Report Contents
Report Terms
Report Recommendations
The Bureau of Information Resource Management, in coordination with the Office of Management Policy, Rightsizing, and Innovation, and the Bureaus of European and Eurasian Affairs, East Asian and Pacific Affairs, African Affairs, Near Eastern Affairs, South and Central Asian Affairs, and Western Hemisphere Affairs, should implement by January 2015 a plan that reduces the current Regional Information Management Centers’ overseas presence by 80 percent and that maintains those overseas positions that are necessary to provide timesensitive, immediate-response services.
The Bureau of Information Resource Management should define and prioritize the Regional Information Management Centers’ overseas and U.S.-based services, limiting those performed from overseas support platforms to repair and crisis-response support and making the stateside operation responsible for all other services such as surveys, installations, equipment upgrades, preventive maintenance, and help desk support.
The Bureau of Information Resource Management, in coordination with the Bureaus of European and Eurasian Affairs, East Asian and Pacific Affairs, African Affairs, Near Eastern Affairs, South and Central Asian Affairs, and Western Hemisphere Affairs, should define the roles and responsibilities of the Regional Information Management Centers during crisis events and put appropriate emergency action plans into place.
The Bureau of Information Resource Management, in coordination with the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, should direct the Frankfurt Regional Information Management Center to cease management of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs information management rover program.
The Bureau of Information Resource Management, in coordination with the Foreign Service Institute, should cease managing the Information Technology Training Centers through the Regional Information Management Centers and cease assigning information management specialists to instructor positions at the Regional Information Management Centers.
The Bureau of Information Resource Management, in coordination with the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, should cease the Frankfurt Regional Information Management Center’s management of the hard-drive destruction program.
The Bureau of Human Resources, in coordination with the Bureau of Information Resource Management, should authorize managers assigned to the Regional Information Management Center in Ft. Lauderdale 3–5 days of consultations in Washington en route to the Ft. Lauderdale office.
The Bureau of Information Resource Management, in coordination with the Foreign Service Institute, should implement a formalized career-span training continuum with demonstrable proficiency standards for information management technology specialist staff.
The Bureau of Information Resource Management should implement service-level agreements between its program offices and the Regional Information Management Centers that outline roles and responsibilities, including expected services, staffing requirements, and performance metrics.
The Bureau of Information Resource Management should implement property accountability processes and procedures that comply with Department of State regulations regarding program property.
The Bureau of Information Resource Management, in coordination with the Bureau of Administration, should implement standard procedures to reconcile items in transit to and from the Regional Information Management Centers.
The Bureau of Information Resource Management should implement a quality management system that governs and documents the travel and job assignments of personnel in the Regional Information Management Centers.
The Bureau of Information Resource Management should establish a single centralized knowledge management and collaboration platform for the Regional Information Management Centers.
The Bureau of Information Resource Management should update the Service Request Management Remedy software to include the Regional Information Management Centers’ services and train staff at the Information Technology Service Centers and Regional Information Management Centers on use of the software.
The Bureau of Information Resource Management should institute a policy for the Regional Information Management Centers to use the Department of State’s Service Request Management Remedy Software to document and track service requests.