Ask the CIO

Data and science are at the center of the mission of the Food and Drug Administration. This is why the agency created the new Office of Digital Transformation. It is the final step in a two-year effort to reorganize how the FDA uses data and technology to protect and promote public health, and

Vid Desai, FDA’s chief information officer, said the Office of Digital Transformation (ODT) will drive change down to the individual centers and offices to improve their mission delivery. Desai spoke more with Federal News Network Executive Editor Jason Miller on Ask the CIO.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The pandemic put unprecedented pressure on state and federal unemployment insurance programs. Systems including call centers and claims processing struggled to handle the demand, but across the states the state of technology for these needs varies. From the Labor Department, Chief Information Officer Gundeep Ahluwalia and Michele Evermore, deputy director for Policy in the Office of Unemployment Insurance Modernization, joined Executive Editor Jason Miller on Ask the CIO to talk about modernizing the federal unemployment insurance program.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Pat Flanders, the chief information officer at DHA, said the military services and defense agencies will see a more consistent and more secure set of technology tools.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Lt. Gen. Michael Groen, the director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center for the Department of Defense, said the military is not in danger of falling behind to China when it comes to taking advantage of AI capabilities.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Just over a year into the e-commerce portal initiative, the General Services Administration is making some major course corrections. GSA’s initial thinking about the program aimed at making it easier for agencies to use online platforms to buy commercial products below the micro-purchase threshold of $10,000 it turns out was a bit off the mark in two key areas.

Not only has GSA decided not to test out the other two platforms that it initially offered under the initiative, it now says the overall market it is trying to capture is now $500 million, and not the $6 billion it originally estimated. Laura Stanton, the assistant commissioner for the Office of Information Technology Category in GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, and Keil Todd, program manager for the Commercial Platforms Initiative, spoke to Federal News Network Executive Jason Miller for more details.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marianne Roth, the chief risk officer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said the bureau built its enterprise risk management program around mission risks and strategic risks.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rick Simon, the program manager for the Secure Cloud Management project and a contractor in the Defense Innovation Unit, said the office issued success memos to the three vendors who took part in the pilot program.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rob Collins, who recently left after four years as the chief information security officer at the Social Security Administration, used his dual background of business and technology expertise to improve how citizens interact with the agency. Now the CISO at AgCo Corporation, he said the business or operational efforts must be integrated with the cybersecurity efforts so both sides understand each other’s opportunities and challenges. Collins spoke more to Federal News Network Executive Editor Jason Miller on this week's Ask the CIO.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is implementing a portfolio management approach to managing technology and business outcomes.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Eric Olson, the former Treasury Department chief information officer, said the agency moved key systems to highly secured cloud services over the last four years.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.