Can SBA’s New CIO Modernize the Small Agency?

By Kevin Shaker, Analyst

Maria Roat has left her position as chief technology officer of the Department of Transportation (DOT) to assume a new role as chief information officer at the Small Business Administration (SBA), replacing Renee Macklin.

If we look at her work at DOT, we may get a sense for how SBA’s IT shop will evolve under Roat’s leadership. For the last two years, she’s been responsible for issuing policy, planning milestones, and assessing the DOT’s IT framework, as well as establishing the IT Shared Services group within DOT’s Office of the CIO. She had also helped create the DOT Common Operating Environment, which is the cornerstone of DOT’s shared services. It’s comprised of the cloud IT infrastructure platform for non-FAA administrators.

Roat’s new position at the SBA, which requested $101 million for IT in FY17, began three days ago and she already has the following initiatives on her plate:

• Modernizing SBA’s network infrastructure along with some of the agency’s outdated legacy systems.
• Modernizing and transitioning a portion of SBA’s systems to the cloud. Virtualization will be paramount in preparing SBA systems to be cloud ready along with consolidation technology to get rid of systems performing duplicative tasks at SBA.
• Modernize the disaster credit management system and the capital access financial system, two of the larger and more clunky SBA systems.
• Revamping SBA’s cybersecurity foothold, which has been an area of concern after the General Accounting Office issued its 30 cyber recommendations from last year’s FISMA report.

So what does this mean for technology companies? Ample sales opportunities for firms that offer cloud implementation and computing technology. Roat and her infrastructure team will want details on how technology can get them to the cloud successfully and faster.

With Roat’s experience helping launch the FedRAMP cloud security program, she plans to tackle cybersecurity and infrastructure modernization in FY17, making this a good time to reach out to the newly managed OCIO at SBA.

Want to learn more about specific IT programs, mission insight, and targeted organizations within SBA?  Reach out to your immixGroup account representative to get insight on how Market Intelligence can assist you with your sales campaigns.