National Information Exchange Model (NIEM)
The National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) connects communities of people who share a common need to exchange information to advance their missions. The NIEM development process—the basis for Information Sharing Environment’s (ISE) Common Information Sharing Standards (CISS) program and ISE functional standards—is designed to develop, disseminate, and support enterprise-wide information exchanges, standards, and processes that can enable organizations in broad communities of interest to effectively share critical information.
What is NIEM?
NIEM provides a commonly understood way for various organizations to connect data that improves government decision making for the greater good. By making it possible for organizations to share critical data, NIEM empowers people to make informed decisions that improve efficiency and advance and fulfill organizational missions.
NIEM is not a standard, database, software, or the actual exchange of information. Rather, NIEM provides the community of users, tools, common terminology, governance, methodologies, and support that enables the creation of standards. As a result, organizations can “speak the same language” to quickly and efficiently exchange meaningful data.
NIEM in Action
A national program, NIEM is supported by and used within all levels of government for a broad set of missions including but not limited to justice, homeland security, international trade, human services, and cyber. Robust communities of practitioners use NIEM to ensure that when information is exchanged between various systems, it is standardized and commonly understood for quicker and more effective use. NIEM is included in the overall data strategies for Colorado, Indiana, and New York City.
Data sharing through NIEM helps government agencies advance their missions and improve the quality of their service to the public, improving lives. By reducing data processing time, NIEM quickly puts actionable information in the hands of decision makers and decreases response time. The information exchanges developed using NIEM result in reusable artifacts that reduce future development costs, resulting in cost avoidance.
NIEM is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Awards and Success Stories
As an incentive to encourage the use of standards, NIEM has inaugurated a special set of awards known as the “Best of NIEM.” Additional details and information on the five award winners for 2009 can be found on the Inaugural 2009 Best of NIEM Awards page. The 2011 Best of NIEM will be announced this summer at the NIEM 2011 National Training Event (NTE). The application process for 2011 Best of NIEM nomination has closed.
NIEM Success Stories:
- Health IT Success Story
- SAR Success Story
- Domestic Nuclear Detection Office Success Story
- UCORE Success Story
Resource Links
