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United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Conservation Service (USDA - NRCS)View Photo of Award Presentation The USDA Service Center Agencies, over the last four years, have been streamlining and modernizing business process. GIS has been the cornerstone of this modernization. Learn more about our application
Business Problem The USDA Service Center Agencies (Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Rural Development Agencies) have seen a decline of staff of 22% and a large increase in workload since 1995. They began an extensive modernization effort in 1997 focused on reducing workload and improving customer service. After completing initial business process reengineering in 2000, the agencies began implementing a Common Computing Environment that included personal computers, servers, GPS and other hardware. They also implemented shared software including Microsoft Office and ESRI GIS. Most of the agencies business process relied heavily on manual map processes. The three agencies have modernized Conservation Planning, Wetland and Easements, Farm Records Management, Compliance and a number of other processes with ESRI GIS Software. Each agency has a distinct line of business, but they had a common need to implement GIS in a shared environment. Because of the different lines of business and different business cultures in the agencies partnering was not always been easy. However, by working together on a common GIS implementation each agency and their customers have benefited. Productivity gains are now being realized, just in time for the 2002 Farm Bill that has added additional workload for Service Center Staff. Technology Implemented The Service Center Agencies have implemented ArcView GIS in more that 2500 Service Center offices on more than 15,000 personal computers. Data are housed on a shared file server. Application servers that will house a DBMS and SDE are currently being purchased to enable a migration to ArcGIS. In addition the agencies have implemented ArcIMS in a number of applications. The agencies have centered on the Microsoft Office suite, Outlook and Exchange. They have established a common local and wide area network that is being upgraded to enable more ArcIMS and E-government related applications. The agencies have established a Web-Farm to securely house E-government applications. This Web-Farm hosts a geospatial data warehouse and the Resource Data Gateway application that provides Service Centers and their customers with web access to geospatial data. Development Team Biography The Service Center Agency GIS implementation involved over 30 federal agency staff and over 15 contractors working in teams. The teams included a GIS Planning and Implementation Team that provided overall guidance and coordination. Other teams involved were application development teams, and Data Management, Migration, Common Computing Environment, Security, Telecommunications and Interoperability Lab Teams. These teams were provided guidance by senior leadership from both the business and information technology sections of the agencies.
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