The Department of Education was one of only three institutions to achieve an 'A' rating for under-16s.th Reiteration of the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) Scorecard.
While earning the highest score on a scorecard is an accomplishment, Education's real accomplishment lies in how it is influenced by FITARA to deliver technology services.
Luis López, the Department of Education's chief information officer, said FITARA's underlying philosophy is helping the Department improve the management and modernization of its IT systems.
“This is not just an OCIO initiative. This is that while we were stamping our feet, the execution of all the major offices and their engagement was fresh,” Lopez said on “Ask the CIO.” He spoke at “This FITARA score must be the result of the efforts of all CXOs. I believe this relationship has been going on for years. That's why we've seen that. That relationship has been there, nurtured and grown by: [our] team. So it's important to keep improving and I think we're in the right place. ”
FITARA co-author Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) is scheduled to announce Section 17.th Thursday's scorecard iteration. CIOs from the Office of Personnel Management, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Government Accountability Office will participate in the roundtable discussion.
As part of that effort, Lopez established a customer advisory board last summer to take FITARA beyond just letter grades. Lopez said he is using the council to explain to non-IT executives why the 2014 law is important to them and why it's not just a technology priority. .
“When you explain this to some of the senior executives on the senior customer advisory board this way, they start to understand the situation. They're like, 'Oh, okay, that makes sense.' I probably won't buy this new tool for this system. Because you might be able to leverage something in your portfolio that you already have. And maybe finish something else,” he said. “Everyone is asking, not just about cost reduction or avoidance, but is this really what's best for our environment and how does that translate into modernization efforts?”
The customer advisory board also supports the institution's IT governance process.
Lopez, who took over as CIO in December 2022, said a great example of the council's impact occurred during the pandemic as educational institutions consolidated and standardized a number of video teleconferencing and collaboration tools.
“We probably have about 65 installed across the company, which allows us to use a variety of collaboration tools like Teams, Zoom, WebEx, etc.,” he said. “But they understand that governance processes are in place for a reason and that when everyone has their own solution, there will be proliferation across IT. A few years ago, we saw that happening around collaboration tools. But when you go back and explain this clearly to all your staff, they understand that there is a governance process for a reason.”
Significant savings with EIS
Education may not have integrated its tools, but through FITARA and its Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) agreement, it has been able to bring them under a better management approach.
The educational institution is one of the few Cabinet Offices to fully transition from Networx contracts to EIS.
“People are interested in what EIS has brought to the table and have really embraced it. Previously, we only had guest WiFi in our Washington, D.C. building and two of our 17 local buildings. Now we have guest WiFi in all of our buildings. We have guest WiFi in the building and we also have government WiFi in the building,” Lopez said. “We have all been able to achieve that through cost reduction and on top of that avoidance. This is where FITARA comes to mind in EIS. We have modernized our technology, improved our portfolio and reduced costs. It's not easy, and that's why I think we'll be working with EIS for the next 11 to 12 years. . This is a large contract and gives us a lot of flexibility to modernize to suit our customer base.”
Governance for collaboration and teleconferencing tools comes at a perfect time, going from 60,000 calls per month pre-pandemic to 800,000 calls per month recently.
Additionally, through EIS, Education provides employees with products called “softphones” that provide an alternative to desk phones and cell phones. This allows users to get a dedicated phone number from their laptop.
Lopez estimates that institutions could save $36 million to $40 million by moving to and leveraging modern technology under EIS.
Lopez said the website integration agreement is another example of how FITARA has helped drive modernization.
Website and other upgrades planned
He said the technology behind the Ed.gov site hasn't been upgraded in 20 years.
“We obviously want to get a website that is compliant with the 21st Century IDEA Act. It's more personal, so we can tailor it to different personas, whether it's educators, students, or otherwise. “We want to make it easier to collaborate and receive customer service,” he said. “We're probably gaining a lot more purchasing power, and not only that, but we've got better governance, not only in our IT portfolio, but also in the look and feel of our website. The public can go to his Ed.gov. You'll find everything you need.”
He said Education will complete phase two of its website modernization by June, with all four phases completed by 2025.
Another major priority for 2024 is finalizing awards for hosting environments. Lopez said Recompetition can't offer much because it's still in the process of selecting sources, but Education has doubled its footprint and its data volume has exploded since the last deal. .
Moving to a zero trust architecture for educational institutions is also a big focus this year.
“We received Technology Modernization Fund funding to implement Secure Access Services Edge (SASE) technology, or at least its first major step, always-on encrypted connectivity. You access your laptop using , click a button, and you're connected to a virtual private network (VPN). It's much more secure. We're much faster, and our customers love it too.” he said. “We've seen tickets go down due to VPN issues. Our overall experience in the ZTA space is something big we want to round out.”
Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not directed to users within the European Economic Area.
