USPS CIO simplifies whenever possible

Bob Otto, who retired as CIO and CTO with the United States Postal Service on October 1, says that he has three guiding principles when it comes to getting employees to accept new technologies: standardize everything, centralize everything and simplify. He's a big proponent of testing things himself. "Everything we build has to pass the 'Bob' factor. I put myself in the place of the lowest common denominator, of someone who might not have a high school degree. I look at how people could be intimidated by technology, and I don't want them to have a hard time," he told CIOInsight. When it comes to hiring staff, Otto says he looks at his positions as careers--not as spots where people come work for 3-4 years--so he always makes the work challenging. "Today you could be working on a wireless application, tomorrow you could be working on a PDA device. We're on the leading edge of letting people work on things that help improve our business."

To read the full interview:
- see the article in CIOInsight