Earlier this year, I announced the first-ever CIO Council IT Solutions Challenge to find innovative solutions based on the fresh perspectives of the best and brightest up-and-coming IT staff Federal agencies had to offer.
In late October, we concluded the 2015 Challenge and I want to congratulate the two winning teams as well as all the teams for their remarkable work in developing innovative solutions for some of IT’s and IT Acquisition’s most challenging problems.
The winner of the judge’s award, Team Two, was challenged to develop, standardize, and implement Federal IT policies and procedures across the Government. By focusing on bringing the Federal Government up to speed with our technology-oriented culture and supporting a collaborative workforce, the team proposed “FedIT” as a solution—a professional social network and communications platform for Federal IT and acquisition professionals that fosters real-time collaboration across agencies. This dedicated space for innovative thinking and problem solving will help modernize IT across the Federal Government.
Team Five, the winner of the people’s choice award, identified the need for a collaborative space for Federal Agencies to test, customize, and share technology solutions to meet federal mandates and unique business needs, and to improve IT posture. Their solution, “Project GEMMAA,” proposes a flexible, easily accessible, and cloud-hosted test environment where federal IT experts can collaborate, share lessons learned, leverage expertise, contribute on the implementation of cross-agency IT initiatives, and reuse an existing solution at their agency.
Seven months ago, I asked agencies to nominate their rising stars in the acquisition and IT fields to take part in the ITSC. The exceptional quality of solutions I saw during the final presentations this past month was a direct result of the teams’ hard work and commitment to federal service. I want to congratulate all six teams and thank their agencies for providing such a talented group of individuals to work on finding solutions. The solutions proposed through the 2015 IT Solutions Challenge can significantly enhance the work we do by fostering collaboration across the Federal Government and enabling us to drive greater value for the American people.
I look forward to continuing to work with the CIO Council to track the progress of the inaugural IT Solutions Challenge group and supporting the IT Solutions Challenge moving forward.
