What’s on the horizon for DHS in FY13?

by Stephanie Sullivan, Consultant

The Civilian agency juggernaut that is DHS has already seen some noteworthy organizational changes in FY12 with Robert West retiring this past December as DHS’ CISO, and Luke McCormack currently transitioning from the CIO role within ICE to DOJ, replacing Vance Hitch. These are just a few bumps in the road as DHS forges ahead into FY13 with budget constraints in tow.

The agency has had a plethora of industry events over the course of the last few months to engage industry and outline what they’re looking for in the coming fiscal year. Some of these themes include leveraging commodity IT to increase mission effectiveness, deploying an incremental approach to system development, and of course  the much buzzed about shift to cloud based service models and offerings. The next Industry Day on the docket for DHS will be held on April 12, 2012 and will focus on research and development efforts within the Science & Technology Directorate.

DHS’ FY13 IT budget request will once again be surpassed by HHS. However,  the agency’s IT budget is nothing to scoff at, with an FY13 IT budget request of $5.7B. Even though the IT budget is not significantly reduced compared to FY12 numbers, there is an overall sentiment across all of DHS and its components to tighten bootstraps on IT purchases. Decision makers need industry to provide a clear case that a product investment will provide long term O&M savings, or at the very least save on personnel costs.

Rear Admiral Robert Day, the CIO of USCG, may have said it best at DHS’ IT Industry Day held on February 28: “In FY12 the nice to haves went away, in FY13 the need to haves will go away, and in FY14 some of the must haves will go away.” Meaning DHS really has to tighten up investments and generate savings.

So what can industry do?

• Strive to fully understand requirements
• Improve speed in delivering new products and capabilities
• Incorporate green technology solutions into product and system development
• Reduce operational support costs in the design phase