Public and private organizations face the same information technology challenges and should try to swap solutions with each other, Jeff Solvik, chief information officer of Cisco Systems Inc., told a group of federal officials gathered at the General Services Administration Wednesday.
"Guiding principles that we've used can apply to longer-term guiding principles in using IT to support the federal government," Solvik told the capacity crowd.
As CIO of Cisco, Solvik has seen the company, which specializes in Internet networking, grow about 1,000 percent in four years. Now a $6 billion company, Cisco was named one of the top 100 technology firms by CIO magazine and was ranked No. 1 in Computerworld's "Best Places to Work for IS professionals" in 1996.
But Cisco did not instantly meet with technological success, Solvik said.
Solvik had to resolve problems like how to align business and IT goals, balance technology and project management and recruit, retain and develop a staff.
For any organization, including federal agencies and departments, the most important step is to create "action-oriented goals and strategies" like improving customer service, reducing the cycle time to ship a product and reducing costs, Solvik said.
The key to meeting these goals, said Solvik, is integrating and maintaining a technologically standardized organization-wide information system. Solvik suggested using a common PC environment with the same operating system, applications, e-mail program and voicemail system.
"By having all standard technology we can react to business more quickly, reduce our costs and move data extremely quickly," Solvik said.
To effectively recruit, retain and train IT professionals, Solvik recommended using a skills-based pay system, aggressive college recruiting and apprenticeship programs. "There is not real magic here," he cautioned. "This is a very challenging area for everyone. It's very competitive."
In dealing with a "non-technical" boss or staff, Solvik recommended giving each person a PC containing nothing but a Web browser equipped with 20 bookmarks of interest to the employee. "This is a sure way to expose them to technology," Solvik said.
He also suggested monthly staff exchanges among CIO offices of agencies to share best practices.
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