SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Make a policy or law requiring a closed loop user feedback process for new, current and future Government Information Systems (software). This would provide Lean Six Sigma quantifiable data for senior leader decision makers. Not what the vendors, contractors think.

As software products are developed this will ensure the feedback is collected by a closed loop system to measure the usage, effectiveness and correct issues... more »

Many of our jobs now require the use of a computer and other IT related devices. I believe most government employees have a computer issued to them, usually a laptop or a desktop. In many cases, the processing power and resources available in the computer that is issued to an employee far exceeds what they need for their day-to-day tasks. In some cases, the employee needs more computing power and/or resources than they... more »

As an employee who regularly submits notices to the Federal Register, there would be enormous time, material and cost savings if the process were brought into the 21st century.

Currently, several identical signed copies of Federal Register notices must be hand delivered, along with a CD of the word file, to the Government Printing Office (GPO). Our Department, in Washington DC, has an individual drive to the GPO every... more »

Printing each immigrants file is very time consuming and great amount of paper and ink is spent. If each file can be transmitted electronically to the courts and judges can utilize some type of smart laptop to view the same file as coordinated with the prosecution, this would alleviate alot of headaches and large amount of money that is being spent on printers, paper and ink. Thousands and thousands of files are being... more »

Working at FEMA, we process disaster applicant information. Many times this assistance is delayed because we are waiting to verify information. One piece of information that affects a large number of applicants is their insurance information. Can we have a way that their insurance settlement information populate our computer system with this information? Can we have IRS populate their income, have their employer information... more »

The information technology (IT) infrastructure, sometimes referred to as the Global Information Grid (GIG) - specifically servers, networks, network area storage, and information transport/transmission costs, and information assurance (IA) costs, should be funded at the DoD level at all DoD facilities and support activities for use by all DoD programs at that facility. Disallow the expense for the IT/IA costs at the... more »

Implement enterprise VDI solution such as Citrix XenDesktop or VMWare View. This will:
1. Move sensitive data off the PC and back into the secure data center
2. Reduce power consumption by replacing power hungry PC's with zero clients
3. Eliminate need for EUD refresh every three years - moves EUD refresh to 7-10 year mark (plus, zero clients are a third of the price of PC's)
4. Virtualize application delivery in... more »

Staff should receive promotions in-house whenever possible. This would elimate the several thousand dollars spent on moving a promoted person to their next assignment. In-house promotions are common place in many state agencies and have negligible negative impact on their upward advancement. House hunting trips, moving costs, lodging and additional funds needed to move a person across the country are saved. It is... more »

The average employee spends a majority of their time using basic computing services, by moving email to the cloud; the government could see a savings in operating and electricity. Google offers its email client GMail for government agencies under the Google Apps platform (GAP).

GMail includes features comparable or better than what the USG is currently using: (1) GMail supports integration with Microsoft (MS) Outlook... more »

All outpatient prescriptions (new, partials, renewals, refills, etc.) are dispensed with Patient Medication Information (PMI). PMI is printed information about prescription medicine provided by pharmacy to patients and should be given with ALL NEW prescriptions. This does not include Medication Guides which are required to be dispensed with certain prescription medicines that have serious and significant public health... more »

The department of state made of various functional areas & each of these areas has specific tasks they carry out, however they do not work in isolation. The different functional areas collaborate with each other from time to time thus the systems that support their activities also need to be able to collaborate & share information. Various systems that are used in the DoS do not collaborate or integrate well with other... more »

All employees whose duties require field work or a significant percentage of travel are issued a number of devices that can be consolidated into a signle purchase of a smartphone. For my job as a Vulnerability Assessment Team Lead, I was issued a laptop, air card, Blackberry, vehicle Global Positioning System (GPS), hand-held GPS, flashlight, camera, and a backpack and Pelican case to hold all of it. This totals 7 devices... more »

In 1994, J. Allard wrote a memo to his superiors at Microsoft about the next Windows Operating System and the Internet. He said the Internet was growing so fast that even Microsoft wouldn’t keep up, and that the amount of data that was growing would either crush them, or could propel them forward if they found a way to allow the “data flow” through Windows. Imagine if Microsoft developed Windows with their “own” version... more »

Create a benchmark of costs for typical information technology (IT) services, based on actual data from Government contracts. Help desk cost per user for example. The transparency of cost information would bring cost efficiency by helping both industry and Government insure contract bids are priced within realistic cost ranges, that consider the size and unique security requirements of Government.

The Benchmark... more »