[Analytical Perspectives]
[Crosscutting Programs]
[9. Integrating Services with Information Technology]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]
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9. INTEGRATING SERVICES WITH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
This year, the President is proposing to spend about $64 billion for
Information Technology (IT) and associated support services to deliver
results for the American people, providing timely and accurate
information to citizens and Government decision makers while ensuring
security and privacy.
As one of the largest users and acquirers of data, information and
supporting technology systems in the world, the United States Government
will continue its efforts to strengthen our capabilities in managing
technology and information in order to be the world's leader in
information technology. Departments and agencies are determined to build
upon past success including their experience with enterprise
architecture and to apply new principles and methods such as earned
value management (EVM) to achieve greater savings, better results and
improved customer service levels.
ACHIEVING RESULTS
The Federal Government continues to deliver results through the
adoption of electronic government management principles and best
practices for the implementation of information technology. Departments
and agencies are focused on:
Improving service levels to citizens and Government decision
makers;
Making better purchasing decisions;
Securing our systems and data; and
Reducing duplication and related costs.
With these goals in mind, the Federal departments and agencies are
fulfilling the goals of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996. This Act also
requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to
submit an annual report to the Congress on the results we are achieving
from Federal IT spending. This Budget chapter and Table 9-1,
``Effectiveness of Agency's IT Management and E-Gov Processes,''
included on the CD-ROM, fulfill the statutory reporting requirement.
Other management guidance provided to Federal departments and agencies
is included on Table 9-2, ``Management Guidance,'' and is available at
www.whitehouse.gov/OMB/memoranda.
Government Performance.--The Federal Government has shown improvement
over the last year in achieving the goals specifically included in the
President's Management Agenda, the Expanded Electronic Government
initiative. For example, each IT investment must have specific
performance targets tied to a specific significant benefits for our
citizens and performance must be defined, valued and delivered in terms
of measurable outcomes.
The Federal departments and agencies continue to improve in their
efforts to guarantee success and results for the taxpayer. The
Administration continues to monitor the performance of its IT
investments. With the release of the FY 2006 President's Budget, there
were 342 major projects representing about $15 billion on the
``Management Watch List,'' i.e., those project justifications needing
improvement in performance measurement, earned value management or
system security. Before the start of the fiscal year, agencies were
directed to remedy the shortfalls identified prior to expending funds.
The agencies have worked to correct the weaknesses or have put measures
in place to monitor the progress of the project. If a project is still
on the ``Management Watch List,'' agencies must describe their plans to
manage or mitigate risk before undertaking or continuing that project.
As of September 30, 2005, 84 percent of the agencies (21 of 25) had
acceptable FY 2006 business cases. As a result, from last year's
``Management Watch List,'' only 19 business cases, valued in FY 2006 at
$314.5 million from four agencies remain. As of the printing of this
budget, 263 of 857 projects valued at $9.9 billion are on the
``Management Watch List.'' These projects still need to address
performance measures, implementation of earned value management,
security or other issues before obligating funding in FY 2007.
The Report on Information Technology (IT) Spending for the Federal
Government (Exhibit 53) located at www.whitehouse.gov/OMB, provides
details of the Administration's proposed 2007 IT investments. Related
documents on IT security and Electronic Government (E-Government) will
also be available at www.whitehouse.gov/OMB and will be published by
March 1, 2006.
Since the Administration's guidance on capital assets has not changed
from FY 2005 through FY 2007, investments were studied for trends and
potential duplications across Government entities. At about $64 billion,
the 2007 Federal IT portfolio represents nearly a 3 percent increase
over the FY 2006 President's Budget (see July 2005, Update to the Report
on Information Technology (IT) Spending for the Federal Government
(Exhibit 53) located at www.whitehouse.gov/OMB.) The following
represents the highlights:
Percent
FY 2005 FY 2006 FY 2007 \1\ Change
Major IT Investments.......... 1,130 1,087 857 -21%
Not Well Planned and Managed 745 358 263 -27%
\2\..........................
Well Planned and Managed...... 385 682 594 -13%
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(Value in millions)
Major IT Investments.......... $32,341 $40,979 $36,999 -10%
Not Well Planned and Managed $23,863 $16,218 $9,938 -39%
\2\..........................
