Federal officials often say government should run more like a business--but they rarely specify which one, especially one that the federal official in question admires for its Borg-like efficiency in excising chaff.

Terry Halvorsen, chief information officer of the Navy Department, said May 12 that his service should be more like Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), due to that company's ability to "throw everything else away" from a merged company that they don't want. When talking with that company's CIO, Halvorsen said company practices reminded him of the Borg, the fictional Star Trek villains whose catch phrase is "Resistance is futile."

"He said, 'absolutely, and you will be assimilated.'" Halvorsen said.

"We have got to start doing that," Halvorsen added. He spoke during a session of a biannual Navy Department information technology conference, held in Virginia Beach, Va. His office posted online June 7 a recording of the session.

Halvorsen's remarks came in the context of an update of Navy Department efforts to save money as part of a larger effort to cut expenditures in preparation of what's expected to be a decade of relative austerity for the military services. The department has about 2,000 applications running on its networks, Halvorsen said, a number that has to come down. That number of applications "makes everything harder and it costs a lot of money," he said.

Halvorsen kicked off the session by telling conference attendees to look underneath their chairs. Rather than an Oprah-esque surprise waiting for them, however, attendees found nothing.

"Some seats had a huge bill. So for those of you who got nothing, you won. That's our new way of rewarding people: By not punishing them," he said.

Among the efforts the department is taking to cut spending is reducing data centers; Halvorsen said five have been cut this year, leaving about 140 of them, and number that should go down to 100 by the end of 2013.

In addition, the Navy has agreed to use a Marine Corps enterprise license contract vehicle for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).  "It will be the only avenue available to buy Microsoft from. There will be no waiver to that," he said.

For more:
- go to the DON CIO webpage with the recording (abridged transcript also available)

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