’s National Finance Center. It found some quick fixes that eliminated a constant source of confusion—and errors—in a crucial screen. In another, a cumbersome and slow approval system for under-$25,000 purchases was automated. The team eliminated steps using guidance from an Office of Management and Budget detailee. Purchase approval time want from 30 days to seven days, Christopherson says.
  
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• Has the post-discrimination age dawned?

  Set-asides and contracting preference for various classes of businesses seem like parts of a routine way of life. Yet in a way, they remain controversial.

  For the federal government, 23 percent is the number—that’s the portion of contracting dollars that are in theory supposed to be set aside every year for small, disadvantaged businesses—those that might be owned, for example, by disabled veterans, women or Alaska natives. Most agencies have offices devoted to ensuring compliance with such contracting rules, and the government measures its performance in this regard every year.

  But the government also has provisions for small businesses to graduate from preference programs. STG Inc. is a case in point. It recently became just a regular contractor after completing its last contract as an 8(a) small business. RS Information Systems, recently acquired by a west-coast engineering services company, is another high-profile 8(a), minority-owned graduate.

  But can a whole class of companies graduate? The Small Business Administration appears to think so. It has proposed a rule to change how the government considers women-owned business.

  In the SBA’s words: “Under this proposed rule, a contracting officer in any federal agency could set aside contracts or work, but only within an industry in which WOSBs have been identified as under-represented or substantially under-represented. Only small businesses owned or controlled by economically disadvantaged women would then be eligible for these contracts.”

  Naturally, the question is, what industries, specifically? Under the proposal, national security and international affairs; metalworking (coating, engraving, heat treating, and allied activities); furniture making and automobile dealers.

  Groups representing women businesses have, not surprisingly, weighed in against this proposed rule, which is now in the public comment phase until Feb. 25. Could it be that women-owned businesses have come so far that they can operate past the assumption of discrimination requiring special treatment? That is, isn’t it a good thing that most women-owned businesses don’t need preferential treatment?

  Send me your views, tom.temin@gmail.com and I’ll put them in a future newsletter. Whatever your view, be sure to add your comment on the rule by visiting regulations.gov.
  
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• The question on everyone's lips: What does it mean for me?

  Hillary? Barack? John? Mitt? Ron?

  While the press was confidently crowning frontrunners in the presidential nomination sweepstakes earlier this month, the voters in New Hampshire made the so-called pundits look stupid. And now there is uncertainty as to who will be the parties’ nominees.

  Federal managers have a little more at stake than the average American, because they’re going to be working for the guy—or gal—who ultimately becomes president. Each administration sweeps in with, uh oh, some agenda for how it wants to run the nuts and bolts of government.

  At this point in the race, it is too early to tell what the next president’s management agenda will be. Let’s face it: The election is going to be decided on more cosmic issues. The candidates, however, are starting to populate their platforms with bits and pieces of what they will do, and there is a web site that is tracking this.

  Thenextgovernment.com is a web site operated by the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government. You can find out things such as the fact that John Edwards, Democratic candidate (as of this writing), would push for tighter controls over contractors operating in war theatres. Mitt Romney would take away the pension of any fed found to “violate the public trust.” Whoa, tough.

  You’ll find a matrix of the candidates’ positions on HR/personnel, performance and accountability, IT, organizational structure and budgeting. At this point, there are a lot of blanks still in the matrix. Maybe after Super Tuesday the Fels folks will have more to fill in.
  
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• IT is not about the gadgets

  Missed the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas? Me too. A fair contingent of government people does attend these large shows. In recent years, with the disappearance of Comdex, the CES has also become a venue for IT products. Any anyhow, IT and entertainment have been converging for some time.

  Reading about and following CES confirmed my suspicion that IT progress is less about gadgets, even new technology, than it was years ago, and more about smart and secure ways of deploying technology already available.

  Most of what was displayed at CES fell into one of two categories. One is further development of the existing. For example, a 150-inch plasma display that received so much publicity wasn’t new tech, but simply a more robust application of something that’s been around for years. Category two would be the clever integration of existing technologies. One example was Microsoft’s touch-screen table. Touch technology was touted at CES as if something new had dawned, but in reality it has been around for 15 years. Applications of it have gotten exponentially better, for sure.

  Government as a whole faces problems not of IT technology but of deployment. That is, keeping application development contracts on schedule, getting the most out of existing infrastructure investments and cutting costs through consolidation.
  
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