Small Commerce agency sets bar for IT outsourcing

I think I have a favorite federal CIO. Maybe my first one.

Joe Paiva, CIO of the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration, told our sister publication that he wants to outsource all of his commodity IT.

“I want to be out of the IT business by July,” he said.

The agency has 2,000 employees whose mission is to make it easier for U.S. businesses to do business overseas. They don’t want to be in the business of establishing complex internal IT operations, he told FCW’s Mark Rockwell.

He wants to refocus internal resources on analytics and big data that more directly serve the agency’s mission. He wants outside vendors to be responsible for things like networking and printing operations as well as end-user devices like cell phones and tablets.

According to the FCW article, Paiva wants to implement infrastructure as a service that can harness global service provides for wireless data and voice, networking and end-user devices. He’s also implementing collaboration as a service with cloud-based email, video teleconferencing, chat and instant messaging.

Former Justice CIO Van Hitch – now with Deloitte – called Paiva’s strategy a “dramatic statement” but he cautioned that those looking to do similar outsourcing to get educated on service level agreements and security issues.

I agree it is a dramatic statement and hopefully one that other CIOs will listen to, particularly what seems to be Pavia’s keen understanding of his agency’s mission, and how he can best apply his limited resources to meet that mission.