IRS blends old and new IT programs

The Internal Revenue Service will merge its Business Systems Modernization (BSM) and Business Systems Development programs to create a new Applications Development organization, said W. Todd Grams, the IRS' chief information officer Monday.

Grams tapped Richard Spires, associate CIO for BSM, to lead the new organization.

Spires will continue as an associate CIO, but he will have additional responsibilities for overseeing the development of new business systems, maintaining years-old systems and integrating all of them.

Applications Development will become official in 30 to 45 days, Grams said. It will be the final piece of the IRS' reorganization, which started in August. Making the IRS work as one information technology organization is the principal reason for the latest merger, Grams said.

As part of the agency's larger reorganization plan, several layers of bureaucracy have been eliminated, including the position of associate CIO for IT services. With that post gone, Grams said he has four or five more people reporting directly to him.

Grams created a deputy CIO position and promoted Arthur Gonzalez, formerly of the IT services office, to fill that post in August 2005.