NASA readies e-gov launch

NASA is set to launch a broad effort to streamline its information technology operations in hopes of improving electronic services throughout the agency.

The plan—eNASA—will be rolled out this year, said NASA's chief information officer, Lee Holcomb. It is part of a government.wide trend to develop enterprisewide systems with the goal of saving money and improving standardization and interoperability.

Speaking June 28 at a forum hosted by Computer Marketing Associates Inc., Holcomb said that part of the eNASA plan is simply a more orchestrated way of doing business.

"We're not displacing people. We're not changing contracting vehicles," he said. "We're adding a system integration overlay" to NASA's IT operations. Critics have said NASA often lacks focus on its overall organization because most decisions are made among the space agency's 11 centers.

For example, NASA was supposed to upgrade its agencywide directory systems last year, yet only six of the centers upgraded by September as planned. Now, months later, Holcomb said he has "a directory system that doesn't fully interoperate because five of [the centers] didn't upgrade."

Under eNASA, enterprisewide systems will focus on integration, and funds for those projects will be held centrally with an eye to saving money, he said.

He added that other parts of eNASA will require more significant changes. The agency's new integrated financial management system, to be unveiled at three centers beginning next fiscal year, will be part of the effort.

"We're using the [integrated financial management system] as a driver to identify what things we want to do—and need to do—commonly," he said.

Among other short-term items that will be included in eNASA are a redesigned employee Web portal, called insideNASA, and a redesigned public home page, to be called myNASA, that will allow for more customization; a "team collaboration kit" that will provide project managers with electronic tools to work together more effectively; and improved management of NASA's Web sites.