Well Planned and Managed...... $8,478 $24,761 $27,061 9%
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Change from FY 2006 to FY 2007.
\1\ Reflects investments on Management Watch List as well as those rated
Unacceptable.
In reviewing the overall IT portfolio, the trend of decreasing major
IT investments is attributed to departments' and agencies' efforts to
better manage their Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC)
process in conformance with their enterprise architectures. Although the
trend may indicate a problem, the maturing CPIC processes provide for
greater oversight and evaluation of the investments achieving and/or
addressing intended results by departments' and agencies' Chief
Information Officers. This oversight and understanding allows for
changes in the IT portfolio to address mission priorities, consolidation
and elimination of redundant investments.
The Administration continues its oversight to ensure the American
taxpayer's dollars are being invested wisely. This oversight includes
analysis of overlapping or duplicative IT investments as well as high
risk projects. Avoiding duplication is one of the four principal
criteria agencies must report on high risk projects as included in OMB's
Memorandum M-05-23, ``Improving Information Technology Project Planning
and Execution,'' dated August 4, 2005.
The other three criteria are:
establishing and validating baselines with clear goals;
managing and measuring projects to within 10% of baseline
goals using earned value management; and
having a qualified project manager.
Agencies work with OMB to identify high-risk projects (those requiring
special attention from oversight authorities and the highest level of
agency management) and report on them quarterly to OMB. As a result,
oversight authorities and agency management now have data on how these
projects are performing at least quarterly to ensure improved execution
and performance. OMB is working with the agencies to implement
corrective actions in cases where a project did not meet one or more of
the four principal criteria.
When duplication across Federal agencies has been identified, the
Administration has an ongoing process, through inter-agency taskforces,
to bring together the appropriate agencies and help them to consider
broad-based approaches to promote inter-agency data sharing and
cooperation in building common solutions, rather than maintaining
separate investments. Upon migration to common, Government-wide
solutions, agencies will shut down redundant systems which will not only
save money but also free-up resources for agencies to better focus on
achieving their missions. These inter-agency taskforces focus on the
agency Lines of Business (LoB) rather than a specific technology or
investment. In FY 2006, there was significant progress made on six LoB
efforts. These are:
Case Management
Federal Health Architecture
Financial Management
Human Resources Management
Grants Management
Information System Security
Case Management.--The Department of Justice with the Department of
Homeland Security developed the business and architectural solution for
sharing investigative case management information. The work will
continue this year under the leadership of the Department of Justice to
ensure the solution is applicable Government-wide to improve the
effectiveness and efficiency of sharing information for law enforcement,
investigation and civil and criminal litigation case management.
Federal Health Architecture (FHA).--The Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) continues to work through the Office of the National
Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT). In October 2005,
the American Health Information Community (AHIC) was established by the
Secretary of HHS. The AHIC comprises representation from the private
sector, industry, State and local government, and the Federal
Government, and will advise the Secretary of HHS on health information
technology issues. A total of $5.5 billion for health information
technology is being requested for FY07, a slight increase from the
FY2006 request of $5.4 billion.
Throughout the coming year, the Administration will continue to focus
on the improvement of the quality and efficiency of health care by
ensuring the appropriate steps are taken to eventually enable Federal
health information technology systems to share health information
amongst Federal agencies, with the private sector, and with other
governmental entities. Specifically, the Administration will focus on
the areas of standards implementation, additional standards development
and harmonization, alignment of agency investments, and increased
interoperability.
Financial Management (FM) and Human Resources Management (HR).--As
part of the FY 2006 budget process, OMB designated the following
agencies as LoB service provider candidates, capable of entering into
competitions for servicing interested Federal agencies:
FM: GSA, Interior, Treasury, and Transportation
HR: USDA, Interior, Treasury, HHS, and DOD
This year, these departments and agencies will focus on agency
migrations and on fulfilling the promise of service providers to realize
economies of scale and improved service delivery to customer agencies.
Agencies will continue to use their existing legacy systems for the
remainder of their system life cycle. At the point when an agency needs
to replace or upgrade their HR or FM system, they will migrate to
service providers. Although there were additional requests by
departments and agencies to become cross-agency service pro
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viders, the Administration has not expanded the list of potential
providers beyond the original service providers selected last year.
