Articles by John K. Higgins

The U.S. government has largely failed to achieve the same productivity gains that private sector firms have experienced from utilizing IT -- despite spending US$600 billion on information technology over the last decade or so. As a result, the federal Office of Management and Budget has initiated a new program to improve the way federal agencies acquire and manage IT resources...

The U.S. government's drive to adopt cloud technology has generated a huge opportunity for vendors -- and has sparked fierce competition for the business In the latest go round, Unisys, in partnership with Google, emerged victorious with a contract to provide a cloud-based email system for the General Services Administration. However, it didn't tak...

In a move that confirms the U.S. government's recent emphasis on seeking cloud-based information technology solutions, the United States General Services Administration has awarded a contract for converting the agency's email system to a cloud platform. GSA gave the US$6.7 million, five-year task order to Unisys, which partnered with Google, Tempus Nova, and Acumen Solutions to compete for it...

Part 1 of this two-part series takes a look at some of the reasons government agencies are turning to open source to get more IT bang for their dwindling bucks The marketing stars appear to be coming into alignment for the vendors of open source offerings who are targeting the U.S. government. Significant barriers to adopting open source technology...

Local, state, and federal government agencies across the U.S. share the common goal of serving the public. They also share another contemporary fact of life: They are running out of money. As a result, efficiency is becoming a major goal in government at all levels, and information technology appears to be a key target for getting more bang for the buck...

Part 1 of this three-part series discusses the promise cloud computing holds for federal agencies to drastically cut costs while boosting performance and improving services. Part 2 explores the current governmental strategies for achieving broad-based adoption of cloud services The allure of utilizing the latest advance in information technology -...

Part 1 of this three-part series discusses the promise cloud computing holds for federal agencies to drastically cut costs while boosting performance and improving services The U.S. government is searching for ways to reduce the fog of bureaucracy to improve communication with citizens, and has turned to the cloud as a key strategy to achieve that ...

Government information technology procurement has been largely conducted on an independent basis, with each federal agency determining its own needs and acquiring the infrastructure -- both hardware and software -- to meet those needs. However, the procurement landscape may change significantly with the latest breakthrough in IT -- cloud computing.

The U.S. government spends US$80 billion annually on information technology. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is directly involved in nearly 25 percent of federal IT procurement activities through its Schedule 70 acquisition program, including nearly $9 billion directly for information technology investments. GSA has emerged as a lea...

The U.S. government spends US$80 billion annually on information technology. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is directly involved in nearly 25 percent of federal IT procurement activities through its Schedule 70 acquisition program, including nearly $9 billion directly for information technology investments. GSA has emerged as a lea...

The U.S. government spends US$80 billion annually on information technology. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is directly involved in nearly 25 percent of federal IT procurement activities through its Schedule 70 acquisition program, including nearly $9 billion directly for information technology investments. GSA has emerged as a lea...

A US$30 billion information technology market is hard to pass up. That's why the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) program to invest that huge amount of money in health records technology has received a lot of attention in the IT vendor community. That's normal. It is decidedly unusual, however, for Congressional committees to co...

The U.S. government's US$642-million program to encourage the use of electronic health records through federally created Regional Extension Centers (RECs) will involve a two-tiered effort featuring customer relationship management technology. The REC program is one of several federal initiatives promoting electronic health records The first tier of...

Part 1 of this two-part series discussed data access, data safety and other legal issues related to linking healthcare providers through networks In an economy where automobiles are essential, information about car performance and cost is readily available. With a few computer keystrokes a prospective buyer shopping the "previously owned" car marke...

Part 1 of this series discusses the growing trend toward adoption of electronic health records among healthcare providers, insurance companies, and government agencies. Part 2 discusses proposed regulations that would establish requirements providers must meet in order to receive federal funding for converting to electronic health records. A typic...

Part 1 of this series discusses the growing trend toward adoption of electronic health records among healthcare providers, insurance companies, and government agencies The U.S. healthcare sector is about to embark on a multibillion dollar information technology investment program to provide electronic medical records for tens of millions of patient...

When politicians are campaigning, voters get close attention as prospective buyers and customers. After they take office, however, and are charged with actually running a government, how often do the elected officials maintain a real customer orientation to the voters? In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Purdue concentrated on improving the operations of the s...

The first point of contact between a business and its customers is increasingly a website, not a phone call or an in-person store visit. For government agencies, where store-like "walk-in" access is either difficult or unavailable -- especially at the national level -- improving customer contact through the Internet has become an essential, continuing goal...

Part 1 of this series questions whether the heavy investments telecoms have been making to achieve long-term goals are the best CRM strategies or whether less-costly projects with faster paybacks might make more sense Telecom innovations have turned the entire globe into a neighborhood. The ability to carry a portable device, such as a laptop compu...

Most of today's telecom customers -- who use their phone apps to check the menu at a local eatery or text a friend -- are clueless about the origins of electronic media. Only those holding a Medicare card, perhaps, appreciate that in the early days of phone service, the telephone company's customer relationship management only involved the employment of a local switchboard operator to place calls. And the operator knew everyone in town. Social networking consisted of tapping into a "party line" conversation when there were no private landlines -- let alone personal, wireless cellphones...