RAND reviews

Have had a great year under direction of the new CIO at RAND .. Bill Howell. We have structure, purpose and leadership at the top. He's added a level of real professionalism to the IS dept at RAND .. and is a quality human being to boot. You can be both!

Management brought in a new CIO who emphasizes concentrating on projects that add value to the company. He challenges existing concepts and is detailed when it comes to approving new endeavors. There is emphasis on a few important projects that support the RAND strategic mission. This and pushing to reduce support work to allow developers to concentrate on important projects has helped to allow us to get more real work done. In some ways it has made work less stressful, although not completely. RAND is a company where the environment is stimulating. At RAND you work with very talented researchers who generally are eager to have your help and recognize that you have something to offer them that they can't do themselves. The research that we are involved in affects everyone and adds to policy and decisionmaking ability for all of the most current issues we face. It makes you proud to work here. The CIO has an open-door policy and it seems like if you spend time with him to get his feelings about a project you are working on it helps to make sure that you will be headed in the right direction. I think it appears that his approach is working. Our internal clients have said that the differences they see are positive and we hear that the reputation of our IS department is good and getting better.