Grants Management.--Currently, more than 900 programs in over 26
grant-making agencies provide $526 billion annually in Federal financial
assistance. The evolution of grants management processes and systems has
largely happened in a decentralized manner resulting in highly stove-
piped operations. The cross-agency team identified a ``consortia-based''
approach to implementation and developed a process for forming consortia
and agencies participating in consortia as members. The consortia
approach aligns agency work teams (consortia) around shared business
interests. Each consortium provides planning, leadership, business, and
program direction with the goal of defining a common solution to meet
its members' needs. The target operating model states the grants
management community will process grants in a decentralized way using
common business processes supported by shared technical support services
and estimates savings of more than $2.4 billion can be expected between
FY 2008 through FY 2015 through this consortia approach. To realize
these benefits and cost savings, the Administration asked the taskforce
for recommendations for agencies with the skills and capabilities to
function as a Consortium Provider. The recommendations were evaluated
similarly to the financial management and human resources cross-agency
service providers assessing past performance, current capabilities and
ability to operate a customer-focused organization. On the basis of the
review, the following agencies were designated as eligible to be grants
management consortia providers:
Department of Education
Department of Health and Human Services
National Science Foundation
This year, the consortia providers will develop the infrastructure and
capabilities necessary to cross-service other agencies including fee-
for-service models with performance metrics.
Information Systems Security.--The cross-agency taskforce analyzed
commonly used IT security processes and controls in an effort to
identify the extent to which consolidation opportunities existed in the
Federal Government. Their analysis indicated more than 25 percent ($1.4
billion) of the overall funds ($4.5 billion in FY 2006 up from $4.2
billion in FY 2005) go towards implementing four common processes--
training, reporting, incident response and evaluating and selecting
security products and services. The taskforce identified common
solutions to be shared across Government and developed a joint business
case outlining a general concept of operations with overall milestones
and budget estimates. The Administration asked all agencies to submit
proposals to either become a service provider for other agencies, or
migrate to another agency from which they would acquire expert security
services. Upon reviewing the proposals, the Administration will select
the service providers for training and reporting during FY 2006 in
conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security, who is continuing
to serve as the program manager for this effort and will work with those
agencies proposing to become service centers to bring greater clarity to
their proposals. The taskforce will continue to explore the
establishment of security centers of excellence in areas of incident
response and evaluating and selecting products and processes.
With this President's Budget, the Administration plans to establish
the following new LoBs:
IT Infrastructure.--to further refine the opportunities for
IT infrastructure consolidation and optimization and develop
Government-wide common solutions. The LoB taskforce will
define specific common performance measures for service levels
and costs, identify best practices and develop guidance for
transition plans within agencies and/or across agencies for
activities such as IPv6. Consolidation and optimization of IT
infrastructure represents a significant opportunity for future
cost savings. Based on industry benchmarks and analysis of
agencies' FY07 IT budget submissions, the Federal Government
could potentially save between 16 percent and 27 percent
annually on its IT infrastructure budget and between $18
billion and $29 billion over 10 years by taking a more
coordinated approach to spending on commodity IT
infrastructure, such as help desks, data centers, and
telecommunications. IT infrastructure consolidation and
optimization case studies also demonstrate agencies could
improve IT service levels and, when relieved of the burden of
managing these non-core functions, can concentrate more on
mission priorities and results.
Geospatial.--to identify opportunities for optimizing and
consolidating Federal geospatial-related investments to reduce
the cost of Government and improve services to citizens
through business performance improvements. The LoB taskforce
will analyze cost benefits, alternatives and risks, define
roles and responsibilities, expected outcomes, performance
measures, milestones, and timelines. The Federal Geographic
Data Committee will continue to develop the National Spatial
Data Infrastructure and full implementation will require
Federal agencies to play a critical role; therefore, the
establishment of the Geospatial LoB will ensure sustainable
business model for Federal partners to establish a sustainable
business model for Federal partners to collaborate on
geospatial-related activities and investments.
Budgeting.--to build toward a ``budget of the future''
employing standards and technologies for electronic
information exchange to link budget, execution, performance,
and financial information throughout all phases of the annual
budget formulation and execution cycle. As first outlined in
the FY 2004 Report to Congress on Implementation of the E-
Government Act of 2002, the LoB taskforce will identify
opportunities for common
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solutions and automated tools to enhance agency and central
budget processes. It will also:
--Promote integration and standardize information exchange between
budget formulation, execution, financial management, and
performance measurement systems and activities across
Government;
--Institutionalize Budget and Performance Integration, including
aligning programs and their outputs and outcomes with budget
levels and actual costs; and
--Provide Government with enhanced capabilities for analyzing
budget, performance, and financial information.
