[ Table of Contents ]
[ Case ]
[ Bibliography ]
[ Telecommunications Management ]
[ Karen ]
[ Gwyneth ]
Analysis
Peeling open a section of any government agency reveals the various layers of the policymaking system influencing its management efforts. An agency's defined goals; legislative, administrative, judicial, and constituent structures; various policymaking processes from open forums to formal voting. are all supported by an underlying structure of information users, producers, entities, processes, and technologies that are managed as resources for policy purposes. Creating and implementing an information resource management system that incorporates social and political factors associated with these layers will determine the Department of Elder Affairs' efficiency and effectiveness.
One way of analyzing the information presented in the case study of Florida's Department of Elder Affairs involves reviewing the human and political factors that must be addressed when formulating a strategic management plan.
We chose the following components as the focus of our analysis:
- People--the information users and producers who direct, prioritize, interpret, and apply data and information to policy problems
- Documents, databases, and other information entities that hold information and data collections
- Information processes such as collection, storage, retrieval, dissemination, communication, and display
- Information technologies--the know-how for manipulating and accessing information, including the conceptual, statistical, and model-building structures that aggregate and process data and produce information content, as well as mechanisms, people, and/or systems that provide intellectual, physical, and economical access to information
The strength of an information infrastructure depends on how well information resources are managed--what, how, where, and for whom sources of information are established and made available for reuse.
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The Department of Elder Affairs has incorporated various application opporunities into its strategic plan ranging from shared information resources to an automated call routing systems to better management the large number of phone requests for information and storing requested information in a database management systems to reduce response time in subsequent information requests. These application opportunities help build team work as employees are able to share common information resources while maximizing the value of existing resources.
Shared Information Resources
The DEA is able to better handle administrative functions through the implementation of local area networks that are interconnected through a metropolitan area network and a statewide wide area network. Service providers can communicate with CC: Mail software which provides email access across the state. Information stored in the Oracle databases can also be updated and retrieved from anywhere on the network. Within each office, LANs allow workers to share standard office automation sotware packages, which in this case includes Word Perfect, Paradox and Quatro Pro. Collaborative work is also supported since files are also shared across the LANs.
Call Routing
Because of the large number organizations responsible for providing services to elders, navigating through the network of social service providers can be a very intiminidating and frustrating experience for them. To mitigate this effect the DEA developed the Florida Elder Helpline to provide a single contact point within each community for people seeking answers to questions concerning aging issues in an effort to maximize customer satisfaction.
The many requests for improving the information dissemination process have been voiced via public hearings, letters and phone calls to local and state representatives. Given this surge of interest in the reengineering of the current information haphazard dissemination processess in addition to along recent advances in telecommunications technology are the key drivers of the Department's plan to implement call routing technology in the Elder Helpline Information Referral system.
With the 1-800-96-ELDER number the call-routing system will present one face to the elder community within the state of Florida. Their calls will be automatically routed to the a local Information and Referral (I&R) Specialist familiar with the services and opportunities within the specific caller's community.
Among the advantages of call routing are:
- One, statewide, toll-free number that is easy to remember for elders
- No menu to listen to which is required by call-prompt systems
- Being linked automatically to the I&R specialist within the caller's community
- Greater public awareness of the Helpline through public relations
Immediate success is not expected with the implementation of this service. Immediate feedback on how to eliminate negative responses to the system will be quickly assess to help make necessary adjustments to the system. Since predicting the expected increase in volume will be impossible, the testing will be an ongoing process to assess how to deal with the added demand.
The call routing is expected to also produce cost savings, but only if the advertising is successful and people stop calling the Helplines directly. Out of state residents will not have access to the 800 nuumber and will need to call direct numbers to ask for assistance via the Helplines.
