Microsoft Makes Strides in Government Sector

As government agencies continue to strive to operate more efficiently and offer improved services to taxpayers, they are turning with increasing frequency to Microsoft for technology and services that help them achieve their goals. To wit, a recent Federal Computer Week Government IT Buying Study finds that 91 percent of government organizations are using Microsoft software for enterprise and applications software. And another recent study, North American Government Application Software Adoption For 2007, Forrester Research, Inc., February 2007, finds that “Windows Server remains the primary OS for government,” with 67 percent of “government application software decision-makers identifying Windows Server as the OS that they use to run their most important enterprise packaged applications.” It’s part of a larger trend in which state and local governments are increasingly applying private business/commercial approaches to government in an effort to boost efficiency and provide the expanded services — e-Commerce and rich Web sites, for instance — that taxpayers have come to expect. In applying these approaches, IT professionals in governmental agencies face a peculiar set of challenges — from the realities of budget constraints to the difficulties inherent in connecting disparate departments while delivering a more integrated and reliable IT environment. To learn more about these challenges and the pros and cons state and city officials weigh as they try to make the most of precious IT dollars while providing the best possible service to employees and the public, PressPass spoke with Doug Kasamis, deputy director of IT with the State of Illinois; Shital Patel, chief information officer with the City of Indianapolis; and Ken Sorenson, chief technical officer with the City of Indianapolis. PressPass: Please describe some of the unique challenges you faced in terms of increasing efficiency, reducing costs and gaining greater value from your IT infrastructure. Kasamis: When Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich took ...