SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Currently, the U.S. government spends in excess of $1 billion annually to license software -- software that produces documents that are difficult to access after a few years because the new version of the software often doesn't work with the older documents. Since the document formats are proprietary, we have no way to access these documents other than by maintaining the unsupported older software. This has made transparency... more »

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 »

Add software to government laptops so that calls can be made using the microphone.

 

This would take away the need for purchasing phone plans, allow a seamless transition for work at home, and remove the need for physical landline telephones.

So much time is spent report accomplishments, figuring out how to count accomplishments in the vairous programs...each with their own methods and accounting rules... make ONE reporting system for how the budget is spent and what was accomplished with the budget. For example for a simple project I have to report it at minimum 3 different ways (3 different reports because the systems don't communicate), plus enter it into... more »

I was appalled to find out on my first day that every DOJ computer comes equipped with two software packages that do almost the exact same thing (MS Word and Wordperfect). I don't care which one we select, but I think spending millions on both sets of licensing fees for such similar software is extremely wasteful.

Paying for concurrent licenses instead of by seat for software would save millions across the FED. Gladly pay for the bytes used or once the limit is reached and trending the agency would know when to increase the number of concurrent licenses.

Precedent was when we couldn't buy software with dongles, or everything had to be programmed in ADA. Mandate it and providers will follow. No more difficult than following the... more »

Solar Panels on Every Federal Building. This will save lots of money and can make money by sending extra power to power companies and they would have to pay the government. May allow for charging of electric cars at a fee basis. Vote for this idea show that people care about our environment. Thank you!!

Too often over my career as a contractor and Federal employee, I’ve noticed that software tools are often purchase without sufficient requirements from all possible organizations who could benefit from it or its output. If requirements were requested, obtain and weighed, the end result would be a better fit for the needs of the organization as a whole, not just the one group that requested it.

The cost savings can... more »

Stop paying expensive liscensing fees for proprietary software for millions of work stations. If we switch to something reliable and secure like Open Office (by two trustworty non-profit software developers - Sun Microsystems and Oracle) instead of Microsoft Office, we could save tons of money on upgrading every 4 years, and support digital preservation of our files. The proprietary files will be impossible to open in... more »

Install free energy management software on all PC and Linux machines. The software has shown up to 35% improved efficiency in laboratory and consumer tests. http://www.miserware.com

How much time do well paid executives spend sitting in meetings? Have you ever considered how much a single meeting can cost in salaries?

In the age of technology there are a lot of time and travel saving ways of sharing ideas. Wikis and other collaborative software are a great ways to share ideas with colleagues without needing to take a lot of time for everyone to meet.

Government IT departments often restrict or... more »

Per the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), federal information systems must be hardened according to security configuration standards such as the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC), the U.S. Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB), and the Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmarks.

Government (and contractor) IT shops spend countless hours configuring new and existing systems to ensure... more »

Combine all the federal agencies data under one roof. Build a data powerhouse a state-of-the-art facility that provides secure data processing services to federal agencies. The data powerhouse manages mainframe and server operations, monitors the wide area network and provides key service desk, technical support and disaster recovery services for many of the federal governments mission-critical applications.
The Federal... more »

We buy computers from Dell. Each computer comes with a license from Microsoft. (Sticker with license key) We then buy an Enterprise license to install Windows (any version) on that computer. Dell sells computers without Windows. We can buy our computers without Microsoft licenses, and then install our Enterprise software. (Volume Licensing)

We never use the preinstalled version, and we never use the license key we pay... more »

Eliminate the costs each agency spends to run internet web sites. Create a single federal “Internet Service Provider” where all agencies have accounts at this one location. This would greatly reduced costs compared to now where each agency individually buys the same equipment, software and services. As another advantage, agency developed applications are available to all agencies as shared add-ons.

Currently each Federal... more »