Microsoft In Government
I just received my corporate email congratulating me on my 6th month anniversary at Microsoft. It is hard to believe it has been six months already! I joined the Worldwide Public Sector team as their Industry Director looking out after their Dynamics line of products in government (more on the in future writings). Ever since coming to Microsoft I have had this burning desire to share what I've learned Microsoft with my past colleagues and friends who are still CIO's or IT Directors for public sector organizations. Hopefully this information will be useful to them as they continue to improve how their organizations use technology to better serve their citizens.
When I was a CIO one of my big frustrations with vendors was they are totally focused on selling products. They always stated out sharing all the bells and whistles their products had. It supports X, interfaces with Y and exports to Z. As a technologist, all really cool stuff but not much emphasis on solving the problems I was faced with trying to live on a tight budget. That is what attracted me to Microsoft's Worldwide Public Sector team. They were hiring a group of individuals who purpose was to create solutions to real problems governments are facing worldwide. The approach was to starts at the lowest level with citizenship programs to assist governments who are struggling with how they include their citizens in the digital age. Policy is also an area where Microsoft works with governments to drive standards that help governments protect their technology investments. OpenXML is an example. Moving up to the infrastructure layer and all of the traditional MS products that most CIO's are familiar with. A the upper level we focus on Industry solutions in 3 areas: Health, Education and Government. We call this the Connected Industry Framework.
Microsoft in government uses this as its framework to talk with customers and partners. As an former CIO I gives me something to talk about with all government stakeholders. At the political layer they are interested Citizenship and Policy issues, Infrastructure for the IT folks and Solutions for the business leaders. This blog will focus on sharing what Microsoft is doing in each of these areas and how they are helping governments drive transformation.
Another interesting part of my job is working with the MS product teams to ensure that their products meet the needs of public sector organizations. As our team talks with government leaders we bring back their feedback and advocate on their behalf to the product groups. I know as a CIO I was always looking for somebody on the inside who could take my message, find the right resource inside Microsoft and effect change.
Partners, Microsoft is all about partners. As a CIO with a talented development staff I never really had an appreciation for how much MS uses partners. In my current role, I see that they are critical to actually providing solutions. Microsoft in Government works with partners to develop those solutions and put them in the hands of government.
So, the last and probably most interesting part of my job is working with our subsidiaries and getting in front of government customers. It is always rewarding to meet customers are hear how they leverage our technology to be more efficient or provide new services. I am always amazed at how creative and talented the public sector community is at using technology to improve their organizations.
So in my travels within Microsoft and around with world with partners and customers I plan to share what I uncover so that others can leverage it to improve the quality of service to their citizens.