Elder Care Management Information System
Different types of information will be housed in this one database in order to provide a centralized repository for information pertinent to issues concerning elders. One of the immediate benefits will be the ability to provide quicker more efficient information and referral services to elders calling the Helplines. Questions and answers will be stored over time and eventually some of the most frequently asked questions will be incorporated into the 800 line service with a menu option to allow elders to hear recorded messages for some questions.
Other information will be quicker to search in order to answer customer inquiries.
Source: Memorandum (3/31/94)
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Externalities are the exogenous factors effecting policies within a given organization. One example of externalities associated with technology adoption often cited is the economies of scale argumment, which states: if more people use network there is a lower price per transaction for that usage. Given this scenerio, the DEA would like all potential users to use the Elder Helpline to reduce the per unit cost of the system. And if all providers of elder services become part of a statewide wide area network, the value of that network for each of the participants increases because they can each share more information with more organizations.
Another way of looking at externalities affecting telecommunications policy is to analyze the effects of competition, technology, vendors, standards, user issues, embedded equipment, market environment, regulations and laws, organiational, business plans, expansion plans, financial objectives, operating principals, and management objectives.
Several of these apply to the DEA case study:
Business Plan
With the adoption of IRM policy it was determined that too much emphasis was placed on the acquisition of technology to the detrement of managing the resources towards public service objectives. In order to meet their mission statement, the DEA is developing the Elder Care MIS (ECMIS). Currently programs to assist the elderly are seperated between departments creating confusion for elders seeking services and is administratively inefficient. Therefore a new system is being developed to be a single information provider to eliminate both the confusion and inefficiency.
Financial Objectives
Although state agencies are being looked at more frequently as the vehicles to provide public services, they still operate under strict budgetary and human resource constraints. The goal of the DEA telecommunication plan is to improve services to participants, while increasing access to information for planning and reporting by local and state agencies while reducing the amount of time, money, and staff required to maintain the traditional telephone referral service. Of particular concern to the DEA managers is weighing initial costs against long-term costs. Because a centralized approach to procurement and funding has been adopted, agencies are able to benefit from systems that would be too costly for them to implement and maintain themselves.
Existing Equipment
As a state agency, the DEA must operate in cooperate with the Department of Managment Services' Division of Communications in order to adopt new communications technology. Given this cooperation, their network would become part of the statewide WAN, offering the many advantages, but it also limits future system developement that the DEA can implement alone since the architecture and standards have already been decided via DOC.
Regulatory Environment
Federal and state mandates, state IRM policies, state budgetary constraints, and the existing telecommunications statutes are part of the regulatory environment in which the DEA must operate. As a service provider, any telecommunications system the DEA designs must navigate the regulatory environment and continue to provide the needed services to the end-users.
Organizational
The most critical factor in IRM planning is the level of involvement and acceptance by top management. Unless top management incorporates IRM into their business and views of technology as a tool for improving organizational effectiveness, the planning becomes another paper exercise. Standards in information collection, storage and reporting allow the DEA to more effectively respond to federal and state mandates, while meeting its primary mission of serving the elder community.
Operational
Telecommunications provides a way to balance performance against service. Ideally, the DEA would provide 100% service instantaneously. In order to provide the most while maintaining services within a limiting environment, the DEA has plans to use telecommunications to integrate communications as the system develops.
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Today, computer security encompasses two chief elements--the physical security of the installation and the integrity of the data. The urgency of making data processing centers bomb-proof has declined since the 1960s, however protecting the data integrity has become more worrisome. The protection of information processing operations becomes even more difficult as computers proliferate in organizations. Where organizations once maintained a single data center, there may now be hundreds of minicomputers and personal computers scattered everywhere. Determining which computers require top security because they either are critical to daily operations or contain highly confidential data is no small task.
Adding to the problem is telecommunications. Tody interdependence is widespread, such as financial services tied together worldwide in networks such as SWIFT, CHIPS, CHAPS, and FEDWIRE. While interdependence offers many advantages, it entails some major pitfalls. If systems over which an organization has limited control fail or are not secure, the result can be just as devastating as a strike or even a small act of sabotage. More people generally are becoming computer literate and qualified to use computer systems to serve their own ends. Personal comptuer are already in millions of households, further increasing the population able to manipulate compter technology for good or ill.
