Federal 100: Roger W. Baker
Name: Roger W. Baker
Title: Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology
Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
Cost cutter. With budgets tight, Baker established a software acquisition team to create a technology road map and a new approach for acquiring and managing enterprise software licenses. Some licenses had been in place at VA without major changes for nearly 14 years; Baker's team established timelines for negotiations and identified alternative approaches and software. In the first year alone, VA saved $40 million from a single vendor. Baker shared the lessons VA learned with other agencies and helped them initiate their own software cost reductions.