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Camilo Perez, left, of Chief Financial Officer Systems (CFO-Systems) and Information Technology Strategy Project leader, and Charlotte Lindsey, the Lab's acting chief information officer, sponsor of ITSP, discuss the future of ITSP during the first monthly review of the project, held last week. Photo by James E. Rickman, Public Affairs

Laboratory kicks off its Information Technology Strategy Project

The Laboratory's new institutional Information Technology Strategy Project (ITSP) is designed to strategically align with the Laboratory's central mission.

The goal of ITSP is to develop and implement a business-driven institutional IT strategic plan that positions IT as a strategic asset and provides a context for institutional decisions regarding IT investments, governance and organizational structure, said Charlotte Lindsey, acting chief information officer for the Laboratory and sponsor of ITSP.

For the purposes of the project, the definition of "information technology" is generally synonymous with the definition used by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. That definition states that IT is "any equipment or interconnected system or subsystem ... used in the automatic acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission or reception of data or information ... (which) includes computers, ancillary equipment, software, firmware and similar procedures services (including support services) and related resources (telecom equipment)."

Under the auspices of ITSP, project personnel are working with consultants and subject-matter experts to capture the current state of information technology at the Laboratory. Among its many objectives, the project endeavors to reduce the complexity of the Laboratory's IT portfolio through reduction of the number of operating systems, applications, etc.; and further strives to optimize acquisition and use of IT resources through purchasing standards, acquisition planning, efficient allocation of resources, etc. Finally, ITSP will develop an institutional IT strategy for the Laboratory and begin implementation by this summer.

"A fundamental philosophy behind the IT Strategy Project is that the Laboratory's mission, goal and objectives must drive IT," Lindsey said. "This IT-to-business alignment is paramount in viewing IT as a strategic asset that must be managed, much like other tangible assets such as facilities or the work force."

In support of the project's asset-management philosophy, the project will reinforce that knowledge and information are enterprise assets and must be readily available to stakeholders, said Camilo Perez of Chief Financial Officer Systems (CFO-Systems), ITSP project leader.

The project potentially affects nearly everyone at the Laboratory. The project will be perhaps most visible to employees who have direct control over their own computer configurations, maintenance and upgrades; employees who oversee computer networks, web pages or online applications; employees who have computing purchasing authority or acquisition responsibility for themselves or others; and employees who support other computer users through a variety of means.

Because of its potential to affect a large number of people, IT strategy project principals are acutely aware of the need to involve key stakeholders both in the strategy-development process as well as during implementation. Consequently, the project will provide several avenues for employees to become involved in the planning and execution of the project. An ITSP Web site, - http://int.lanl.gov/cio/itstrategy/index.shtml - will include moderated discussion forums for feedback and comment as the project progresses. Employees also can submit questions or feedback to itsp-faq@lanl.gov by electronic mail at any time. In addition, the project personnel plan to hold focus groups with those who may be most affected by the project at key stages of the project.

The IT Strategy Project Team - comprised of representatives from the technical and business sides of the institution - is developing a set of "Quick Wins," institutional IT improvements that can be accomplished during the next six months. Quick wins include

• development of an IT cost tracking system,
• implementation of a desktop computing purchasing and lifecycle management system, and
• implementation of a tracking system for software licenses and license purchasing.

ITSP is born out of several initiatives in 2004, including the review of general and administrative budgets and efforts to reduce the cost of doing business. The Executive Board reaffirmed this need at its December strategic planning retreat, and identified the Institutional IT strategy as one of the Laboratory's 2005 fiscal year corporate performance objectives.

A master management memo announcing the project was released last week (Adobe Acrobat Reader required). For more information about the project, go to http://int.lanl.gov/cio/itstrategy/index.shtml online.

--James E. Rickman

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