ISG, Federal IT COST Commission Issue Report on Efficiency in Government IT Spending

Report offers insight into how Federal IT leaders can increase efficiency and deliver greater value to the American people

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Information Services Group

Jul 21, 2016, 09:15 ET

STAMFORD, Conn., July 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Information Services Group (ISG) (NASDAQ: III), a leading technology insights, market intelligence and advisory services company, in conjunction with the Commission on IT Cost, Opportunity, Strategy and Transparency (IT COST), released a groundbreaking report today at the headquarters of the General Services Administration that offers thought leadership into how the U.S. Government could achieve $5.8 billion in technology cost savings while improving efficiency and modernizing its systems.

IT COST was created by the TBM Council in partnership with representatives from the Department of Transportation, Department of the Interior, the Office of Management and Budget and others to help the U.S. Federal government more accurately measure the true cost of its IT investments through the Technology Business Management (TBM) methodology. The TBM Council is a nonprofit organization made up of private industry leaders and U.S. Federal CIOs.

Todd Lavieri, president of ISG Americas, is one of six private-sector partners named to the IT COST Commission. The group is supported by the TBM Council Board of Directors and includes CIOs of major U.S. corporations, an MIT research scientist, and the CIOs of the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Transportation, the Interior, Commerce and Agriculture.

"Along with other public- and private-sector leaders, I am pleased to share the results of this report, and I am confident it will bring value to the Federal government and to the American people," said Lavieri. "Currently, each government agency uses its own standards to measure the value of its technology investments. My work with the IT COST Commission is designed to provide the government with a standardized approach for managing its technology investments, with the aim of reducing waste and improving efficiency in public sector IT spending."

In its role as a private-sector partner, ISG worked closely with government agencies, including the Department of the Interior and the General Services Administration, to develop a framework for TBM metric and benchmarking activities, and to recommend an initial set of metrics for use in facilitating governmental and commercial comparisons.

ISG's Alex-Paul Manders and Paul Schmidt played key roles in the creation of this insightful report, which offers recommendations that will help public sector CIOs eliminate redundancies, shift dollars from maintenance to innovation, and make more strategic technology investments.

"Our approach was to identify specific pilots for the framework, and to refine existing commercial metrics and benchmarks for use in the Federal government environment," said Manders, TBM practice lead for ISG Americas. "One of our key findings was that commercial metrics are very applicable to Federal agencies, and the use of these standardized metrics around cost, quality and performance can help facilitate more cross-government comparisons using currently available benchmarks."

The report is a response to the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) of 2014, which paved the way for new efforts to control spending by creating requirements for improving acquisition and operation of Federal IT assets. FITARA gives agency CIOs more authority over IT resources throughout their agencies, with a goal of greater cost transparency, efficiency and cost savings.

According to the report, $55.9 billion out of the $81.6 billion FY2017 budget for IT spending, or about 75 percent, is devoted to Operations and Maintenance, while only $18.7 billion is allocated to Development, Modernization, and Enhancements. The report also notes that 25.9 percent of major IT investments are at medium or high risk.

To read the full report or learn more about the TBM Council, please visit http://tbmcouncil.org/get-involved/it-cost-commission.html.

About TBM Council
Founded in 2012, the Technology Business Management (TBM) Council is a nonprofit organization governed by an independent board of business technology leaders from a diverse group of the world's most innovative companies like AIG, Aon, Cisco Systems, DuPont, ExxonMobil, First American, Microsoft, Nike, and more. The Council is focused on developing a definitive framework for managing the business of IT by establishing standards and providing ongoing collaboration and education opportunities. Learn more and become a member at http://tbmcouncil.org.

About Information Services Group
Information Services Group (ISG) (NASDAQ: III) is a leading technology insights, market intelligence and advisory services company, serving more than 500 clients around the world to help them achieve operational excellence. ISG supports private and public sector organizations to transform and optimize their operational environments through research, benchmarking, consulting and managed services, with a focus on information technology, business process transformation, program management services and enterprise resource planning. Clients look to ISG for unique insights and innovative solutions for leveraging technology, the deepest data source in the industry, and more than five decades of experience and global leadership in information and advisory services. Based in Stamford, Conn., the company has more than 1,000 employees and operates in 21 countries.

For additional information, visit www.isg-one.com.

SOURCE Information Services Group