IT securityHow govt. can achieve IT savings, innovation

Innovative shifts in technology can springboard government into a new era of efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency. This message of harnessing the power of technology was delivered the other dayday to the U.S. Senate during testimony by Molly O’Neill, vice president, CGI Federal Inc. (CGI), a wholly owned U.S. operating subsidiary of CGI Group, Inc. The hearing, titled “Innovating with Less: Examining Efforts to Reform Information Technology Spending,” explored efforts to cut inefficient spending and make the government’s IT operate better. The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security held the hearing.

“It is critical that we take a hard look at the role the federal government’s information technology should play in reducing costs, improving operations, and enhancing services to citizens,” said Senator Tom Carper (D-Delaware), chairman, Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security. “The Obama Administration has made remarkable progress in its efforts to improve our nation’s IT portfolio, while reducing unnecessary IT spending, but we still have more work to do. That’s why it’s so important that Congress and the Administration keep up this momentum and move our nation’s IT agenda forward so we can maximize the government’s significant investment in technology. By shifting the government to innovative, lighter, and affordable technologies, we can provide better results for less money to the American people. Hearings like the one today provide a necessary forum for a broader conversation to help the government learn from leaders in the private sector, like CGI, about how it can better use technology to make its operations more efficient and offer better services to their customers.”

“CGI supports the Administration and Congressional efforts to eliminate wasteful IT spending while encouraging continued investment in new technologies,” said Donna Ryan, President, CGI Federal. “In particular, the government’s initiatives for cloud-first and shared-first as well as the 25-point IT reform plan all represent positive steps toward using technology as an enabler for savings, efficiency, and innovation.”

“Three of the most-discussed IT investment areas — cloud, mobility, and data analytics — will result in cost savings but it is the convergence of these technologies where we see the opportunity for the greatest transformation of government,” noted O’Neill, who served as the Chief Information Officer at the Environmental Protection Agency prior to joining CGI. “Convergence creates an opportunity for agencies to do more, better, and for less. For example, imagine a time in the not-too-distant future when an agency can search real-time data about a program’s effectiveness at any time, from anywhere, and on any device; all supported by a secure, cost-effective cloud solution.”

In addition to focusing on technology infrastructure to achieve savings and efficiencies, O’Neill urged Congress to consider how the government procures and delivers IT. In her testimony, she shared examples from CGI’s cloud work for DHS and the General Services Administration (GSA) — both efforts that have demonstrated streamlined acquisition processes, fast transitions, and the use of high-quality, cost-effective U.S. onshore centers to develop and host systems. For the GSA, the agency used its Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) contract vehicle to simplify the onboarding of CGI to enable a quick transition of thirty systems to the cloud in less than ninety days. As a result of moving from a traditional hosting facility to CGI’s secure federal cloud, GSA was able to reduce its server footprint by 50-70 percent.