The Administration continues to leverage Government buying power while
reducing redundant purchases through the SmartBUY program. Launched in
June 2003, the SmartBUY program continues to provide increased cost
avoidance savings to Federal agencies through new and existing
agreements with commercial software providers. In FY 2005, the Federal
Government signed a SmartBUY agreement with Oracle Inc. which provides a
mandatory contract vehicle for all agencies purchasing Oracle database
and database with security software products. The Federal Government has
achieved avoidance of $174.8 million in the first six months of the
contract alone. The SmartBUY Office continues to manage four agreements.
The Administration anticipates the establishment of a new agreement in
Spring 2006 with Antivirus software developers and will continue to
identify and develop new agreements throughout the year.
Government IT Workforce.--Qualified Federal IT Project Managers with
skilled interdisciplinary teams are the first line of defense against
the cost overruns, schedule slippages, poor performance, and weakened
security which threaten agencies' ability to deliver efficient and
effective services to citizens.
On April 15, 2005, the Administration requested agencies to develop
and submit to OMB plans for closing important IT skill and competency
gaps. (Memorandum to the President's Management Council from Deputy
Director for Management, ``Human Capital Planning for the IT
Workforce'') The Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council identified IT
Project Management, IT Architecture (Enterprise and Solutions), and IT
Security as job activities important at the Federal level due to their
direct contribution to fulfilling the E-Government element of the
President's Management Agenda. Agency plans were submitted to OMB on
August 30, 2005. The following chart highlights the current and planned
staffing as submitted to OMB:
# of FY 2006 # of
Positions on Positions to
Board be Filled
IT Project Management....................... 4,618.95 599.95
IT Security................................. 9,030.40 488.47
IT Architecture (Enterprise)................ 1,168.67 179.80
IT Architecture (Solutions)................. 941.70 148.03
---------------------------
Total..................................... 15,759.72 1,416.25
Across all job areas, the most frequently occurring skill and
competency gaps were:
Federal/OMB Enterprise Architecture--Activities related to
the business-based framework developed by OMB for Government-
wide improvement;
Risk Management--Knowledge of methods and tools used for
risk assessment and mitigation of risk;
Standards--Knowledge of standards which are either compliant
with or derived from established standards or guidelines;
Process Design--Activities related to the strategic
establishment of the flow of information, control or materials
from one activity to another;
Systems Analysis and Design.--Activities related to the
design, specification, feasibility, cost, and implementation
of a computer system for business. Knowledge of the
development and implementation process, metrics and tools for
analysis, design and project management, quality factors and
post evaluation techniques.
Although agencies are reporting gaps in the Enterprise Architecture
(EA) job areas, a review of agency EA's indicates much progress has been
made in EA Government-wide compensating for this skill gap through
contractor support services. This is evidenced by all agencies having an
effective EA (average evaluation of the EA section of the FY 2007
Business cases is 3.33 of 5) as assessed by OMB.
While agencies reported on their Exhibit 53's more than 70% of major
IT investments as having a qualified project manager, there continue to
be gaps in project management capabilities. In many cases, a project
manager supports multiple investments, diminishing their effectiveness.
Across the FY 2007 Business Cases, the average evaluation of the Project
Management section is 3.21 (with a ``3'' defined as much work remains in
order for Project Management to manage the risk of this project).
Agencies are addressing Project Management issues in several ways
including additional training, mentoring, development of Communities of
Practice, skills incentive programs, efforts to increase retention of
staff, and increased recruiting efforts. Agency plans indicate in FY
2006 an overwhelming majority of these positions present a Medium or
High risk to the agency of not being able to accomplish mission
objectives (such as delivering critical functionality on schedule and
within budget). Given competing budgetary priorities, the Administration
will focus IT staffing efforts on job areas not demonstrating adequate
results. As such, the agencies will, within agencies' funding levels,
prioritize the hiring of IT Project Management positions rather than EA
positions where possible. This prioritization of staffing allows
agencies to make efficient use of resources while improving the quality
of agency Project Management.
