Industry chiefs impart best technology practices to improve government

Tech industry titans and administration leaders gathered on Thursday at the White House to discuss how to use technology to streamline government and to make it more responsive.

"When Washington lags a generation behind in how we do business, that has a real and serious impact on people's lives," President Obama told an auditorium full of corporate executives. "It isn't about having the fanciest bells and whistles on our Web sites; it's about . . . how to make government work better."

Obama described several instances in which the government is far behind the private sector in applying technology processes. The Patent and Trademark Office, which is supposed to expand and promote innovation, receives more than 80 percent of its applications electronically, but then must print them out on paper and scan them into an outdated system, he said. That is why applications take on average three years for federal employees to process, Obama noted.

"Many of these folks will tell you that their kids have better technologies in their backpacks and in their bedrooms than they have at their work," he said.

Obama has tapped political appointees who understand that the intelligent use of technology can mean the difference between a poorly run democracy and a government accountable to the people. On Thursday, the heads of some of the nation's largest companies, including Southwest Airlines and Adobe, came to the White House to meet with many of those appointees.

"We know that the tools, the technologies, the solutions are out there," Obama said. "You know because you put them in place every day." For example, customers can book a table at a local restaurant online. However, they cannot make an appointment at their local Social Security office the same way. Online scheduling was an idea that a Social Security Administration employee entered into a budget-cutting contest that the Office of Management and Budget held last year.

Many of the deputy secretaries from Obama's Cabinet led discussion panels that focused on applying new uses of technology for government operations and policymaking.

Scott Gould, deputy secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department, who served as vice president for public sector strategy at IBM Global Business Services, told about a dozen executives, including those from PepsiCo, Liz Claiborne Inc., and Pacific Gas and Electric, that the administration wants to organize a mandate for change. He moderated a discussion on replacing outdated business processes with technology to cut costs and expedite delivery of high-quality services. The private sector went through an equivalent transformation years ago when it moved to online sales.

One of the primary themes the attendees discussed was using technology, and shifting the federal employees' mindsets, to view the constituents whom agencies serve as their customers, much as businesses do. "It's important to articulate the need to change," said Indra Nooyi, chief executive officer of PepsiCo. "That means using technology to make back-office improvements to serve the customer better."

"We put everything in the end-user customer perspective," said Bill McComb, CEO at Liz Claiborne.

The corporate chiefs also told Gould that leaders should focus internally to create uncomfortable change. McComb said agency heads should establish goals that employees believe are impossible. For example, if it takes VA three months to process a claim, then department executives should tell employees the goal should be two hours and they will reach that mark by using technology.

During another forum session, executives and administration officials discussed the use of technology to enhance interactions with citizens. Americans often do not receive the same level of customer service from the government that they get from chat sessions with e-tailers.

Another talk emphasized using technology to better manage the government's information technology. The fiscal 2010 IT budget is about $75 billion. Federal managers are challenged to increase the return on investment for IT projects, but especially so during tough economic times. During the past decade, private companies have improved their management of large IT portfolios, and the objective of the session was to instruct department heads on how to transfer those processes to the federal government.

Smart technologies are elevating performance and boosting returns on investment in the private sector, and they slowly are infiltrating Washington. Measuring project performance online has, in part, put the administration on track to save $17 billion by the end of the year and $40 billion by the end of 2011 in government contracting costs, said Peter R. Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

"The productivity gap between the public and private sectors is substantial," he said. The White House is embracing a new business model in which "technology and information systems enhance efficiency . . . and where customer service does not take a back seat to bureaucracy."

Jeffrey Zients, the first-ever federal chief performance officer, spent his 20-year career in the private sector and is well-versed in the business model. "I am convinced that you can really help us achieve better results for the American people," he told industry leaders.

Nextgov Executive Editor Allan Holmes contributed to this article.