FBI exec investigates outsourcing

Bob Dies, the FBI's assistant director for information resources, believes

the bureau should concentrate on what it does best: investigation.

For that reason, Dies anticipates outsourcing as much as possible to

free up bureau resources from business operations.

"I'm not a phone company, so I probably don't need to own telephone

lines," he said in an interview Wednesday. However, he said, the bureau

buys computer servers and FBI employees write applications — even though

the FBI is not in the computer or software business.

"The question we should ask ourselves is, Why don't we outsource it?"

Dies said. "At the end of the day, the bureau is here to investigate. I

think we should try to outsource as much as we can."

Dies knows what he's talking about. For decades IBM Corp. — where Dies

spent 30 years — operated its own manufacturing and applications operations,

he said. But 10 years ago the company outsourced those areas to concentrate

on its own core business.