Starting this summer, agencies must begin using a new process to review their information technology portfolios for wasteful spending and opportunities to share services, the administration said last Friday.
The new process, called PortfolioStat, is a “face-to-face,” data-based review that will help chief information, financial and acquisition officers to collectively “consolidate the acquisition and management of commodity IT, reduce duplication” and ensure that IT purchases align with their agency’s needs and mission. PortfolioStat will build on the administration’s TechStat sessions, which look at specific projects as opposed to the portfolio as a whole, according to a March 30 memo from Jeffrey Zients, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget and federal CIO Steven VanRoekel.
“We still face an unacceptable amount of duplicative and low-value IT,” VanRoekel said in a blog post announcing the PortfolioStat.
By May, agencies must complete a high-level review of their IT portfolios. By July 31, agencies have to conduct their first PortfolioStat session.
The administration expects that PortfolioStat will help agencies meet goals under the Federal Data Center Consolidation initiative, Cloud First and the Shared Services strategy.
