Personalized Portals-- The Role of e-Intelligence in Federal Agency Collaboration

White Paper Personalized Portals: The Role of E-Intelligence in Federal Agency Collaboration Personalized Portals: The Role of E-Intelligence in Federal Agency Collaboration Contents Introduction 1 Personalized Access 3 Community Support 3 Integrated Content Management 4 Role-Based Filtering of Content 5 Multi-System Integration 5 Single Sign-On and Security 6 Scalability 6 Multi-Touchpoint Communications 7 Process Transformation 7 Summary 8 BroadVision as a Solution Provider 8 BroadVision Case Studies AFP—The United States Air Force (USAF) Portal CG Central—The United States Coast Guard Portal 8 8 10 Personalized Portals: The Role of E-Intelligence in Federal Agency Collaboration Introduction Federal agencies today are juggling a number of priorities as the pressure mounts for them to collaborate more effectively than ever before, both to protect the security of the country and to operate in the most cost efficient manner. They are faced with the need to make information available to those who need it, whenever and wherever they need it, despite a history of redundant and sometimes inconsistent data residing in separate silos deep within government agencies and sub-agencies. But providing access to information is not enough. The ability to evaluate, filter and integrate that information is the key to its being used effectively to address critical issues in the federal government today. To deal effectively with this issue, technology must be deployed in a way that allows the right people to see the right information in time to make effective decisions, assure effective collaboration and adequately prevent or respond to a crisis. Existing information systems must be enhanced to not only collect, analyze and summarize information in a comprehensive manner, but also to detect changes in the status of information in order to disseminate or alert the proper personnel in a timely manner. In addition, these systems must be able to manage the information in a way that ensures the proper security and entitlements to such information. Listed below are a few of the specific issues and challenges facing the government today: I Department of Homeland Security initiatives dictate that data must be shared among an increasing number of agencies and organizations—yet the need to insure the security of that data is critical. In a crisis situation, information must be obtained and analyzed quickly but needed data may reside in hundreds of different systems in various formats. Where agencies formerly were independent in their spending, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has now stepped in to scrutinize expenditures and enforce a unified approach to minimize redundancy. More government employees will retire in the upcoming years than ever before—without effective knowledge management, critical information will be lost when these employees walk out the door. I I I INPUT’s 2004 Market Forecast report states that “Homeland security is a topic that affects every federal agency to at least a small degree, and comes closer than any other initiative to date to being a force for standardizing and integrating technology, not only between federal agencies, but at the state and local government level as well.” INPUT expects federal knowledge management spending to increase to nearly $1.3 billion in FY 2008 at a compound annual growth rate of 9%. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is addressing the need to collaborate by creating the Net-Centric Enterprise Services (NCES) program to provide enterprise services in support of the Global Information Grid (GIG). The mission of NCES is to provide the many Department of Defense (DoD) organizations with ubiquitous access to reliable, decision-quality information through a net-based services infrastructure and applications to bridge real-time and near-real-time communities of interest (COI). The approach reflects the federal government’s dramatic shift from a top down decision-making organization to a strategy that will empower the edge user to pull information from any available source, with minimal latency, to support the mission. Net-Centric Enterprise Services capabilities will allow GIG users to task, post, process, use, store, manage and protect information resources on demand for warriors, policy makers and support personnel. 1 Personalized Portals: The Role of E-Intelligence in Federal Agency Collaboration In response to government collaboration needs, companies like BroadVision provide personalized intelligence support systems—e-intelligence—that reduce the elapsed time from information acquisition to its association with an area of interest or specific location. In addition, e-intelligence solutions furnish a knowledge base of key questions and answers that can be quickly organized, indexed and searched around key issues, collaboration needs, threats and emergency support functions. Some of the unique drivers that face government agencies are: I Compliance with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Federal Enterprise Architecture initiative to create an IT architecture that links IT solutions with business goals and facilitates interagency collaboration. The DoD Net-Centric Enterprise Services Initiative. Compliance to standards, such as DII/COE, the Defense Information Infra-structure Common Operating Environment, standard operating environment (SOE), and shared data environment (SHADE). These DII components need to be integrated and implemented with functional mission application and data segments to produce cohesive systems such as the Global Command and Control System (GCCS) and the Global Combat Support System (GCSS). A clear understanding of user needs and requirements in various situations that guide the development of techniques for personalization, hence providing presentation and format standards that link multiple information sources easily and seamlessly for rapid decision-support. Knowledge-sharing both between agencies and across security levels, from unclassified to top secret, is increasing at blinding speeds, as is the adoption of standardized security protocols such as X.509 and PKI—a Federal Public Key Infrastructure that enables trusted communication among government agencies, trading partners and the public. I I I I To understand the complexity of facilitating this collaboration, one must first understand that there are multiple components or pieces to an e-intelligence solution. This paper will focus on the component that ultimately brings all of these pieces together, the personalized portal. This paper discusses the necessary elements of a personalized portal and how they are leveraged to enable e-intelligence. The elements of a personalized portal include: I I I I I I I I I Personalized access: You define what you want. Role-based filtering of content: You only get what you need. Multi-system integration: You get directly to the systems you use to do your work. Scalability: You experience good online response time with the lowest possible hardware investment. Single sign-on: You need only one password for all the systems you use. Security: Systems and content are accessed only by those who are supposed to access them. Community support: Communities of interest can collaborate online. Integrated content management: You find the information you need to be effective. Multi-touchpoint communications: You can communicate and collaborate anytime, anywhere on any device. Process transformation: Complex interactions can be transformed into efficient self-service processes. I 2 Personalized Portals: The Role of E-Intelligence in Federal Agency Collaboration Personalized Access What is personalization? In computing, it is the ability to intelligently create the user experience, including content, functionality, navigation and user interface, based on the identity of the user and his or her method of interacting with the