SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

All DoD Medical Treatment Facilities (MTF's) are currently connected to the same networks as major combatant commands, so the medical information systems on MTF networks are required to meet the same stringent security rules as weapons and command / control systems. And yet, MTF medical systems do not connect to any of the combatant command systems. In fact, the MTF's have more of a need to share patient data with other... more »

Use a service such as Citrix or Good Technologies to provide a secure connection to Government networks for people to use their personal smart phones (iPhone), tablets (iPad) or laptops. Provide an incentive to encourage to use their personal equipment. People using their personal electronics would have to agree to allow a "kill' feature be installed on all personal smart phones and tablet so that Government information... more »

Saving a scanned file in a smaller format uses less space on the database, and in turn decreases the needed amount of database storage and network bandwidth.

Scanned files are automatically saved in a large size. (roughly 1.5 Megs) Furthermore, when the file is opened it has to be "unzoomed" to order to read over it. This is a waste of time and a waste of database and network bandwidth.

If it is mandated that files... more »

One agency's trash is another agency's treasure. Create/improve regional programs responsible for (1) removing, re-purposing, or donating unneeded or excess equipment and inventory (2) and increase visibility of available vacant federal buildings and land.

Here’s an example:
The Department of Veterans Affairs has a vast inventory of underutilized and vacant property, including roughly 7.5 million square feet of vacant... more »

Currently CPUs are used to log on to the VA network in the hospital medical center. These machines are outdated and have performance issues limiting productivity. The bulk of functioning already occurs at a server level which results in server lag time and delay compounded by limits of the CPU processor the user is working from. By removing this CPU from the data usage network and logging in to the server from a monitor... more »

Some installations (and also public lands) have cell phone carriers who lease out land to have cell phone towers on them. Require that a provision of the lease be to allow the government cell phones and blackberries at that particular area to have free coverage on that providers network.

The VA already has a robust data network. This network could be leveraged using Voice Over Internet Protocol to provide calling within the VA avoiding all long distance cost. This system is already in place in several VISN's and could be expanded throughout the VA and maybe the Goverment in total. example: x (entry digit) xxx (station code) xxxx (extension) xxxxxxxx calls anywhere in the government bypassing the telephone... more »

In today’s’ world everyone searches for data. Everyone has a laptop, not a desktop… an iphone, blackberry, or android phone, and everyone loves a simple conservative interface. Our dependency on Microsoft products offers no fiscal reward regarding cost, productivity, training, maintenance and growth.
The data our federal government warehouses in contracted networks is ridiculously hard to navigate. I spend more time... more »

We place "LARGE" orders to stock our warehouses full of cables in order to support us through the year, however, we don't always use all of the cabling that we stock because when the technology changes, so does the cabling requirement! This requires us to put a NEW order out for cabling of another specification, which leaves all of our previously purchased cables laying around... and the need to seek more warehouse room... more »