Going forward, the Administration will measure agency progress in
further strengthening IT management--both in terms of hiring progress as
well as train
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ing, mentoring, development of skills incentive programs, etc.--on a
quarterly basis to inform PMA Scorecard decisions and reflected in the
Human Capital Scorecard requirement.
Other initiatives sponsored or organized by the Office of Personnel
Management, the General Services Administration, and the CIO Council
further strengthen the Federal information technology workforce and
ensure agencies can achieve their mission. An IT Quarterly Forum
convenes to discuss and share promising practices regarding information
technology initiatives. A partnership between CIO University and seven
universities graduated over 600 students trained in Federal information
technology management. Finally, the Scholarship for Service (Cyber
Corps) Program provides more than 300 student scholarships and paid
internships working on information security at agencies.
Securing Government Systems.--The Federal Government continues to
improve the identification and resolution of long-standing, serious, and
pervasive IT security problems. Agencies report quarterly on their
efforts to address IT security weaknesses against key IT security
performance measures.
The 2005 agency Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)
reports reveal increased attention and progress in the area of system
certification and accreditation. In FY 2005, the percentage of certified
and accredited systems rose from 77 percent to 85 percent. In addition,
overall quality of the certification and accreditation processes at
agencies increased, with over two-thirds of the agencies having a
process in place rated as ``satisfactory'' or better by the Inspector
General (IG). To complement the certification and accreditation process,
over 75 percent of agencies can demonstrate they have an effective
process in place for identifying and correcting weaknesses.
Several agencies have made outstanding progress in FY 2005. For
example, the Department of Defense moved from 58 percent to 82 percent
of systems certified and accredited and the Department of Veterans
Affairs improved from 14 percent to 100 percent.
The overall security status and progress in percentage of systems,
from FY 2002 to FY 2005, is as follows:
FY 2002 FY 2003 FY 2004 FY 2005
Effective Security and Privacy 47% 62% 77% 85%
Controls (C&A).................
Tested Contingency Plans........ 35% 48% 57% 60%
Total Systems reported.......... 7,957 7,998 8,623 10,289
The number of agencies where the IG has verified the process exists to
remediate IT security weaknesses (POA&M):
FY 2002................................ N/A (was not required in until
FY 2003)
FY 2003................................ 12
FY 2004................................ 18
FY 2005................................ 19
While notable progress in resolving IT security weaknesses has been
made, challenges remain and new threats and vulnerabilities continue to
materialize. Additional information and detail concerning the Federal
Government's IT security program and agency IT security performance can
be found in OMB's Annual Report to Congress on IT Security. The next
such report will be issued by March 1, 2006 and will be made available
on OMB's website.
Initiative to Secure Federal Information Systems and Facilities.--
Inconsistent agency approaches to facility security and computer
security are inefficient and costly, and increase risks to the Federal
Government. On August 27, 2004 the President signed Homeland Security
Presidential Directive (HSPD) 12, ``Policy for a Common Identification
Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors,'' which requires
agencies to implement a mandatory, Government-wide standard for secure
and reliable forms of identification for Federal employees and
contractors. HSPD-12 requires a complex deployment on an accelerated
time table. During FY 2006-FY 2008, agencies are required to complete
issuance of these IDs to all applicable employees and contractors and
install infrastructure to use them.
Protecting Privacy.--OMB instituted several important measures for
privacy management this fiscal year. On February 11, 2005, OMB's
Memorandum M-05-08, ``Designation of Senior Agency Officials for
Privacy,'' requesting each executive department and agency to identify a
Senior Agency Official for Privacy to assume overall responsibility and
accountability for ensuring the agency's compliance with privacy law and
policy. The Administration requested the Senior Agency Officials for
Privacy across Government to assume responsibility for coordinating
their agencies' responses on the FISMA privacy template. Finally,
privacy has been added to the ``maintaining green'' criteria of the
Expanded Electronic Government element of the President's Management
Agenda.
Making Government Accessible to All.--The efficient, effective, and
appropriately consistent use of Federal agency public websites is
important to promote a more citizen centered Government. Federal agency
public websites are information resources funded by the Federal
Government and operated by an agency, contractor, or other organization
on behalf of the agency. They present Government information or provide
services to the public or a specific non-Federal user group and support
the proper performance of an agency function.
