Weekly Round-up: October 26, 2012

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

BYOD and Telework. There is overlap between BYOD and telework, as both rely on technology–both hardware and software–to afford people flexbility of space. Both also ensure that work and personal time will not be as clearly delineated as in ages past. Getting policies right will be one of the key tasks both for government and private sector organizations in the next four years. This week saw a flurry of articles that explore different facets of this issue:

• New GovLoop Report: Exploring Bring Your Own Device in the Public Sector
• Real estate savings make telework attractive for federal agencies (Related: How to Design an Online Community)
• BYOD resistance explained
• Smart Policies for Smartphones in the Workplace (Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5)
• Cyber progress fueled by agency brass recognition

Dan Chenok

• Potential sequestration effects.
  — Sec. Panetta looks to post-election session to address.
  — In-depth report on possible scenarios.
• OMB issues new memo on strengthening chief acquisition officers.
• Agencies save billions of dollars in IT spending through PortfolioStat.

John Kamensky

• Are Stretch Goals a Good Idea? Federal Computer Week’s Matthew Weigelt reports on a George Washington University panel, where “OMB’s Shelley Metzenbaum, says the chief value of stretch goals is to improve performance through ambitious effort, not necessarily to meet the goal in every detail.”
• Government Printing Office Goes Paperless? Government Executive’s Joseph Marks writes that the Government Printing Office’s new five-year strategic plan says that “its future plans will focus on making government content more easily available online through e-books, mobile-optimized websites and application programming interfaces that stream content onto third-party websites.”
• Portfolio Stat Approach Saves Billions. Federal News Radio’s Jason Miller reports: “Six months after launching PorfolioStat, the Office of Management and Budget is estimating the concept will help agencies save $2.5 billion over the next three years.” These savings will occur as a result of reduced spending for commodity IT items, such as joint purchases on mainframes and servers.
• Challenges and Contests Galore. GSA’s Karen Trebon writes that various agencies are launching challenges and competitions, such as the FCC’s contest to identify the best way to block robocalls. In case you are thinking of launching a challenge contest, a recent IBM Center report identifies best practices and advice on how to do it.

Michael Keegan

• 10 key technologies for 2013
  Gartner presented its list of 10 strategic technology trends for 2013 at its Gartner Symposium/ITxpo this week. The IT research firm defines a “strategic technology” as one likely to have a significant impact in the enterprise over the next three years, whether that impact be “a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt,” Gartner officials said.
• White House holds back on sequester details
  There’s a funny thing happening at federal agencies. When it comes to the details of the looming $1.2 trillion cut to their budgets, agency officials find themselves unable to explain just how those cuts would affect myriad programs on the ground. Instead, they have a unified message: talk to the Office of Management and Budget.
• A toxic work environment threatens acquisition personnel gains
  What is the current status of the federal acquisition workforce? Have the actions taken over the past four years helped to address the pressures caused by insufficient personnel and an increased workload? What are the current stress points?
• Cyber insecurity: Managing against the risk
  Risk management has been part of IT security from Day One, but has often taken a backseat to aggressive zero-tolerance policies that sought to raise impenetrable barriers to security threats. Now we know better.
• Cyber progress fueled by agency brass recognition
  To really understand how far agencies have come over the past six years in understanding the risks to their computers and networks, look no further than the attention it receives from senior federal officials.
• A 21st-century approach to democratizing data

The Business of Government Radio Show: Alejandro Mayorkas

Federal News Radio 1500-AM
Mondays at 11 a.m., Wednesdays at 12 p.m.

The Business of Government Hour features a conversation about management with a government executive who is changing the way government does business. The executives discuss their careers and the management challenges facing their organizations.

Alejandro Mayorkas is the Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security charged with operating the largest immigration system in the world.

Broadcast Schedule: The show airs Monday, October 29, at 11 a.m., and Wednesday, October 31, at noon, on Federal News Radio 1500AM WFED.

If you can’t wait, though, you can listen to (or download) this week’s program and all our previous interviews at businessofgovernment.org and by searching our audio archives.