Report calls for government speed-up

Can the federal government pick up its pace and do its work in "Internet time"?

That's the question posed in an information technology industry association's report on its 10th annual survey of chief information officers in federal agencies. "Society is experiencing a remarkable pace of change and expects the same of its government," says the report, released Tuesday by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA). "The deliberative, low-risk, big program approach is not likely to be a successful strategy."

The top issue for CIOs last fall, when the surveying was done, was the impending year 2000 transition. But CIOs said they expected a smooth changeover and a shift of focus to protecting their critical infrastructure and ensuring privacy and security of information as the No. 1 issue.

"The government's ability to move to the next level of technology-assisted government and commerce is closely linked to the ability to protect technology-based infrastructure against disruption," says the report, titled "Federal IT Into the New Millennium: Ready, Set, Go!"

The 34 CIOs interviewed by ITAA also listed IT workforce retention and recruitment, outsourcing and seat management, the role of CIOs in agencies, modernization of back-office systems, and IT acquisition among their top issues.

But leaders of the survey team reported that electronic government "provides the underlying imperative for addressing these other key issues." Today, the report says, the World Wide Web is what most officials mean when they talk of electronic government. "The most prevalent view that was heard from CIOs was that of 24 x 7 [24 hours a day, 7 days a week] service provided directly into the homes of citizens using secured connections into federal databases," it says.

Study leader Paul A. Wohlleben, a partner in the Grant Thornton accounting and consulting firm in Vienna, Va., and a former federal IT manager, said "the care and feeding of the IT infrastructure is going to be an important issue" as agencies move to do more business online.

They "can't turn back," he said. But to succeed in a Web-enabled environment, agencies will have to change their ways. "The slow, systematic, gradual approach to improvement just doesn't cut it in the Internet world," Wohlleben said.