Cost-effective and consistent access to and dissemination of
Government information is essential to promote a more citizen-centered
Government. The Administration's recent guidance identifies procedures
to organize and categorize information and make it searchable across
agencies to improve public access and dissemination, discusses using the
Federal Enterprise Architecture Data Reference Model (DRM), and reminds
agencies of the breadth of their existing responsibilities primarily
related to information access and dissemination.
Agencies are managing innovative information dissemination programs
for their own agency information and services. While agencies remain
ultimately responsible for disseminating their own information, they are
working collaboratively to provide access to the public
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and are taking advantage of a variety of dissemination channels.
Consequently, Federal information is disseminated by Federal agencies as
well as diverse nonfederal parties, including State and local government
agencies, for-profit organizations, and educational and other not-for-
profit organizations such as libraries and community centers. These
dissemination channels also aid the public in accessing Federal
information and services by providing the skills, knowledge, and
training for citizens to access various information resources (see
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/section--213--report--04-
2005.pdf).
The Federal Government continues to ensure electronic information
technology is accessible to people with disabilities as required by
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The creation of the Buy
Accessible Wizard, a web-based application developed by the General
Services Administration, helps agencies determine relevance,
applicability, and compliance to Section 508 when managing electronic
and information technology products and services. The application helps
Federal program managers to consistently and correctly apply the Federal
Acquisition Regulation to their market research. In April 2005, the
Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Agency Acquisition
Council published a final rule requiring micro purchase to comply with
the requirements of Section 508. Micro purchases were previously exempt
from these requirements to give agencies time to update purchase card
training modules on the 508 requirements and implement necessary
training. Free on-line training is available at http://
www.section508.gov.
SUCCESSFULLY USING ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT
The departments and agencies continue to seek to leverage information
technologies to make Government services available to the citizen while
ensuring security of those systems, the privacy of the citizen
information and the prudent use of taxpayer money. E-Government is about
providing direct and measurable results supporting departments' and
agencies' mission and goals. For departments and agencies, the benefits
must far outweigh the cost of implementation. In the coming months, the
Presidential E-Government initiatives graduate from development and
implementation phases to mature service offerings supported by service
fees. Increased agency adoption and customer utilization will become the
primary measures of success. The expanded availability of Government
information and the utilization of an increased percentage of
transactions between the Federal Government and citizens will be
measured, where appropriate.
Examples of how the tenets of E-Government are helping to deliver
services to the citizen and make the Government more effective include:
The Department of Interior (DOI) has the responsibility to manage
federally owned resources, protect the environment, prevent, detect, and
investigate criminal activity and manage visitor use and protection
programs. The Incident Management Analysis and Reporting System (IMARS)
provides a Department-wide information collection, analysis, and
reporting system for incident information, which are defined as any
occurrence requiring documentation.
Currently, it is not possible to query and analyze incidents across
multiple National Park Service (NPS) parks or other DOI Bureaus. The new
system aggregates and disseminates incident information, improving DOI's
ability to prevent, detect, and investigate criminal activity, and
thereby aid in protecting the public, as well as natural and cultural
resources. The system also helps DOI to prioritize protection efforts
and complete reports required to evaluate agency programs and services.
An advisory council insures the requirements of DOI bureaus are
included. The Council includes representatives from non-law enforcement
subject areas, as well as the NPS, the Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and
Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Bureau of Land
Management. The system will also interface with criminal information
sharing networks at other Federal, State, and local governments.
Information on the system is accessible to those who are disabled, and
resources are available to answer questions or provide assistance when
necessary. Services and information disseminated by the system can also
be provided in alternative media as well.
The timeliness and number of successfully adjudicated cases, as well
as the number of illegal incidents leading to damage or loss to Federal
or private property located on DOI lands or areas of interest are key
performance indicators demonstrating the impact of the system on agency
programs and services. The system will reduce operational costs by
replacing and integrating isolated law enforcement efforts into a
centralized and common infrastructure, and eliminate the need for
duplicative technologies and training.
The Department of Education has improved mission critical internal
processes by developing an online e-monitoring system to provide grant
monitoring functionality for Department staff. The system allows all
Department users, across multiple agencies, access to essential grant
management information. The application enhances the Department's
ability to effectively manage grants by improving the efficiency of the
Department's grant processing. For example, the system allows users to
analyze budget and financial summary data over the lifecycle of the
grant, as well as monitor, track, and report grant status and trends.
