Earlier this week, Tim, Jason Busch and I penned an open letter to President Obama asking when he’ll deliver his spend management plan. It’s a valid question given the vacancies in 2 out of 3 top procurement spots. However, as Procurement Leaders pointed out yesterday, some improvements in US Government procurement may still be moving forward, but driven by “customers” like Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra.

Chopra, the nation’s first CTO, met with 350 Silicon Valley leaders earlier this week. Among the many changes he cited were the onerous RFP process for IT equipment which scares away vendors:

“How many of you had tried to respond to an RFP [request for proposal] with 5,000 detailed requirements? When you do, your intervention could be done with pennies on the dollar. This is the challenge we’re confronting in the ‘right now’.”

Looking at Aneesh Chopra’s resume, it is clear he’s focused on results and open to creative, sometimes low-cost, solutions to get there. For example, his novel approach as CTO of the Commonwealth of Virginia earned him praise from technology luminary Tim O’Reilly, who pointed out accomplishments in Virginia’s technology infrastructure, including:

• “The first officially-approved open source textbook in the country, the Physics Flexbook.
• Integrating iTunes U with Virginia’s state education assessment framework;
• A Ning-based social network to connect clinicians working in small health care offices in remote locations;
• A lightweight approval and testing process that allows the government to try out new technologies before making a full, expensive commitment.”

Not only is this track record a departure from the expensive build rather than buy model many government agencies ascribe to, it actually leverages cutting edge, open-source and low-cost technologies.

If - and I know it’s a big if - Mr. Chopra can streamline the IT procurement process and shift the focus to creating value, it will be a significant departure from the traditional (or at least stereotypical) government model. Imagine if the government were to have three things in place … stakeholders who valued ROI rather than pork, procurement leadership delivering value to those stakeholders and their constituencies, and an efficient process that utilizes technology and best practices to provide visibility and results.

Obviously, we’re not there yet. But at least there are slow steps (actually at this point, it’s more rhetoric about taking steps than actual steps) in the right direction. The question is, can the President and his administration deliver?

Justin Fogarty is Managing Editor of Supply Excellence. For any questions or feedback on the blog or its contributors, Justin can be reached at jfogarty[at]ariba.com.