Since computer activities take place in an internal control environment, any security efforts must take place where the organization as a whole believes that internal control is important and sees evidence that a foundation of controls is in place to facilitate security. With the development of IRM policies in Florida, security has received increased attention. For the DEA, security policy is defined by both the agency and the state. The first level of security is required by the Information Resource Security Policies and Standards of the Florida Administrative Code, additional security is at the discretion of the agency.
Therefore the DEA takes the following measures:
The development and implementation of an ongoing training program of information resource security is stressed in the report. The training program is to include an intitial security awareness training for all employees covering agency security program componets and applicable security related to specific job responsibility. Completion of this training by all state employees and contractors is mandatory.
A set of defined roles and responsibilities are included for information security managers and security administrators. This includes delineation and restriction of security duties for each user and legal contracts for employees and contractors acknowledgement and acceptance of agency's security policies, procedures and responsibilities.
Extensive documentation is also mandated by this policy. Documentation is required for managing access criteria and privileges for information resource; annual information resource security compliance certification; current lists of information owners, users, and custodians; procedures for conducting background checks for positions of special rust and responsibility or positions in sensitive locations.
Institutionalized periodic risk analysis for all critical and sensitive information. Including, fully developed test scenarious are required for emergency, disaster recorvery and business resumption plans. These must be documented in an auditable form.
From the information given, it appears as if the DEA maintains a well-documented operational security procedures. However, there is no information given about how the DEA secures and controls physical access to systems or key components of the system, such as back-up tapes, cooling system or power switches. Some of the security questions we had were:
- Where are the operations manual stored? Who has access to them?
- Is there an audit trail for all operations?
- Could the facilities lead to an interruption of service? Such as a breakdown in the building cooling system, or a broken water pipe effect the computer system?
Sources: Common Sense and Computer Security; DP Fraud; Security and Reality Checklist
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Agency direction along with input from the Information Resource Commission and the Division of Communications determines the Department of Elder Affairs' architecture and standards.
Architecture
The Department of Elder Affairs has planned for an architecture that will address both current and future needs of the department. This architecture is internally and externally managed. The internal computing architecture allows for administrative functions to benefit from the integration of standard office automation software via LANs that are managed by each individual agency.
Although the mission of the DEA is to present a single face to the public, much of the information regularly needed by the agency is obtained from other agencies and service providers. The networking architecture allows for the intergration and interaction of various networks around the state and across the country. A FDDI backbone is maintained by the Division of Communications (DOC) for the entire Tallahassee area where most state agencies are located. A frame-relay wide area network is also maintained by DOC that gives agencies to connect organizations around the state. Because these resources are expensive, the state benefits from sharing them.
Another important factor is the cost of keeping network specialists in state government. Expertise and training is concentrated within DOC, and those specialists are involved in consulting with the other agencies in order to trouble-shoot problems that arise. Because these specialists demand higher wages than are usually found within the public sector, Florida benefits from keeping a small, well-paid staff of specialists to administer its telecommunications needs. These specialists are given training, higher salaries and the opportunity to formulate strategic policy, which is affordable for the state because their number is small.
Standards
Standards policies are defined both internally and externally. Internnally, the DEA chose its own DBMS and office automation software packages that meets its specific needs. External policies are also in place to ensure dialogue among agencies sharing information to coordinate how the attributes are defined.
LANs are managed by the DEA, while communications links to the Tallahassee metropolitan area network and the statewide wide area network are established and managed by the Division of Communications. It is the responisbility of DOC to consult with the Information Resource Commission to develop standards policies. In order to protect the value of the statewide inter-networks, each agency is required to follow the standards policies set by the IRC.
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Last updated May 5, 1995.