The President's Management Agenda (PMA)
The USPTO is committed to the objectives
of the PMA, which is the strategy implemented by President Bush’s
Administration to improve the management and performance of the Federal
Government. Departmental agencies are scored green, yellow or red on their
status in achieving overall goals or long-term criteria, as well as their
progress in implementing improvement plans.
Strategic Management of Human Capital
The USPTO plays a vital role in enabling discoveries, inventions and
creative ideas to be brought to the marketplace. To support this effort,
it is essential to have a strong human capital management program that
continues to attract, hire, train and maintain employees with technical
knowledge and skills that increase in both range and depth.
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN CAPITAL
- Released the Strategic Human Capital Plan
on September 17, 2007.
- Recruited and hired 1,215 patent examiners in FY 2007.
- Partnered with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
to produce a Patent television recruitment ad featuring
a USPTO patent examiner. To date, the ad has run in several
cities in conjunction with job fairs hosted by the Agency.
As a result of the ads, job fair attendance, by highly qualified
candidates was high.
- Supported Telework – Of the USPTO’s 8,913
employees, 88.9 percent are eligible to work at home. Of
those eligible, 45.9 percent actually did work at home.
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- Develop business area plans by January 2008 for achieving
the objectives of the Strategic Human Capital
Plan.
- Develop plans to hire an additional 1,200 patent examiners
by holding recruitment events at colleges and universities,
and bringing college and university representatives to USPTO
for on-site briefings.
- Train recruiters and hiring coordinators on issues such
as reviewing resumes and transcripts, conducting interviews,
and ensuring adherence to merit system principles.
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Competitive Sourcing
The USPTO is committed to achieving performance enhancements and cost-savings
through competitive sourcing.
COMPETITIVE SOURCING
- Established a Competitive Sourcing Steering Committee
(CSSC).
- Directed the CSSC to conduct feasibility studies on all
Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act activities
containing 20 or more commercial jobs. The feasibility studies
will determine if sufficient “return” exists
to justify the “investment” associated with
conducting a competition.
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- Once the feasibility studies are complete, for any study
that establishes a favorable return on investment, the CSSC
will authorize a full assessment on the scope of the study,
applicable mission impacts, risks, estimated savings, and
timeline. After the full assessment, the CSSC will determine
specific functions to be completed among public and private
sources.
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Improved Financial Performance
The USPTO is in compliance with all Federal accounting principles and
standards and has encountered no instances of material weaknesses in internal
controls or non-compliance with Federal accounting regulations. The USPTO
will continue to maintain and strengthen internal controls and improve
the timeliness and usefulness of financial management information.
IMPROVED FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
- Met all quarterly financial reporting requirements instituted
by OMB.
- Sustained the Agency’s clean audit opinion, with
FY 2007 marking the 15th consecutive unqualified audit opinion
and the 11th consecutive year with no material weaknesses.
- Maintained a certified and accredited, fully integrated
financial management system and uses a data warehouse to
manage both financial and operational data. The data warehouse
is used by managers for analyzing financial results and
performance and by supervisory patent examiners for managing
patent processing timeframes.
- Operated a mature activity based cost (ABC) system that
captures costs of core mission activities and both direct
and indirect costs for the Agency. Managers use data from
the ABC system to analyze the cost of operations when making
decisions regarding improving processes, setting fees, or
developing budget requirements.
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- The USPTO will continue its efforts to meet all reporting
requirements, comply with all financial reporting rules,
and earn an unqualified audit opinion with no material weaknesses.
Financial systems will continue to be maintained at the
highest standards and integrated into the daily operations.
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Expanded E-Government
E-government is a critical factor in achieving the USPTO’s three
strategic goals. Specific e-government activities related to the strategic
goals are included in those sections. The following describes enterprise-wide
activities in support of this PMA initiative.
EXPANDED E-GOVERNMENT
- Continued support of the Patent Electronic Filing System
(EFS)-Web system (the electronic patent document filing
system launched in FY 2006) which provides users with a
simple, fast, and secure method for submitting initial and
follow-on patent applications over the Internet.
- Continued development of the new PFW system to pro-actively
support the Patent organization as it faces the issues of
increased filings, the need for remote access, and significant,
fast paced changes in the examined technologies.
- TEAS continued to provide customers with the ability to
submit trademark applications and other trademark forms
electronically over the Internet.
- Continued to expand the BPAI and TTAB electronic processing
systems.
- Continued to enhance the electronic business center (available
at the USPTO Web site http://www.uspto.gov.)
which provides citizens with online services such as the
ability to pay fees, obtain historical patent and trademark
information, file applications, maintain patents and registered
marks, view patent and trademark documents, and locate registered
patent attorneys
or agents.
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- The USPTO will implement the HR Line of Business, which
will improve online HR services and capabilities.
- The USPTO will continue planning for the Financial Line
of Business.
- The USPTO will continue to: improve the security, availability,
and quality of IT systems and services, while reducing their
complexity and cost; support business area needs; provide
internal on-line tools (re: consistency and quality of searching
and exam); provide electronic file management and workflow;
develop interactive on-line electronic filing capabilities;
upgrade e-tools; help move to fully electronic records;
eliminate the need to collect and store paper records; and
continue to improve overall data quality.
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Budget and Performance Integration
Since FY 1999, the USPTO has developed an annual corporate plan that
links the annual performance plan and budget request so that resource
requirements for continuing programs and new initiatives are aligned with
outputs and performance goals.
BUDGET AND PERFORMANCE INTEGRATION
- Introduced the 2007-2012 Strategic Plan
in concert with the FY 2008 budget request. This is a multi-year
plan that provides USPTO employees, stakeholders, and the
public, with a long-term vision of Agency goals, and planned
outcomes.
- Ensured that the annual performance plan is linked to
the Agency’s FY 2009 budget request and reflects the
priorities and goals found in the 2007-2012
Strategic Plan. The annual budget request
is a consequence of USPTO managers integrating their funding
requirements to the 2007-2012 Strategic Plan,
and establishing measurable objectives and milestones for
each goal. The annual integrated budget/performance plan
is the most effective and efficient way to establish accountability
by making sure that performance measures are consistent
with the views of the Administration and Congress.
- Refined the Agency’s performance goals for better
integration of budgetary resources with both enterprise-wide
strategic goals and individual unit performance targets.
- Utilized the Program Assessment and Rating Tool (PART),
and other assessment evaluations and modeling techniques
to effectively enhance delivery of services and achieve
improved program results. The Agency routinely monitors
program performance targets to ensure achievement of actual
results vis-a-vis performance goals. Organizational goals
and crosscutting performance measures are also included
in senior executive members’ performance appraisal
plans to ensure alignment with Agency mission, strategic
goals, and objectives.
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- Improve efficiency measures and their targets to provide
more meaningful information for decision making.
- Complete an internal assessment using PART to identify
where improved program results can be achieved.
- Continue PART training in anticipation of a PART review
in FY 2008.
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