4: Strategic Management of Information and Information Technology

Manage information technology investments effectively, including using E-Government tools to improve service for our customers, industry partners, and GSA employees.

Other Information:

GSA’s IT investments must fulfill a number of requirements: advance electronic government; increase GSA and governmentwide productivity; facilitate communication and information sharing among GSA employees, Federal customer agencies, industry partners, and American taxpayers; improve customer satisfaction by keeping pace with advancing technology, particularly for GSA’s transactional websites; and comply with legal standards and requirements for all Federal websites. It is crucial that GSA maintain a secure and dependable information technology infrastructure that effectively and efficiently supports the agency’s diverse activities, including training and the evolving needs of GSA’s business lines. To achieve agency information technology objectives, GSA must: - Provide an efficient and secure IT environment: GSA will deliver a range of enterprise-wide information technology services through a shared services governance and cost-sharing model. We will also maintain the agency-wide cyber security program to ensure GSA’s information technology systems operate within an acceptable level of risk. - Align GSA business and IT strategies using Enterprise Architecture, capital planning, and investment control: GSA will continue to improve the use of IT to support business strategies. It will employ Enterprise Architecture expertise and tools to create innovative solutions to GSA’s business challenges. We will improve agility; reduce cost by eliminating duplicate systems and related maintenance; improve service performance and the availability of shared resources; and provide a common viewpoint for future strategic analyses. GSA will improve IT capital planning and investment control through effective management, operation, and monitoring of the GSA enterprise-wide IT portfolio. Core elements to accomplishing this strategy include continuous project management assessment of investment results (cost/schedule/performance); periodic formal reviews; more active investment monitoring; and increased integration of the capital planning Select Phase with the agency budget processes. To ensure adequate project management of IT investments, GSA will continue validating newly appointed project managers with skills assessments and project management training. - Manage GSA E-Government projects: GSA continues to lead the President’s E-Government Initiatives by using E-Government information and communication technology to provide information and services to citizens, businesses, and other government entities. GSA continues to manage, expand, and improve USA.gov and the National Contact Center (1-800 FED-INFO). As the only official Federal governmentwide web portal, USA.gov is the gateway to millions of pages of authoritative information that citizens may need from government. The initial focus of the USA.gov portal was on providing information on Federal programs, but the site is continuously expanding its reach to include citizen information for state, local, territorial, and foreign governments as well. Both USA.gov and the National Contact Center will expand their roles as laboratories for testing and disseminating information on best practices in Federal web management and Federal contact center services and solutions.

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

Content