FBI, DHS ask for industry ideas

Federal officials are asking industry leaders for ideas about creating a cross-agency, Web-enabled case management system for use by investigative agencies including the FBI.

The Justice and Homeland Security departments released a joint request for information Sept. 14 on a project dubbed the Federal Investigative Case Management System.

The idea behind the management system — a follow-on to the FBI's Trilogy modernization effort — results from the case management lines of business task force, one of five governmentwide analyses commissioned in March by the Office of Management and Budget.

At this stage, officials are asking companies to identify off-the-shelf technology products for a common solution. A request for proposals will be issued at a still unspecified date, a Justice official said.

Officials expect the system to include management of paperless case files; integrated creation and management of documents across multiple components and various multipurpose Internet mail extensions types; evidence management; and records search and reporting.

In announcing the formation of the task forces earlier this year, OMB officials said their goal was to have the system's target architecture reflected in business cases submitted for the fiscal 2006 budget review.

Implementation of the case management system should save taxpayer dollars by cutting services that could be shared across investigative agencies, according to the request for information. Responses should include data on how business processes and data elements could be standardized across departments. The system should be modular, capable of phased implementation and equipped with real-time access accountability, the request states.