The system also aids in grants processing by allowing users to reassign
grants for review and receive notice of inadequate and excessive grant
drawdown.
While the initiative is designed to assist Department employees in
monitoring recipients of Department grants, and is not used by external
partners, it does
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improve the Department's interaction and communication with external
partners and grantees. For example, the system allows users to log
email, phone or mail communications of any given grant, as well as print
mailing labels and send bulk emails to aid in information dissemination.
Performance agreements of applicable Department employees required use
of the system, reinforcing the importance of the initiative.
The system has been implemented in one program office, and there are
plans to roll out the tool to other Department program offices over the
next year. The system will be evaluated to assess performance and impact
on improving the agency mission, and the Department is establishing
performance measures (including cost savings and avoidance) based on
baseline data collected this year.
The Administration continues the focus of the department and agency
specific services towards citizen-centered services. Overall funding for
the President's E-Government initiatives has reduced annually since FY
2004 as the initiatives have met their milestones and have become
incorporated into the daily operations of Federal departments and
agencies. This reduction has come as result of moving the initiatives to
fee-for-service models where appropriate, thereby eliminating the need
for agency contributions. Chapter 9, Table 9-3, ``Status of the
Presidential E-Government Initiatives,'' included on the CD-ROM,
provides an update for each project.
LOOKING AHEAD--MORE RESULTS
Current Federal Government initiatives inclusive of the President's E-
Government initiatives augmented by the current analysis of the LoBs
will increase the requirement for departments and agencies to facilitate
a change from a ``closed'' agency technical architecture to an
interoperable Federal architecture. In order for the departments and
agencies to overcome technical limitations arising from this need to
interoperate and support emerging requirements and technologies, the
Administration set June 2008 as the date by which all agencies'
infrastructure (network backbones) must be using IPv6 and agency
networks must interface with this infrastructure. In August 2005, OMB
issued guidance to agencies in Memorandum M-05-22, ``Transition Planning
to Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6),'' to ensure an orderly and secure
transition from Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) to Version 6 (IPv6).
Since the Internet Protocol is core to an agency's IT infrastructure,
beginning in February 2006, the Administration will use the Enterprise
Architecture Assessment Framework to evaluate agency IPv6 transition
planning and progress, IP device inventory completeness, and impact
analysis thoroughness. The August 2005 memorandum discussed a series of
actions agencies must take by specific dates. For instance, by November
15, 2005, agencies were to: (1) assign an official to lead and
coordinate agency planning and (2) complete an inventory of existing
routers, switches, and hardware firewalls. To date, 23 (of 24) large
agencies have provided the requested information and 38 (of 107) small
agencies.
Additionally, the President's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace
directed the Secretary of Commerce to form a taskforce to examine the
most recent iteration of the Internet Protocol, IP version 6 (IPv6). The
President charged the taskforce with considering a variety of IPv6-
related issues, ``including the appropriate role of government,
international interoperability, security in transition, and costs and
benefits.'' The taskforce, co-chaired by the Administrator of the
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and
the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST), prepared a report discussing the benefits and impacts of IPv6.
This report was published in January 2006.
The Administration will continue to use the Federal Enterprise
Architecture data for business analysis to focus our efforts to direct
information technology investments to improve service delivery to
citizens and other entities. The Administration will continue to improve
performance and achieve results by continuing our efforts in linking IT
investments to program performance as demonstrated by the analytical
tool called the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART).
In 2007 and beyond, the Federal Government will continue to identify
IT opportunities for collaboration and consolidation while improving
services. Although the Federal Government continues to improve, much
more work is needed to better serve the citizen. Through the PMA, the
Clinger-Cohen Act, the E-Government Act, FISMA, budget guidance and
other management tools, the Federal Government has the ability to be the
best manager, innovator and user of information, services and
information systems in the world. The President's E-Government
initiatives will have graduated from development and implementation
phases to mature service offerings supported by service fees. The future
is to ensure reliability, security and continuity of services to the
point where the services are thought of as utilities just like
electricity and water. This service and results oriented approach will
ensure the future Government IT investments will leverage existing
capabilities to their maximum potential and will provide cost-effective
and customer-centered services.