HHS' enterprising game plan

New leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services, the need to secure systems and the reality of tight budgets are breathing new life into plans to create enterprise systems that can work across the department.

HHS traditionally has had a distributed culture, but Brian Burns, HHS deputy chief information officer, said the concerns about security and budgets are driving organizations toward centralized systems. A few HHS organizations are still reluctant to accept the concept of enterprise systems, he said, but most of the department has come around.

"In order for us to continue to supply equal or better service with equal or even less staff, we have to automate and consolidate," Burns said recently, following a presentation at Federal Sources Inc.'s annual Outlook conference.

HHS leadership, including Secretary Tommy Thompson, has made the issue more of a priority. "The new secretary is very interested in saving money in IT," Burns said. That interest is reflected in creating enterprise systems instead of relying on individual, parochial systems.

Security is also spurring more enterprise developments, Burns said. HHS has about 3,100 individual servers and 2,000 Web sites. "We need to do some consolidation there and streamline that approach," he said.

HHS has tried to use successful pilots to generate support for enterprise systems. HHS let operating divisions decide their critical areas, develop a system and let the functionality and success of those systems attract users, Burns said.

"Nobody is going to believe when you say that you have a better mousetrap. If they see you're doing it, then they are more likely to buy in," he said.