The E-Gov initiatives continue to make progress improving and expanding services to citizens and businesses alike.  We are also increasing our focus on transparency and accountability with the release of Performance Measurement information across the initiatives.

In December 2006 OMB released performance metrics for 18 of the 25 E-Government initiatives.  Working together, OMB and the initiative Program Managers developed performance measures in 3 key areas of focus:

• Adoption/Participation – The degree to which the relevant community (agencies, bureaus, other organizations) participates in the initiative. Participation is demonstrated by contribution of information, involvement in governance, etc.
• Usage – The level of use by the targeted end user
• Customer Satisfaction – End user satisfaction with the initiative’s products and/or services

The availability of performance measures increases transparency, ensuring citizens, agencies and initiatives have a better understanding of what is being accomplished.  Going forward, we are working to develop benchmarks for the initiatives against similar efforts in the public and private sectors to support formulation of performance targets.  Additionally, we plan to develop outcome-oriented measures to objectively gauge the delivery of results to citizens, federal employees, and other key initiative stakeholders.  Going forward, we will provide measures for all 25 E-Government initiatives as well as the Lines of Business.  Information regarding the Performance Management effort is available on www.egov.gov.

Additionally, the E-Gov initiatives area continuing to improve and expand services available to citizens and businesses.  Federal Asset Sales’ recent launch of GovSales.gov gives users access to opportunities for the purchase of real estate and personal property from the Federal government.  The re-launch of Business.gov by the Business Gateway initiative provides users one-stop resources for business compliance.  Both websites help citizens and businesses complete otherwise arduous tasks with relative ease.  Agencies continue to realize cost savings and increase service effectiveness through migration to the E-Gov Travel initiative. We are improving service at the state level through the migration of additional states to Electronic Death Registration system as provided by the E-Vital initiative. Details follow below.

Scorecard Update
A number of agencies had changes in their E-Gov Scorecard ratings in Q1.

The following agencies received upgrades on their E-Gov Scorecard:

• US Army Corps of Engineers (Progress)
• Department of Agriculture (Status)
• Department of Defense (Status & Progress)
• Department of the Interior (Progress)
• Department of Justice (Status)
• Office of Personnel Management (Status)
• Smithsonian Institute (Status)

The following agencies received downgrades on their E-Gov Scorecard:

• Department of Education (Status)
• Department of Transportation (Status)
• Department of Health and Human Services (Progress)
• Department of Treasury (Progress)
• General Services Administration (Progress)
• Social Security Administration (Status)

Service Improvements

Business Gateway: On October 12th, Business Gateway held a Press Briefing at the National Press Club to celebrate the re-launch Business.gov.  Business.gov provides business owners with a one-stop resource that searches the federal government agencies that regulate or serve businesses for compliance information or resources.

The meeting was widely attended by members of the press, government, and small business community.  On the day of the event, the re-launch was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal.

The event included a demonstration of the site and many of its new functionalities including an intuitive search engine.  The re-launch event also provided an opportunity for guest speakers to discuss how Business.gov has helped them.  One small business owner commented: “Business.gov is the perfect resource for me. I’m growing one business and starting another.  This Web site works on two different levels, providing the direct connections I want for my on-going business needs and the basic start-up support I need for launching my need business.  Business.gov is like having a silent partner on line.”

Federal Asset Sales:  On September 30, 2006, GSA launched GovSales.gov through the Federal Asset Sales (FAS) initiative.  This is the second phase in developing a single website that will ultimately list and collect sales information on all government assets available for sale.  GovSales.gov allows the public to search assets available for sale, and makes it much easier for the public to find and purchase real estate and personal property from the Federal Government.

This is the beginning of an effort through which all agencies will sell their unwanted assets using the FAS Sales Center (SC) approach for asset sales.

E-Gov Travel: The E-Gov Travel initiative continues to work with agencies to provide more efficient and effective travel services.  Progress is seen as several agencies have recently begun their migrations.  The Department of Health and Human Services has completed migration to an E-Travel service provider in 11 of 12 operational divisions.  The Department of Treasury has completed migrations in 13 of 14 bureaus.  Additionally, the following agencies have recently started migrating to an E-Travel service provider: Department of Homeland Security, Department of State, Environmental Protection Agency, General Services Administration, Small Business Administration and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

E-Vital: The E-Vital initiative assists states in automating the paper-bound death registration process through an electronic, web-based system called Electronic Death Registration (EDR). EDR connects the various death registration participants (e.g., funeral directors, physicians, hospitals, medical examiners, coroners) with the states’/jurisdiction’s Bureau of Vital Statistics (BVS).  The E-Vital initiative has worked with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems (NAPHSIS), and the State BVSs to improve death reporting as manual and paper-based processes can result in errors and fraud, as well as service delays to citizens and to agencies with which we share data.

As of September 2006, fourteen states, the District of Columbia and the jurisdiction of New York City have implemented EDR.  Seven more states plan to implement in FY 2007.  SSA awarded contracts to nine additional states in September 2006 and will work with these new states to fully implement EDR within the next two years.  With the 2006 awards, approximately 60% of all jurisdictions are under contract.

IT Privacy and Security
Quarterly security performance updates have demonstrated government-wide progress toward achieving the IT security goals of the E-Gov Scorecard and implementing the privacy provisions of E-Gov Act and the Privacy Act.  Currently, approximately 88% of agency systems have identified and validated the effectiveness of security controls - a process called certification and accreditation (C&A).  Agencies have also appropriately described how they collect and use personally identifiable information more than 82% of the time.

Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA)
Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA): OMB recently released the Federal Transition Framework (FTF) v1.0, Enterprise Architecture (EA) Assessment Framework v2.1, Consolidated Reference Model (CRM) v2.1 and the FEA Practice Guidance. These four integrated EA products provide agencies with guidance and information focused on using EA to realize agency mission results.  The FTF v1.0 is a single source for clear and consistent architectural information and implementation guidance describing 18 government-wide information technology (IT) initiatives.  EA Assessment Framework v2.1 will be used to assess agency EA maturity focusing on completing and using EA to achieve results.  The Framework emphasizes the development of an agency segment architecture for a core business area and the incorporation of appropriate cross-agency initiatives. The CRM v2.1 provides the most current FEA reference model information in one document.  The FEA Practice Guidance informs agency EA practitioners on using EA to drive direct value to achieving the agency mission.  Additionally, OMB continues to provide guidance to agencies toward transitioning to Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) using their Enterprise Architecture.