Special Report: Former ITAA Leader's Day of Reckoning

Harris Miller has never been one to back away from a challenge. When he was a congressional aide, he pushed for energy independence, and transportation and immigration reform, and led the overhaul of a government personnel system. When he was president of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), he led support for the passage of the Telecommunications Act, assured statutory protections for IT companies, and drove government procurement reform. And now, as candidate for Senate, he's declaring Washington fundamentally broken. Voters head to the polls on Tuesday to choose the democratic contender for the Virginia Senate seat. From the looks of things, Miller faces an uphill battle. Most polls point to his opponent, James Webb, as the frontrunner, and even if he came out victorious, incumbent Virginia Sen. George Allen is favored to win the seat come November. In a survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports in April, voters chose Allen over Miller 51 percent to 34 percent. Such findings could be the result of Miller's tenacity; some argue he has as many adversaries as he does supporters. But one thing is relatively certain -- he brings with him a pragmatic view of the IT community, government and how the two should ideally work together. "The people in government think of technology as a separate sector unto itself, instead of thinking of it as one part of all other priorities," Miller says. "Government needs to realize how the Internet and IT as a whole can make health care more affordable and efficient, expand how people get educated and improve the services delivered to citizens. Government needs to stop thinking of the IT industry the same as the many other groups that approach Washington: hands out, asking for support." Man On a Mission

Harris Miller says the government needs to learn how to better put IT to work.

For Miller, that's more than just lip service. In his 30 years working in both public and private sector, he's never strayed too far from Capitol Hill. Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with his agenda, there's few who question that he'll make himself heard by both sides of the political divide. "During [his time as president], ITAA consistently demonstrated its willingness and ability to work with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle," says Bob Laurence, Sybase vice president and interim president of ITAA. "Personally, I have enjoyed my friendship with Harris, and I will always wish him well with whatever he pursues." While at ITAA, Miller certainly kept busy. He lobbied before Congress for flexible guidelines or best practices in information security rather than rigid standards, promoted industry as a leader in tackling Internet security, supported laws that prohibit states from imposing taxes on Internet access and electronic commerce, pushed hard for the creation of an assistant secretary for cybersecurity, and drove outsourcing as a more effective strategy for conducing a variety of IT operations. Of course, he's received the most flack for the latter, with many pointing to Miller as an advocate for offshoring and subsequently the loss of U.S. jobs. But Miller asserts the contrary. "'Outsourcing' is not necessarily 'offshoring,'" he said during a Senate hearing in 2004. "Rather, offshore development and maintenance is a subset of outsourcing. Outsourcing reduces cost, which in turn reduces prices. Reduced prices mean that more customers can enjoy the benefits of IT, including small and midsize companies that might not otherwise afford the capital investment." NEXT: Despite a wealth of opinions, Miller's one constant message.

Suffice to say, Miller has a lot of opinions. But one message remains constant across all of his testimonies, public statements and media sound bytes: Government needs to take cues from the industry in how it leverages IT, and to rely on the technology community to establish the process for doing so. While some in Washington are warming up to that idea, Miller says most are distracted by soapbox issues. What occupies "the talking heads in Washington," he says, are not what people care about, but rather a "verbal rugby" that involves constant screaming with little accomplished. "We have to ask, are we running this government right, and the clear answer is no," he says. The failures are massive, Miller says, pointing to health care as one of the most significant trouble areas. While the medical devices available are phenomenal, he refers to the technology to manage these devices a disaster -- resulting in a loss of billions of dollars in potential savings for individuals and the government. He acknowledges that the administration is starting to talk about health care IT, but questions how a bankrupt government will come up with the necessary funds to make initiatives a reality. He points to the e-government initiative, which started with the 25 Quicksilver projects in five categories: government to citizen, government to business, government to government, internal efficiency and effectiveness, and cross-cutting. The rationale was good and agencies were trying, Miller says, but when it came time to provide funding, there was no weight behind it from the administration. "A couple initiatives were executed well, but a lot withered on the vine," he says. "When the political chips had to be used for funding, they wouldn't invest." 'Fixing' a Broken Government So than what's his solution? Miller says government will remain broken until three things happen: the administration gets the "fiscal mess" in order, processes change for better management of government and procurement, and greater investments are made in the future, namely through education, research and development, and technology. While the IT budget for 2006 and the proposed budget for 2007 were decent enough, reflecting what some perceive as a tangible investment, Miller says it's a very deceptive piece of a much larger puzzle. "Last year, 14,000 special-interest provisions passed in appropriation bills -- that's compared to 2,000 10 years ago," he says. "That's the fundamental corruption of the process. Who doesn't get those special interest projects is the IT community. We have to get back to the normal process where money is provided based on real need and people, not because a lobbyist convinced a congressmen." And regardless of how funds are allocated, the growing deficit -- now a reported $8.3 trillion -- makes changes hard to implement. Digging out and becoming more efficient requires fundamental changes in how government runs, Miller says, pointing to Mark Warner, former governor of Virginia, who was elected at a time when the state was arguably among the worst managed in the country. "He got the fiscal house in order by building a bipartisan coalition, brought in a Secretary of IT, and took a business approach to politics," he says. "Whether it was how the DMV or transportation functions or the process for how agencies buy, he made changes that led Virginia to the top. Here I was, watching Mark, and meanwhile the mess in Washington was getting worse and worse." NEXT: Lessons Miller maintains the feds can learn from state and local agencies.

Beyond Warner, Miller says the federal government should take cues from state government as a whole, particularly in how they work with partners. Less shackled by standards and governmentwide IT contracts and requirements, state and local agencies can focus on demands and work collaboratively. Let the government take on risk, Miller says, but let the vendors, solution providers and systems integrators take on some as well. "They're willing to; they're willing to go out and get paid for performance and share in benefits, so that part of their compensation comes from the money they help an agency save with a financial system," he says. "But the system is not designed that way at the federal level." While the Clinger-Cohen Act (CCA) established that government procurement operate like an efficient and profitable business, with acquisition, planning and management of technology treated as a "capital investment," Miller says the reality is something much different. Big ideas are thrown out -- from major reform of telecom systems, to transformation of military -- only to be pulled back and all but disappear. He equates it to what the tech industry refers to as vaporware -- a product that is promised but never delivered, and eventually laughed at. Miller's answer is not legislation per se, but "improving the process to enable change, and then developing a path to make change happen." To Miller, that's the best any business and technology background can teach a person: Get the process running right, then find a different and better way of doing things. So what would a hypothetical win by Miller mean for the channel? Hard to say, but having a long-time advocate for industry and the IT community, specifically, on the other side of the fence is certainly appealing to some. "Harris knows the industry, and if we in the reseller community wanted to get someone's attention, he could be a person that would have a far better understanding of our plight that others," says Reza Zarafshar, president and CEO of Arlington, Va.-based Advanced Computer Concepts. "I would much rather see people like Harris be on the campaign trail and getting elected than former CEOs of some huge corporations." Regardless of how Miller's campaign plays out, the industry's job is to continue what he started. Act as the catalysts for change, he says, be more out front with innovative solutions, and don't be afraid to prove the naysayer wrong. "I think oftentimes the government-contracting community hides its own light under the bushel," Miller says. "They're not aggressive enough to say, 'If you, the government, allows us to be more innovative, we could really do some important things.' Industry has to combat the fact that while many people in government are willing to look for more creative solutions, the government as a customer tends to be very conservative. Agencies are afraid something will go wrong, and they'll have the newspaper headline that says, 'Government Contract Fails.' So what happens, instead, is government wastes billions each month on crackpot ideas."