Technology Revving Up at Department of Commerce

By Tom O’Keefe, consultant

There’s a lot happening in IT at the Department of Commerce right now, from preparing to count the U.S. population to conducting research on weather.

But, perhaps the most significant new thing is a shift in the mindset of the IT organizations throughout the department as they strive to set standards for the latest and greatest technologies. Communicating with mission owners and agency executives and conveying the value of IT spend is a top priority.

It’s not enough anymore to just take the requirements and deliver an IT system. Agency IT leaders are collaborating more closely than ever with their business and finance peers to argue the value of every dollar spent. I just released a new webinar on these IT trends at Commerce, which you can view here.

But first, let’s take a look at where and how this is happening across Commerce.

• At USPTO, the OCIO has a group, the Office of Program Administration, that works to ensure requirements are in line with the future needs of the mission. OCIO is seeking network and security solutions to upgrade the agency’s IT environment, as well as automation tools that can help cut the review time for patents and trademarks. There’s still quite a bit of money for new projects and programs, and moving forward, the agency will be looking for transformative technologies to revolutionize business processes.
• At NOAA, many of its largest services have their own IT organizations developing mission-specific systems – from supporting weather and climactic satellites to tracking changing ocean patterns. Aligning the needs of the mission with next-generation IT, like supercomputing or cloud technologies, is a priority for IT stakeholders. Securing the nation’s weather systems is of the utmost importance, so cybersecurity technologies are in high demand.
• At Census, the Decennial IT division is racing to finalize the systems that will support the 2020 Decennial Census. This includes identifying technology for census workers in the field, as well as the back office support as the workforce grows to conduct the count. Census is investigating cloud and mobility solutions, as well as cybersecurity technologies to protect the sensitive personal information being collected as a part of the count. Expect to see close collaboration between IT and mission owners to make sure the 2020 Decennial Census is pulled off without a hitch.

With all the diverse missions underway at Department of Commerce, the best bet for business might be to reflect the collaborative message of IT working together with mission owners and agency executives and demonstrating the value of every IT dollar.

Want to hear more about what’s happening with IT at Department of Commerce?  Watch this new on-demand webinar.

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