Since March, the NBC staff has been working diligently to stand up and prepare for the second deployment of the FBMS, which includes all of the SAP financial management functions. Despite the fact that this deployment has been delayed by the DOI, the infrastructure to support this and future deployments, as well as the key application management functions, were ready in advance of the scheduled date.

The NBC was selected in July by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to host its government-wide Electronic Official Personnel File application. This application will ultimately electronically store the digital images of every Federal civilian employee's Official Personnel Folder. Currently, the OPM and the NBC are implementing a large portion of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). We anticipate rapid growth of this application throughout DHS and beyond within the next year. This selection may also lead to the NBC being selected to host the OPM's larger, and more complex, Enterprise Human Resources Integration e-Government initiative.

The future looks exciting and challenging. Doug Bourgeois has set forth an aggressive and dynamic direction for this organization through our new Strategic Plan. It is focused on becoming the Federal Government's premier Shared Service Center (SSC) for administrative and management services. To reach this lofty goal, we will be required to change many of the ways we do business and implement commercial-grade processes and best practices. This applies to Information Technology (IT) as much, or more, than it does to any other Line of Business (LoB) within the NBC. We must drive down the costs of IT at the same time we drive up the value provided by technology that enables the provision of business services. We must implement processes, practices, structures, and technology that helps the product LoBs to effectively compete with other Federal SSCs, and now commercial firms, for this work.

The NBC is rapidly becoming a powerful player in the Federal government-wide movement toward consolidating major administrative and management services into large SSCs. In fact, after a long period of competition within the government, the NBC has been selected as both a Human Resources SSC and a Financial Management SSC. These selections are significant events for the NBC and for IT as a key enabler of the business services that are and will be core to the products that we will deliver to our customers.

IT will play a critical role in this direction by providing both a flexible and agile IT infrastructure that can adapt rapidly to the business requirements of our key product LoBs and by implementation of a Service Oriented Architecture that will provide an integration environment for the LoBs to develop and deploy discreet, but customized, business services to our customers. Together, these capabilities will begin to create an environment where our LoBs can leverage common infrastructure and integration services that will drive down costs, while providing tremendous flexibility for developing and providing business services.

Looking back, this has been a busy, challenging, and exciting year. We have accomplished remarkable things and are continuing to build our reputation, both within the DOI and across the Federal Government, as an organization that delivers quality and value. Looking ahead, the challenges are even greater, but the potential rewards are significant. We have the opportunity to reach Doug Bourgeois' goal of becoming the Federal Government's premier SSC. Let's get after it.

For More Information:
Bob Haycock - NBC's CIO
Bob_D_Haycock@nbc.gov
303-969-7205