A New Research Agenda – Fostering Innovative Studies that Help Government

Submitted by on Fri, 05/21/2021 - 15:12

The IBM Center for The Business of Government is pleased to release our new research announcement, which defines key challenges facing government and request proposals for future studies from experts in academia and the non-profit sectors.

Weekly Roundup: May 17-21 2021

Submitted by on Fri, 05/21/2021 - 13:11

Federal data is key to optimal governance and business — open it with public input. To be truly transformational, government data must be open and it must meet public needs.

IBM Center Research Announcement 2021

Submitted by on Thu, 05/20/2021 - 11:49

The IBM Center for The Business of Government connects research to practice, supporting work by scholars that benefits government through analysis of real-world experience that leads to practical, actionable recommendations. Center reports are intended to spark the imagination—crafting new ways to think about government by identifying trends, new ideas, and best practices in public management and innovation. Center reports help government executives respond more effectively to mission and management priorities.

Providing Quality Data and Information

Submitted by on Wed, 05/19/2021 - 22:28

The U.S. Census Bureau is the federal government’s largest statistical agency that provides current facts and figures about America’s people, places, and economy. The first census took place in 1790. As required by the U.S. Constitution, a census has been taken every 10 years thereafter. In 1840, the Census Act authorized the establishment of a centralized Census Office. In 1902, the Census Office became a permanent organization within the new Department of Interior and Labor.

Can We Look Forward to a New Decade of Innovation?

Submitted by on Wed, 05/19/2021 - 12:37

Can we  look forward to a new decade of innovation, asked The Economist in its January 16 issue. “The 2010s were marked by pessimism about innovation,” notes the issue’s overview article.

Leveraging the TMF for the secure modernization of high value assets

Submitted by on Tue, 05/18/2021 - 10:46

Last week we published the first in an ongoing series of commentaries intended to highlight the Technology Modernization Fund as a funding option available to agencies to modernize critical systems while lessening reliance on costly legacy systems and reducing cyber risk. In this first post, we outlined elements of the Office of Management and Budget’s TMF/American Rescue Plan (APR) guidance that were just recently updated.

Getting the 'Bosses of Procurement' to Understand its Strategic Value

Submitted by on Mon, 05/17/2021 - 14:25

As a rule, focus on government procurement grows particularly acute during crisis situations. There has likely been no more vivid example of this phenomenon than that experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic. With daily headlines blaring words about shortages of medical devices and personal protective equipment, many procurement officials found themselves in a prominent hot seat at the table of government decision-makers.

Weekly Roundup: May 10-14, 2021

Submitted by on Fri, 05/14/2021 - 14:45

Federal CIO Martorana: $1B TMF lets agencies ‘apply for projects that previously were out of their reach’. With the release of the new guidance last week for agencies to submit proposals to receive some of the $1 billion in the Technology Modernization Fund, Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana issued her first major policy decision that her fellow CIOs, industry and especially Congress will b

Know Your Agency’s Risk Profile

Submitted by on Thu, 05/13/2021 - 10:00

Now more than 100-days into the Biden Administration, with a new team of political appointees gradually filling out agency leadership roles, there is renewed relevance to a call that was made in 2019 for leaders to embrace Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). While no magic bullet, ERM can help these new government leaders navigate through a landscape of escalating threats and challenges by equipping them with enhanced organizational and individual capabilities for identifying, assessing and managing risks to agency missions.

Lessons from COVID

Submitted by on Wed, 05/12/2021 - 13:11

By mid-May, 35 percent of Americans were fully vaccinated, with millions more receiving a vaccine each day. Meanwhile, the number of new cases was just 11 percent of the total back in January. This is, quite simply, an enormous technical and administrative breakthrough, with governments working with the medical community and other stakeholders to reach a growing share of the public.

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