Office of the Chief Information Officer Overview

The Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) is committed to providing high quality, enterprise IT services and solutions to all GSA associates in partnership with our customers: the services, staff offices, and regions. 

We provide:

  •          Enterprise wide IT infrastructure services, including desktop support and our wide area network
  •          IT Portfolio Management and IT Capital Planning and Investment Control
  •          IT security programs and security management
  •          Enterprise architecture to link business needs to our IT systems and services
  •          Integration of E-Gov and Line of Business Initiatives with the President's programs
  •          IT leadership within GSA

OCIO services enable all of GSA’s programs.  Our infrastructure is the backbone of GSA’s business and management applications.  Our IT Security Program protects our systems and facilitates our successful teleworking program.  Our help desk and on-site support are the point of contact for most of the IT services provided to our associates, from Blackberry and laptops, to security, voice and video capabilities.  We establish the policies and procedures that govern the use of IT at GSA and we are responsible for monitoring and reporting on our compliance with laws, regulations, orders, and directives.  We provide the agency’s enterprise architecture as a framework to manage IT resources.  We offer advice and expertise to the Administrator and GSA executives on leveraging IT services to support GSA business and service objectives.  OCIO does not provide direct IT applications development services or manage GSA data centers.  Those services are executed by each Staff and Service Offices in support of their mission. 

Strategic Goals  OCIO is committed to four Strategic Goals that structure our services across GSA: 

  • We will lead GSA in becoming a “learning organization” - providing advice and direction to our service and staff offices on new technologies and how they can be used to address programmatic problems
  • We will provide the policies, procedures and enforcement methodology to develop and deploy efficient systems - that are based on open standards, are integrated into the GSA architecture, provide quality data and meet standards for usability and accessibility
  • We will provide the tools to support the learning organization model and deliver efficient systems including governance, training, and a skilled workforce
  • We are compliant with oversight directives and requirements - OCIO develops methods to incorporate protocols and standards into projects that result in the information required for reports.

Challenges – In keeping with our commitment to providing the best and most effective enterprise IT services and solutions across GSA, OCIO has identified areas that we will be concentrating on for FY 2009-10: 

  • Modernization – GSA has a number of “stovepiped” legacy systems that support important programs in procurement, buildings management and budget.  GSA needs to expand our integrated Enterprise Architecture and use it to upgrade, modernize and in some cases replace these systems
  • Innovation – GSA serves all agencies of the Federal government and as such should be a source of innovation in deploying information technology to enable our programs.  In response, we are developing a standard set of core services across the agency that standardizes common services but supports business-specific applications. 
  • IT Security Mandates – GSA and all federal agencies are mandated to implement numerous new IT Security measures including laptop encryption, two factor authentication, and Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC).  GSA is making progress in implementing these mandates and doing it without additional funding.  We are working to maintain our level of support and compliance while managing the impacts to our end users through change management and communications initiatives. 
Last Reviewed 2/13/2009