Save Award 2010 Ideas

Use Open Source Software. Replace MS Office with OpenOffice to start with. Replace MS Windows with Linux (Ubuntu for example.) Replace Photoshop with GIMP. There is a free, open-source equivalent to virtually all commercial software products.

I suggest the utilization of shared (joint use) IT workstations to access software programs that are infrequently used by employees.
Often enough, users request software licenses for programs they hardly use, often costing agencies $500 or more a seat not including the time and labor to purchase and install.
Agencies should modify IT rules so that joint use workstations can be set up, locations and quantities may vary,... more »

Implement a common DOE federal IT service infrastructure. At the DOE, multiple Program Offices have IT spending authority, and as a result, they have implemented their own IT infrastructure. As a result, DOE has multiple email systems, multiple data centers, multiple help desks, multiple storage networks, multiple etc. In addition to the additional costs associated with operating separate IT systems / infrastructures,... more »

Within CDC, information technology and information security have been centralized in Atlanta. The effect of this is a chronic and marked deterioration of support and service for organizational units having mission requirements for a high level computational support. Computational fluid dynamics, an engineering discipline, and computational chemistry, used to assess toxicity, are examples in the fast-paced developing... more »

I think Federal agencies should consolidate hosting and data storage for non-sensitive websites and some internal systems.

Each year Federal agencies spend millions of dollars maintaining systems to accomplish redundant tasks. Most agencies have many of the same types of content such as:

--Public Affairs/Press releases/Bios
--Grant–making functions
--Policy functions
--Regulatory guidance/enforcement
--Technical Assistance... more »

Recouping some money through IT equipment sales!!!

This is not an idea to save money but an idea for individual agencies to actually recoup some of their costs.

Currently, only some agencies within departments send computer equipment (and other no longer needed equipment) to auction. While this practice provides some money, how much of it gets back to the agency office that retired the equipment.

I would like to see... more »

Federal workers frequently are unaware of other workers in their own or other agencies who have programmatic overlap. Use of computerized social networking technology to create a smart directory which would allow users to identify persons with common work goals could possibly reduce redundancies in government, promote institutional memory, and enhance the distribution of expertise. A federal worker could fill out a profile... more »

Issue electronic health record cards containing pertinent health history information for Medicare and Medicaid recipients, which can be secured in a fashion similar to an ATM card. These cards could be updated after a visit to the physician or other healthcare provider and kept with a patient for use in times of medical emergency. These cards would not have all of the patient's health history on it, however, would have... more »

Invite the private sector to design a customer-friendly IT program similar to Turbo-Tax that would enable farmers and ranchers to navigate the complexities of signing up for and providing data for participation in USDA/FSA farm programs. The private sector would have a huge market for the program; farmers and ranchers would have an easy way of making sense of the complex choices; and the USDA/FSA would save the money... more »

Create an Agency for Information Technology within DHS along the lines of The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), One voice, One standard. This would stop the internecine warfare between Agencies, allow timely service to the customer , increase network security and allow a proactive posture vice the current reactive state. In addition as we move forward with PKI, anyone from any DHS agency would be able to access... more »

If we analyze the big push for "Cloud Computing" strictly for cost savings both short and long term.
1. More Thin Client use requires more bandwidth per Govt. Center. Are CPU's more bandwidth and energy efficient than Thin Clients?
2. what will be the cost agency wide of replacing all our CPU's with cloud devices or Thin Clients?
3. Will the billing of software use by time/unit really be cheaper than software currently... more »

I suggest a mentoring initiative. As an IT Project Manager all too often a design manager is hired to deploy a particular system. In the case that the new system is a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) system, a mentoring initiative should be initiated. In most cases the design manager is a contractor. Once the system is deployed they move along. During this time reams of documents are created, redone and are passed from... more »

Government programmers write thousands of programs each year that would be extremely valuable to other government employees and private citizens, but almost none of it is ever shared, even within agencies.

This results in different agencies reinventing the same software that other agencies have already built. Federal leaders should fix this by requiring all non-sensitive government source code to be made available on... more »

NASA should manage its own desktop information technology infrastructure - which is presently outsourced to several different contractors. The current system is inefficient, slow, and expensive. By replacing the layers of outsourcing contractors with a single, unified IT authority at each NASA center, the process could be made more effective.

Lease your computers instead of purchasing them. With a lease, the old computer is returned. This eliminates the need for DRMO involvement in the disposal of old govt IT equipment.

Example: A computer that costs $850 can be leased for appeox $250/year. If we tech refresh every 3 years, this is $750 v. $850, a savings of $100, plus savings on DRMO. If the govt purchases 100,000 computers/year, this is a savings of... more »