Tech Council praises federal IT reform plans

Better – faster – cheaper — in government IT.

Federal News Radio has told you about the Obama administration’s proposal to improve the management of government technology.

Jeff Zients, chief performance officer at the Office of Management and Budget, says that he and Federal CIO Vivek Kundra are determined to make IT project reform a signature of this administration.

The proposals have been met with widespread praise.

One of the people who was pre-briefed on the proposals is Prashant Gaur, president of the American Council for Technology (ACT).

Gaur told the DorobekINSIDER he is especially pleased with the increased focus on communication between industry and government.

“At the end of the day, industry is the group that makes things happen in terms of execution for the government,” Gaur said. “The whole acquisition problem cannot be solved with government on its own. To the point we can pull industry in and come up with solutions which make our government much more agile, that would be great.”

A key part of the OMB restructuring plan was to align budgets and acquisitions with the technology cycle.

“It clearly doesn’t make sense for us to put in a budget two years in advance in absolute detail,” Gaur said. Government must “move to a mindset where we trust the industry to execute the business results.”

The plan also emphasizes a “cloud first” policy. Gaur said OMB and the General Services Administration have done a lot in the last couple of years to move toward a cloud policy.

ACT is giving input now on how to implement the restructuring.

Gaur said, “Is this a perfect solution? No. But does it take us much further than where we are? Absolutely.”

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