United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Accounting and Information Management Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1997-04-04 monographic deposited born digital 52 p. GA 1.13:AIMD-97-39 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-39 P0b002ee18039b12c f:ai97039 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-39 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-39 AIMD-97-39 Privatization ADP Strategic information systems planning Interagency relations Federal agency reorganization Information resources management Computer services contracts Defense economic analysis Management information systems Letter Report AIMD Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed: (1) the Department of Defense's (DOD) plans to consolidate, outsource, and modernize its computer center operations; and (2) whether DOD has an effective framework in place for making and executing these decisions. GAO did not validate the accuracy of the information provided by DOD on the numbers and costs of computer centers, the alternative analyses, funding plans, and processing capacities.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) DOD has recognized the need to continue reductions in the cost of its computer centers' operations through consolidation, modernization, and outsourcing, but it has not yet established an effective framework for making these decisions; (2) this framework would include departmentwide policies and procedures critical to the success of its efforts to improve computer centers; (3) these policies and procedures would establish targets for how many computer centers DOD actually needs, define how mainframes and mid-tier computer operations should be consolidated, and identify the numbers and skill mix of staff that are required to operate the centers, and what constitutes an optimum computer center; (4) DOD also has no mechanism for ensuring that the best money-saving opportunities have been considered by the individual services and components or that consolidation efforts will conform to federal requirements or even meet the needs of DOD as a whole; (5) as a result, DOD services and components have developed individual strategies for consolidating and modernizing their computer centers that are inconsistent and contradictory to DOD as a whole and may well cause DOD to waste millions of dollars in computer center expenditures; (6) in addition, the consolidation strategies of the military services and DOD components did not always fully address critical planning elements required by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requirements that could help reduce the risk of waste, including alternative analyses, high-level implementation plans, and funding plans; (7) further, GAO found that the OMB and departmental guidance, particularly addressing mid-tier computer centers, was unclear; (8) this resulted in inconsistent interpretation and reporting for these centers; (9) therefore, OMB and DOD do not have assurance that the computer consolidation strategies are sound; (10) without better management over the implementation of its computer center strategies, DOD at best will only achieve optimization at the component level and forgo optimization for DOD as a whole; and (11) moreover, DOD's chief information officer (CIO) is now required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996, and the Fiscal Year 1997 DOD Authorization Act to develop and implement a plan for a management framework with policies and procedures as well as effective oversight m* https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-39/html/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-39.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-39/pdf/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-39.pdf GAO/AIMD-97-39 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-39 Letter Report GAO/AIMD-97-39; Defense IRM: Investments at Risk for DOD Computer Centers; Privatization ADP Strategic information systems planning Interagency relations Federal agency reorganization Information resources management Computer services contracts Defense economic analysis Management information systems