Top 3 for 2013 - Karen Evans on building an IT strategy

Wednesday - 1/2/2013, 4:26pm EST

Karen Evans, national director, U.S. Cyber Challenge

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Building a solid IT strategy is one of the hardest challenges in government. But it's also one of the most important.

Karen Evans, the national director of the U.S. Cyber Challenge and the former E-Government administrator at the Office of Management and Budget, says the strategic use of IT should be the No. 1 priority for agency technology managers this year.

Karen Evans' Top 3 for 2013
  1. Strategic use of IT. Here is the explanation, due to the budget situation, it is going to "force" CIOs (at least the successful ones) to think/plan more strategically for the future. The situation is an opportunity to be able to "consolidate; streamline" and/or avoid duplication of services and be an "adviser" as how to get to the type of agency the secretary wants through the strategic deployment of IT.

  2. Mobility. This is where "mobility" will come into play….the customer base (citizens) and the workforce is very different and interacts or will want to interact with their government through different devices such as the smartphone which allows for CIOs to innovate the delivery of services.

  3. Security. With the two above, you will still need security and privacy (I am putting the two together) . We will have to address the Identify management to allow different layers of security and privacy for different roles an individual has. The mobile device could truly become a "smart" device" allowing this to be accomplished.
Tags: In Depth, Karen Evans, Top 3 for 2013, IT, technology