Desktop Revolution

Rawley, the chief information officer at the Technology Transfer Administration, was well aware that his TTA colleagues, like many other federal managers, had been skeptical about the installation of departmental-level CIOs by legislative fiat. As leaders of a decentralized agency with highly autonomous field installations, TTA officials had been reflexively wary about the creation of any new headquarters bureaucracy.

But Rawley had been careful to operate with a light but steady hand, concentrating on a few widely recognized opportunities to improve efficiency and save money. He avoided issuing new directives and reporting requirements. Only after gaining wide credibility with his information technology colleagues and agency executives did he embark on an agencywide personal computer outsourcing procurement.

Rawley lobbied for the concept for months, both one-on-one with top agency officials and at technical and management gatherings, before making it clear at TTA's annual IT conference that such an initiative would be one of his top priorities for the coming year. With the governmentwide push for increased outsourcing, he argued, it was both inevitable and potentially beneficial to contract out a major IT program.

"I know that the computing requirements of the area offices are highly disparate because of the different technical specialties we pursue," he acknowledged, "but there's got to be substantial commonality in PCs and local area networks. If we do a solid procurement and save the agency a bundle, we're going to make everyone in TTA look good at the White House and on the Hill. And we can be a benchmark, doing it our way, not waiting for someone else to create the model."

By the end of the IT conference, Rawley had enlisted enough support to form an agencywide project team. He persuaded the Denver office to lend him ace project manager, Pat Vasquez, as team leader. She enlisted deputy team leaders from Seattle and Atlanta, areas with large, diverse desktop and network investments,and celebrated independent instincts. They defined the scope of the procurement and fashioned a request for proposals to issue to contractors.

The RFP attempted to standardize requirements sufficiently to achieve economies of scale and to specify levels of both PC and local area network service that contractors would be asked to meet with machines, software and labor. TTA organizations would stop buying individually what TTA as a whole could purchase for less.

The widely varying,and sometimes conflicting,needs of the field organizations several times threatened the effort. While project team members worked harmoniously, some of the areas they represented had from the outset feared the loss of services and periodically proposed calling off the whole thing. But Vasquez' group had received strong backing from a resolute Rawley, who repeatedly assured skeptical field executives that their needs were being accommodated.

Vasquez had circulated the draft RFP to the area offices for comment, along with a request for estimates of the types and amounts of service they anticipated under the agencywide buy. The recommended RFP revisions gave Vasquez no cause for concern, but she was staggered by the levels of service called for in the requested estimates. Suddenly, she was faced with being swamped by blue sky wish lists and swollen costs.

"I don't know if this is deliberate or misguided," she had complained to the CIO. "But some of these service levels are way beyond what our people have now. Like, I can understand some need for same-day turnaround, but they're trying to make it routine in some of the area offices. And that's just an example. Look at these submissions."

A cursory examination by Rawley showed that indeed area offices had projected service levels that would result in budget-busting bids from contractors. Without serious adjustments, the RFP might have to be scrapped or extensively revised. The better part of a year's effort would be wasted, and the causes of both outsourcing and better IT resources management would be set back considerably. Rawley almost had to chuckle at how initial reluctance within TTA to undertake outsourcing had been converted into a rush for previously unanticipated goodies. Or was it a less than subtle attempt to sabotage it at this late date?

Rawley wondered if he could identify and work with allies and opponents without upsetting the delicate balance he had achieved. Could he save IT outsourcing by moving ahead, or should he step back for a time?

David Hornestay, a Washington-area consultant, served in government for more than 30 years, primarily in human resources and institutional management.