1. NRCS Future Directions
5 Year Invest Strategy
Changes in Technology Delivery
Changes in Architecture

2. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Program Delivery System
Across 3,000 offices, NRCS services 1.2 million conservation plans and 500,000 program grant records in a national system (250,000 applications per year)
The system contains 8 million geospatial land units and 22 million conservation practice records
Between 5,000 and 35,000 electronic customer folders are checked out and serviced each day
NRCS disperses $2 billion in financial assistance for conservation on agricultural land

3. NRCS Has ALWAYS been about Change
Helping Customers change their business practices to solve problems (erosion), be more conservation based (sustainability), and be more profitable (the bottom line).
Conservation Program changes with each new fiscal year
NRCS Workforce is constantly changing
NRCS Organization is always changing in response to improved customer service, efficiency, diversity, and cost of operations
Conservation Planning is about managing change
Conservation Technology is always changing

4. Business Enabling Technologies
Business Driver
Enabling Technology
Improved Customer Service
Common and secure Web access to customer information – Customer Statement
Anywhere, Anytime access to National Conservation Planning Database, eFOTG, Conservation Contracts (ProTracts), Electronic Payments
Team Coordination
Concurrent online access to Case files, technical references
Computerized vs Paper-based contracts
, net conference, and cell phone access 24x7
Efficiency and Cost of Operations
Electronic government with fewer forms
Reliable, secure, and high performance Internet
Streamlined communications and transfer of documents
Mobile Workforce
Virtual office - mobile computers, network, voice communications, and online access to customer files, agency documents, and technical references
Work efficiently at home, in office, on the road, or at customer’s location
Access to Information
Mobile Computing - Tablets/Notebooks, ToolKit, mobile broadband, blackberry/cell phone/PDA provide ready access to business data
Centralized databases for conservation plans, geospatial data, financial data, policies and procedures

5. 4/22/2017 1:11 AM
Top 10 CIO Priorities
Gartner - Top 10 CIO Business and Technology Priorities in 2006
Top 10 Business Priorities
Ranking
Top 10 Technology Priorities
Business process improvement 1
Business Intelligence applications
Controlling enterprise operating costs 2
Security technologies
Attracting and growing customer relationships 3
Mobile workforce enablement
Improving competitive advantage 4
Collaboration technologies
Improving competitiveness 5
Customer sales and service
Using intelligence in products and services 6
Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)
Security breaches and disruptions 7
Workflow management
Revenue growth 8
Networking, voice and data communications
Faster innovation 9
Virtualization
Faster innovation and cycle times 10
Legacy application modernization
Source: Gartner Executive Programs (EXP) (January 2006) Survey of 1,400 CIOs
© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary. 5

6. Five-Year Information Technology Investment Strategy – Principles
Provision the employee and not the office to the extent possible
Maximize the mobility of the employee to the extent possible
Optimize partnerships and leverage capabilities
Reduce total IT costs as a percentage of agency operations, from 10% to 8%
Convert to commercial managed services to the extent possible

7. Five-Year Information Technology Investment Strategy - Actions
Voice
Convert office phone systems to managed service, where necessary
Managed service for cell phones
Data Network
Wireless broadband connection for each employee
Remove land line data connection to county offices
Hosting
Move business applications to two commercial hosting locations
Remove server capacity at county offices

8. Five-Year Information Technology Investment Strategy - Actions
End User Support
Managed service to provision and support computers to employees
Managed service contract for print, copy, scan, fax, and plotter services
Business Applications and Data
, messaging, collaboration provided as a managed service (called USDA enterprise messaging)
Virtual offices
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software
Business functionality deployed as plug-ins in the CRM framework, and also outside the USDA network through commercial farm management software.

9. ITS Status and Trends VOICE ($92 per month per employee)
NETWORK ($109 per month per employee)
WEB FARMS ($57 per month per employee)
OFFICE and USER SUPPORT
$75 per month per employee for hardware/software/leases/etc
$100 per month per employee for technical support
Annual cost per employee = $5,200
Annual cost per office = $28,000

10. The Future Model…
Vehicle with broadband connection for mobile training and service delivery
Web Farm
Conservation Plans
Cost-Share Agreements
Technical Guidance
District Conservationist coordinates activities of those engaged with providing services in the watershed
Partner records GPS coordinates and uploads to NRCS database
NRCS Main Office
NRCS employees process cost-share agreement payments
NRCS field conservationist services producer need using Toolkit, ProTracts, or other tool
Producer uploads data to USDA database through conservation plug-in tool
Producer gets on-line and applies for EQIP, CSP, or other program
TSP provides service to producer; uses conservation plug-in tool

11. Water and Climate Information System (WCIS)
NRCS Application Systems
CPD
NRIIA
Customer Service Toolkits
Program Contracts
Smartech E-FOTG
Smartech Engineering
Smartech Resource Analysis
Integrated Accountability
Program Operations
Management Applications
Natural Resource Data Collection and Management
Natural Resource Data Warehouses and Marts
Natural Resource Data Information and Delivery
National Resource Inventory
Water and Climate Information System (WCIS)

12. Operational or Transaction Databases
FRAMEWORK for ORGANIZING and MANAGING DATA
COLLECTION AND
INTEGRATION
STORAGE & MANAGEMENT
ACCESS
Data Marts
Operational or Transaction Databases
Web Services
Data Warehouse
Order
Soil
Metadata
Catalog
data entry and processing
reformatting
reprocessing
integration
standardization
documentation
certification
View
Updates
Plant
Extract,
Transform,
Load
Tabular Data
Water
Climate
Analyze
Spatial Data
Imagery Data
Ecological
Site
Report
Wildlife

13. Data Management Architecture

14. USDA Customer Relationship Management
4/22/2017 1:11 AM
USDA Customer Relationship Management
Conservation Contract
Management
Embedded Virtual Earth
Maps and Imagery
CRM
Conservation Plans
Land Units and Conservation Practices
Customer Files stored in SharePoint
Cross-agency coordination
Analysis by State, County, Watershed, Service Center, etc… 14
©2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

15. CRM Integrates Right Into Outlook

16. Conservation Planning Case File

17. CRM - Virtual Earth

18. Grants Management in USDA
Thirteen USDA agencies disperse a combined $50 billion in grants each year
More than 150 programs
Low volume, high amount (e.g. food assistance, research)
High volume, low amount (e.g. farms to improve water quality)
Six agencies at least partially automate their grants management

19. Federated Approach to Streamlining Grants Management in USDA
USDA Enterprise Messaging (Outlook/Sharepoint)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
USDA Grants System
Agency Business System
Agency Business System
Agency Business System
Agency Business System
Agency Components (e.g. ProTracts)
Agency Business System
Agency Business Systems (e.g. Toolkit)
Grants Management and Administration (USFS)
USDA Loan System (RD)
USDA Invoice System (USFS)
USDA Financial System (FMMI)

20. Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
Service Oriented Architecture
Business Application
Database
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
Web Services
Web Services
Web Services
Database
Database
Database

21. (outside USDA network)
Conservation Plug-In Architecture
Interagency
Plug-In
Commercial Partner
NRCS
CRM S/W
Plug-In
Plug-In
NRCS Internal
Transaction Broker
NRCS Web Services
Commercial
Transaction Broker
NRCS
Customer
Folders
Conservation Plans
Financial Assistance
Notes
Files
Commercial Partner
Commercial
Partner
Plug-In
Plug-In
Field Office
(inside USDA network)
TSP Office
(outside USDA network)
USDA Web Farm