Microsoft Director of Civic Innovation Chris Niehaus testifies to Congress using a Surface tablet

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently held a hearing titled, “Wasting Information Technology Dollars: How Can the Federal Government Reform its IT Investment Strategy?” about waste in government IT, during which my boss Chris Niehaus, the director of Microsoft’s Office of Civic Innovation, testified. Here’s the video of his testimony:

[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HFrkZnPB9Lc]

Key Chris Niehaus testimony highlights:

- 11:51: testimony starts

- 17:06: testimony ends

- 17:07: Chairman Issa asks Niehaus questions

- 28:00: Ranking Member Cummings asks Niehaus a question

- 38:04: Representative Connolly asks Niehaus a question

- 45:10: Chairman Issa comes back to Niehaus re: Commodity vs. COTS Software

- 48:50: Representative Connolly back to Niehaus about consolidation of email services

Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., originally called the hearing to focus on the “wasteful and dysfunctional fashion in which the federal government acquires information technology (IT) systems and services.” He was also interviewed about the topic that day on the Fox Business network:

[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7BTg24hmXM&feature=player_embedded]

Other witnesses in front of the full committee were: The Honorable Tom Davis, Former Member of Congress, and Chairman of the Government Reform Committe; Mr. Steven VanRoekel, Federal CIO, White House Office of Management and Budget; Mr. David Powner, Director, Information Technology Management Issues, GAO; Mr. Douglas Bourgeois, Vice President, Chief Cloud Executive, VMware, Inc.; and Mr. Michael Klayko, Advisor and Former CEO, Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

As an interesting side-note, I believe Niehaus is the first person to ever testify in front of Congress using a Microsoft Surface tablet. Here’s a screencap from the video above with the Surface marked with an arrow.

Chris Niehaus is the first person to testify to Congress using a Microsoft Surface tablet.

 

 

Chris Niehaus and other IT experts testify to Congress.

A copy of Chris Niehaus’ oral testimony is copied below, and you can listen to his Q&A in the first video above.

Oral Testimony of Chris Niehaus

Chairman Issa, Ranking Member Cummings, and distinguished Members of the Committee: Good afternoon. My name is Chris Niehaus, and I appreciate the opportunity to discuss the Government’s IT investment strategy. I am the Director of Microsoft’s U.S. Office of Civic Innovation. My team focuses on delivering innovative solutions to government customers. I hope Microsoft’s extensive experience helping public and private-sector customers around the world will help the Committee.

Microsoft supports the Committee’s goals of reducing the cost of legacy systems, decreasing duplication, utilizing cost-effective commercial technologies, and maximizing best value. Our experience has taught us three lessons that support these goals: 1) agencies can reduce IT costs by not only reforming how they buy IT but also by more effectively assessing and managing existing assets; 2) successful IT solutions result when the private sector collaborates with government to provide commercial devices and services to meet agency missions, and 3) the Government gets the best value when it uses full and open competition and clear, mission-focused requirements.

As to the first lesson—to reduce IT costs GAO reports confirm that better management of existing assets as is just as important as reforming the acquisition process. A great way to improve IT asset management is making the OMB-recommended operational assessments and inventories mandatory for CIOs, and requiring them to analyze existing assets, needs, and new technologies when starting major IT acquisitions. An instructive lesson from the private sector is that problems are best solved closest to the mission, which in this case would mean keeping reform efforts at the agency CIO level.

We in industry can help with IT asset management. Gartner studies show that agencies can lower total cost of ownership up to $2,500 per year, per desktop simply by better managing technologies they already own. They can further lower costs up to another 30 percent by using virtualization technologies to move certain applications and desktop functions—like Microsoft Office—to the cloud. Agency CIOs tell us that they favor the flexibility of cloud-based delivery because it helps them move their IT investments from rigid capital budgets to operating expenses. Industry can also help agencies consolidate resources where appropriate. For example, the Microsoft Joint Enterprise Licensing Agreement, or JELA, recently signed with the Army, Air Force, and DISA, addresses common needs of each licensee while still addressing unique DoD security requirements.

As to the second lesson—agencies can buy IT more cost-effectively by making smarter use of commercial IT, which costs less and often performs better than custom IT. The key is close and early collaboration among agency CIOs, procurement officers, and industry, beginning when the Government first starts developing its requirements, so that it can better understand commercial market capabilities and avoid the familiar problem of drafting its requirements behind closed doors and hoping that the market will deliver. As an example of strong collaboration, we are working with the Air Force to determine how Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect, a motion sensing game controller that costs about $110, can be adapted to serve as a rehabilitation tool for wounded warriors.

Such creative and agile collaboration would be less possible if the Government went back to a centralized, Government-wide IT acquisition model. Similarly, it would make it harder for the Government to get the best that the commercial marketplace has to offer by adopting new acquisition structures focused on so-called “commodity IT.”

In my experience, the term “commodity IT” is not used in the commercial market. Not even something as ubiquitous as email is treated as a commodity—the recent GSA Email-as-a-Service Blanket Purchase Agreements—or BPAs—distinguished seven different types of cloud email, depending on security and other requirements. Moreover, unlike pencils, paper, and other true commodities agency missions and information technologies never stop evolving.

And as to the third lesson, best value means more than simply lowest initial cost. Rather, agency CIOs should be required to make best value determinations in a technology-neutral fashion, avoiding preferences for any particular license model, and using a set of core factors, including total cost of ownership, security, privacy, accessibility, record integrity, data portability, and openness of standards. Agency CIOs should also be empowered to prioritize among these factors based upon the mission being supported. When agencies are clear about which factors will be prioritized and what requirements must be met, industry can and must be equally transparent about how our devices and services satisfy the Government’s requirements.

In conclusion, Microsoft looks forward to working with Congress in this critically important area. Together, I am confident we can provide IT solutions that will maximize best value and decrease the total IT costs for agencies. I thank you and look forward to answering your questions.