OMB issues draft standards to increase info-sharing, cut IT costs

The Office of Management and Budget issued a draft report last Friday outlining federal technology standards designed to increase information sharing among agencies and reduce overall technology costs.

"These standards will greatly facilitate the ability to share and reuse a common set of technology components, while also leading to reduced information technology investment," according to a draft report from OMB's Federal Enterprise Architecture Program Management Office, which is charged with designing a governmentwide IT plan. The standards discussed in the report will initially be applied to 24 technology projects the Bush administration plans to fund over the next three years to maximize efficiency and improve its service to citizens and businesses.

Federal agencies spend millions of dollars on the development and acquisition of technology components, according to OMB, but just a few agencies are effectively using those resources. The majority of agencies continue to struggle to adopt best practices. Several agencies also duplicate efforts by separately collecting and processing identical information, instead of just sharing the data they've gathered.

The adoption of standards that describe which products need to be bought to support the exchange of data and which technologies should be used would also save money. Earlier this month, the Energy Department unveiled a new e-signature tool it has licensed for governmentwide use. OMB Director Mitch Daniels praised agency officials for allowing the new tool to benefit the entire federal government.

Ideally, the enterprise architecture office envisions the use of more Web-based solutions to accomplish agency missions, making their systems more interoperable. For example, a fictional Border Patrol e-government initiative described in the report could theoretically create an environment where different agencies share pertinent information with the system, ultimately improving their ability to accomplish their individual core missions.

Such information might include whether warrants have been issued against a driver importing illegal goods (State Department), whether a particular animal should be allowed entry into the U.S. (Agriculture Department), whether food being shipped is packaged correctly (Food and Drug Administration) and whether the driver fits any descriptions of wanted suspects (Justice Department).

There are some challenges to creating this interoperable technology environment, the office found.

"Agencies often work independently, which has led to a proliferation of stovepiped processes that make horizontal and vertical information sharing difficult to achieve," the report said. Government and industry stakeholders may also be resistant to accepting the group's recommendations, according to the report.

To overcome those challenges, OMB plans to put in place incentives for adopting its recommendations, including preferential scoring of agency IT initiatives that reuse or share technology during budget deliberations. OMB also plans to work with agency officials to better understand the obstacles agencies face in putting the measures in place.