APPENDIX G
SHARING, OPTIMIZING, AND CONSOLIDATING OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESOURCES

1 PURPOSE

This appendix establishes policies and assigns responsibility for the sharing, optimizing, and consolidating of telecommunications resources within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

2 BACKGROUND

USDA must take advantage of every opportunity to aggregate and optimize the acquisition of new telecommunications resources through the coordination of business processes and telecommunications planning among all USDA agencies. The Clinger-Cohen Act has mandated that agencies refocus information technology management to support directly their strategic missions, implement an investment review process that drives budget formulation and execution for information systems, and rethink and restructure the way they perform their functions before investing in information technology to support that work. Additionally the Chief Information Officer (CIO) has instituted an Information Technology (IT) moratorium on all IT purchases. In response to these actions the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) implemented the Telecommunications Network Stabilization and Migration Program (TNSMP) to establish the controls and processes for stabilizing and managing the current USDA agency networks and migrate towards an Enterprise Network (EN).