New fed CTO sets sites on buying the right technologies

Norman Lorentz, the federal government's first chief technology officer, will help managers across government buy the right technologies in order to make government more efficient, he said in a Jan. 18 conference call with reporters.

Lorentz, 54, will focus primarily on the Office of Management and Budget's 24 e-government initiatives and on homeland security, but will also provide his expertise in areas such as cybersecurity and the formulation of a governmentwide IT architecture, he said.

Lorentz will lead multiple technical teams to define and implement key e-government architectures. He reports to Mark Forman, OMB's associate director for information technology and e-government.

"My job is to help Mark in ensuring ... we are not just [automating] existing processes. I will be making sure the [technology] components are portable, and that we use robust, reliable technology," Lorentz said.

The managing partners of the e-government initiatives and the managers of homeland security programs are Lorentz's customers, he said.

"My job is to make them successful," he said. "Increasingly, you'll see the same technology components across government. ... The outcome is to deliver faster service with higher quality to the citizens of this country."

The e-government and homeland security projects will primarily use off-the-shelf technologies that have been used to increase productivity in the private sector, and managers will mostly use private contractors to implement them, Lorentz said.

Lorentz, a 30-year veteran of the IT industry, has managed IT budgets worth billions. He was senior vice president and chief technology officer at the U.S. Postal Service from 1996 to 2000. Lorentz's biggest accomplishment there was managing the transition of computer systems to the year 2000.

Most recently, he was senior vice president of Dice Inc. in New York, an online provider of career development resources to IT professionals. Previously, he had an 18-year tenure with telecommunications firm U S West Inc.

Lorentz stopped short of saying agencies would need his permission to purchase technology products and services, but said, "I would have the authority to help them make the right decision about buying and using technology."

"We do have the authority to stop unsuccessful programs and projects," he added, but said the administration had not yet targeted any IT programs for cancellation.