The Foreign Service Journal, February 2004

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 9 T he State Department has come a long way since its Wang tech- nology made State the butt of jokes. In particular, Secretary Powell and his management team have brought the department up to speed with its federal counterparts and set it on track to acquire technology that will enhance its leadership role in for- eign affairs. Over the past 10 years, State traded in its Wang computers for PCs operat- ing standard commercial software. By last May, 43,500 employees had gained access to a secure unclassified computer network linked to the Internet. And by the end of 2003, the department completed a similar classi- fied network with global reach and connected to many other U.S. govern- ment agencies. In fact, the Gartner Group, a noted technology consulting firm, recently informed a State Department steering committee that the department was about to enter the category of early adopters of information technology. But the dot-com bust taught business that being an early adopter is not enough. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review asserts “IT Doesn’t Matter.” Editor-at-Large Nicholas Carr contends that in the business world, acquiring a new tech- nology no longer brings guaranteed return on investment. Diminishing Returns? At a technology conference in Philadelphia last July, the buzz among vendors and contractors was that while the bloom was off the private sector rose, government offered a potential boom market. In fact, the Office of Management and Budget thinks that State’s IT budget, which now surpass- es $1 billion, is headed in the wrong direction: up instead of down. It is time to ask if the State Department is at the point of trying to buy its way out of operational prob- lems instead of learning better ways to use what it’s got. Information technol- ogy cannot make information more accessible for decision-making with- out intelligent policies and good prac- tices that promote knowledge sharing. Complaints in the corridors are not about a lack of equipment, but about the management of information. Chief among the complaints are those about stovepiped information, unfind- able documents and duplicative, unco- ordinated investments in new applica- tions. OMB is pressing State’s eGovern- ment Program Board to do something about the last problem, and requests for new projects face heavy documen- tation and scrutiny. But the other two problems will remain, no matter how much we spend, until we get our own house in order. The good news is that investments being made under the Diplomatic Readiness Initiative will provide solutions — provided our work force embraces them and adapts. Getting SMART SMART, which stands for State Messaging and Archive Retrieval Toolkit, is the largest single new pro- gram. It will replace cables, e-mail and other correspondence with a uni- fied messaging system. Being devel- oped for installation beginning in 2005, SMART will give each employee a single, portable electronic address, allow everyone to set his or her own profile for incoming messages, and permit much finer searches of corre- spondence. A steering committee selected from the department’s major business functions garnered unprecedented input from rank-and-file computer users in building the concept, per- suading more than 400 volunteers in Washington and at overseas posts to test a concept prototype last year. Their input shaped the final design of the system, to be piloted this spring in Northern Europe and Washington. In the course of developing SMART, State’s steering committee had to confront and resolve principles IT: Spending Is Not Enough B Y J OE B. J OHNSON S PEAKING O UT It is time to ask if the State Department is at the point of trying to buy its way out of operational problems instead of learning better ways to use what it’s got.