Government Executive May 2012 : Page 26
Tech Evolutionary That’s part of what I bring to this role . . . starting to drive that cultural shift to smart risk-taking like you see in the private sector. steven vanroekel nearly every speech, discussion, con-ference, PowerPoint presentation or casual conversation across the federal IT community. VanRoekel has attacked the problem by paring back operations and mainte-nance spending to reinvest that money in new initiatives. “In government, there is this very strong reliance on sunk costs: ‘Things I’ve done in the past I will embrace in the future,’ ” he says. “That notion of ‘How do I create new value? How do I stop doing the things I’ve done in the past in order to bring new things online?’ that’s not as natural a motion in government as it is in the private sec-tor. That’s part of what I bring to this role . . . starting to drive that cultural shift to smart risk-taking like you see in the private sector, culling the old in order to pour that [saved money] into new services.” The proof of concept for the plans ca me w ith the f isca l 2013 budget request, he says, which reduces over-all IT spending. The budget just calls for a small dip of less than 1 percent in IT spending, but it is the first such dip since Obama took office and represents a major shift from the 10 years prior to his administration when IT spending grew about 7 percent annually. “That’s the most telling thing to me,” says Shawn McCarthy, research director at IDC Government Insights, an IT analysis firm. “That’s not a huge drop, but you can’t sneeze at it. [Reduc-ing the budget] is like trying to turn a battleship, and Steven seems willing to get very involved in that process.” Sharing Resources VanRoekel spent his first few months on the job following through on a slate of cost-savings programs launched by his predecessor, Vivek Kundra. Those include cutting and consolidating federal data centers, shifting a large chunk of the federal IT budget to nim-ble cloud-based computing services, and replacing custom-built IT systems that frequently run past deadline and over budget with simpler, less expen-sive systems that leverage popular con-sumer technology. Va n Roekel a nd Kundra clea rly admire each other’s work, but their styles are markedly different. Kundra frequently gave multiple speeches each week to government and industry groups, especially dur-ing his last months in office. Those speeches tended to be broad a nd thematic, delivered with the hyper-enunciated cadence of a revivalist gov ex ec.com 26 gov er nment ex ecuti v e | m ay 2012
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