Government Agencies Ready To Adopt IT Initiatives

As the federal workforce dwindles, agencies will look to the channel to drive forward IT initiatives laid out by federal mandates, said Karen Evans, the Office of Management and Budget's administrator of e-government and IT, during a keynote speech at last week's XChange Government Integrator event in Washington, D.C.

"I really feel integrators are in the best position right now," Evans said Friday afternoon. " [Agencies] will turn to the integrators more than [manufacturers] for the services needed in these programs."

More specifically, as agencies move beyond the initial planning stages of their Lines of Business (LoB) initiatives to full implementation, requirements will go way beyond products. Required implementation for the initial six LoBs -- financial management, human-resources management, case management, grants management, federal-health architecture and information-system security -- is ready for adoption, with full cost savings and improved performance expected for 2007 and beyond.

With the necessary infrastructures largely in place, spending on these initiatives will remain level or even decrease with the transition to the next stage, from an expected $21.1 million in 2006 to $20.7 million in 2007. That decrease, however, will not transcend to services. Agencies will look to integrators for migrations, standards development and eventually long-term product management and support, Evans said.

Beyond the existing LoB initiatives, Evans also emphasized the opportunity presented to the channel by three new LoBs that were announced with the 2007 budget (IT infrastructure, geospatial and budget formulation), as well as security spending by agencies ($5.5 billion in 2006 and an expected $5.8 billion in 2007), the 30 percent of federal IT spending allocated for grants to state and local governments, and ongoing efforts to transform government through e-government adoption. Regarding the latter, the latest scorecard for e-government progress released last week reflected a drop by nine agencies in meeting the standards for success, with Commerce, Defense, Justice, Transportation and the Office of Personal Management all earning unsatisfactory marks.

Regardless of where the dollars are stacked, Evans emphasized the need to lead with expertise.

"There's opportunity and spending across all areas," she said. "If I were [a solution provider], and I had skills in a human-resources management, I'd figure out what agencies were focusing on those initiatives. There's a lot of opportunity right now."