The success of seat management trailblazers may tempt the timid to test the approach.
Most agencies are comfortable buying electricity and water from public utilities.
But in general, agencies still are not comfortable treating their information technology infrastructures as utilities by letting contractors handle everything from upgrading PCs and software to operating networks and help desks. Now that the trailblazers have begun to build a body of best practices, the timid may be tempted to test the new approach. With ODIN we are shifting civil servants away from things NASA isn't supposed to be doing as part of its mission. As the technology workforce crunch continues, this notion is gaining acceptance among managers and it is boosting support for seat management. Under seat management, an agency buys most of its IT infrastructure as a service that can include centralized asset management, help desk support and phone service.