Leadership is the primary open government driver at the Social Security Administration

I had the opportunity to speak with Frank Baitman, CIO at the Social Security Administration, earlier this week to better understand his thoughts on the role of open government in his agency.

Frank impressed me a great deal when he stated that open government is more about culture than technology, technology is simply the enabler, not the driver, of open government.  The ability of President Obama to define the goals, to demand improvement, has enabled other leaders in government to move open government forward.

While many in government are embracing this change, not everyone is yet.  Frank considers himself a zealot, passionate for change. In his opinion, one of his missions is to educate and get others in the agency to buy into this change.  Leadership, communication, education, and then technology guides the agency forward.

The Social Security Administration is an organization that needs to embrace change and seek innovative new ways to increase quality of service and reduce costs.  Take a look at some of the key statistics about this organization:

• It has a staff of approximately 70,000 employees.
• There are 10 regional offices, 6 processing centers, and approximately 1,260 field offices.
• Approximately 49,000,000 people visit field offices every year.
• 37% of retirement claims are filed on-line.

A goal for the agency is to increase the number of claims filed on-line as scalability is critical. Another challenge, one that keeps Frank up at night, is how to keep citizens engaged with the open government initiative.  As with marketing initiatives in the private sector, it is important that citizens find the resources on-line, find long-term benefits, and continue to come back on a regular basis.  This is a challenge all agencies and government entities must solve if open government is to have a bright future. 

What on-line services would keep you engaged with the Social Security Administration?