Venyu Blog

On the heels of President Barack Obama decrying federal IT as “horrible,” one of his spin-meisters has volunteered his time to explain what the President really meant.

This perceived damage control reminds me of the days when there were only three TV networks and the President would give an “important” speech from the Oval Office, usually in prime time. Once he had his say, the anchor from one of the networks would spend the next 15-20 minutes explaining what the President just said. (What, was he speaking in Esperanto? Normally I got the message loud and clear the first time through. Thank you, but no third party explanation necessary).To me this exercise was always seemed like a waste of time, especially when I was already missing one of my favorite programs that would always would have to be joined “in progress.”  No excuse then. No excuse now…except in this case when it’s a concession that federal IT is still doing a few things (ok, maybe a whole lot of things) somewhat backward, then this “clarification” seems at least somewhat palatable. And besides, “Uncle Walter” (Cronkite) is deceased, the sun is rapidly setting on Katie Couric’s tenure and, candidly, I’m not writing this in prime time.

Anyway, following the president’s candid remarks Jeff Zients, the federal chief performance officer (there really is such a title?), in a gathering of federal IT officials, conceded that “the private sector has experienced towering productivity gains over the last 25 years, whereas the government has not. The private sector has seen an average 1.5% gain in productivity each year and the federal government hasn’t kept up.”

No news there, but let’s keep going anyway…maybe there’s some meat-and-potatoes ahead.

As captured in this Computerworld article, Zients said that until the mid 1990’s, the “federal government’s productivity gains were only one-third of the private sector. Government data on productivity gains isn’t available beyond that point, because the government cut the funding for productivity tracking at that time but private sector studies show that the government continues to lag behind, he said.

Nope, still nothing new…but wait, what’s that up ahead? Well, lookee here, an example of what George Orwell, in his seminal work, 1984, called “Newspeak.”

“I think there is a hidden opportunity here — I like to think of it as the federal government’s late-mover advantage,” said Zients. He goes on to define “late-mover advantage” as an “opportunity to learn what has and what hasn’t worked in other sectors. Because the government is behind, the potential for the upside is substantial.”

I don’t know about you but that sounds a lot like old speak to me. So let me get this straight: We’re federal IT and we’re behind in productivity because frankly we don’t have the innate ability, intelligence or resources to figure out how to be more productive—without having a blueprint for what’s worked in the private sector. We’re a “tabula rasa” and we’ve got a lot to learn so please take that into account when you begin to criticize our lack of agility when it comes to increasing our IT productivity and performance. But once we have that blueprint, we’ll be perfectly capable of meeting and maybe even exceeding the productivity already achieved by our IT counterparts in the private sector.

Really? That’s where this all comes down? Are you buying this? It’s like the 6,225 racer in the Boston Marathon trying to emulate the first runner breaking across the winner’s tape, confident that if he could have just stepped up his game, maybe wearing an expensive pair of sneakers (pick your brand), he would have had every chance to come in first. Hey, anything’s possible, but not in this lifetime. Or maybe even the next.

And taking a step towards getting to where the private sector is now, means what? Read on:

Well, the article then revisits some well-known federal IT temperature taking, including the U.S. government’s plans to shutter 137 data centers this year and to reduce their number, eventually, from 2,000 to “about 800.” Other “plans” that came to light during this IT conclave included:

• Consolidating some of the government’s 20,000 websites
• A shift to self-service to create more IRS-like results in electronic government
• Moving 950,000 email boxes across 100 email systems to “the cloud”

I don’t know about you but I’m already feeling better knowing a million federal IT employees email boxes are being “migrated” to the cloud. What’s next? Maybe passing the “Dream Act” and having everyone it applies to go online to register?

But wait, there’s more.

On the very same day this news was released came word that the General Services Administration (GSA) will release, in May, a $2.5 billion procurement next month to consolidate systems in the cloud.

That’s $2.5 billion (of taxpayer money) to help federal IT with its “late-mover advantage.”

Cloud or no cloud it still sounds like we’re getting the short end of the stick. Again.