network, for example, the device used. The ability to provide a personalized information and communications infrastructure is vital in order to support the objective of e-intelligence. Interactive intelligence systems, such as a personalized portal, can be tailored easily and quickly to fit the specific requirements of individuals in various communities, with different clearance levels. Implementing the appropriate technologies, such as personalized portals, will provide a new presentation and format standard that links multiple data types and sources easily, thus enabling e-intelligence. As with any enterprise-wide application, information technology experts are not typically the most prevalent and important users of communications, making usability a crucial issue. What is needed are ways for people to use technology more effectively to communicate, not only with computers and other information sources and tools, but also with each other. For example, in a crisis situation, the ability to quickly manage the flow of communications among people and machines is crucial and cannot be limited solely to highly trained IT professionals. Users of these systems must be able to configure their communications to fit their organizational demands. This requirement implies far more than easy-to-use human-computer interfaces for enterprise software; the enterprise itself must be able to adapt actively to its users and whatever information or other resources they need to draw upon. The true effectiveness of a portal implementation depends directly on how well it provides a personalized user experience. Personalization allows a portal to evolve beyond a static intranet and become a tool that delivers pertinent, relevant and specific information that enables a person to be more effective and efficient and make faster, better-informed decisions. The easier the portal solution is to use effectively, the more likely it is to be used in a stress-laden working environment. A strong personalization engine is particularly critical where the needs of users vary significantly from agency to agency and where users are not expected to explicitly request specific information, alerts or content. Community Support Cross-agency collaboration involves two fundamental elements: a method to enable communication and content that must be exchanged. It includes multiple modes of communication such as voice, video, passing data files to one another or sharing a consensus view of a document or a map. Decision makers must be able to organize and share information, contribute to information stores used by others and add value to diverse pieces of information. Agencies will share common workflows, with deadlines for decisions and plans, schedules for actions and precisely timed operational activities. The solution must support multiple COIs within and across government organizations. 3 Personalized Portals: The Role of E-Intelligence in Federal Agency Collaboration Given the enterprise requirements of sharing, organizing, contributing to and aggregating information, it is necessary for each COI to be able to effectively and efficiently collaborate both within its own domain as well as out to other COIs. This concept is known as a federated environment. A federated portal environment distributes and delegates ownership and administration to the community to allow those decision makers at the edge to obtain the information needed to make informed and timely decisions. This helps make the functionality and content within the portal more relevant to the community. The federated portal architecture allows entitlements and access control to be distributed by building multiple, locally owned portals linked into one centralized portal. This decentralized decision-making helps accelerate the portal and COI development. The federated architecture recognizes that effective portals maximize local input and value. However, caution must be exercised here; portals need to push/pull data to/from other portals. Portal technology must use common object models and protocols for communication (for example, XML messaging and data storing). They must authenticate users similarly and should make their services available to each other. Using multiple portal technologies can severely limit the ability to provide personalized access, role-based filtering and integrated content management across the enterprise. Integrated Content Management The term content management is sometimes confused with document management. Document management refers to the management of distinct documents. Content management refers to the management of information. This distinction between content management and document management is important because relevant information can be located either within a specific document as a “chunk” of information or it can be a standalone piece of information. A good content management solution should be able to handle both of these scenarios. For example, take a situation where a content creator, located anywhere in the field, wants to update the portal to reflect a late-breaking development or event. With an integrated portal and content management system, that person can open a Word document or a web page, enter the content, define where to place the content (taxonomy) and define who can have access to it (security). The content would then be routed, via workflow, for approval or validation by a manager and subsequently displayed in the right location on the right web page, viewable by the right people upon approval. Another distinction that needs to be made is that not all content or information needs to be created from scratch. From an integrated content management perspective, content can come from either external sources or integrated sources, such as file systems, databases, syndicated sources or other content agents. These information sources are typically stored on the underlying stovepipe systems of the portal. This is why multi-system integration plays such a critical role in an e-intelligence solution. 4 Personalized Portals: The Role of E-Intelligence in Federal Agency Collaboration Role-Based Filtering of Content When critical issues surface, agency managers often find themselves making decisions based on incomplete information or knowledge of conditions, capabilities, and needs because, more often than not, incoming information is scattered among multiple diverse sources. Role-based filtering of disparate information or content allows the user to view aggregated and related data in real time with the end goal of interpreting the quality and reliability of varied inputs and thereby providing a more complete picture of the situation. Role-based filtering is predicated on the existence of a robust matching engine that matches information or content to the user. Matching is accomplished by tagging the content to make categorization easier and more reliable and passing content through the matching engine. The content attributes are then compared to the user’s defined preferences. Matched pairs of content attributes and user preferences allow the appropriate data elements to be revealed to the user based on the user’s unique, personal profile. In addition, a resulting knowledge database is created during this process and can join the content archives so that a cross-content matching engine can search it. Multi-System Integration Information in a multitude of diverse formats must be aggregated and integrated in order to collaborate effectively. Simultaneously, the confidentiality and integrity of the data must be maintained. Related to the integration problem is the issue of information location. How can information be indexed and searched to support enterprise-wide applications? The Defense Information System Network (DISN), the Defense Message System (DMS) and the Global Information System Agency (GISA) all have the mandate of addressing these questions by integrating hardware and software and constructing a common operating environment (DII/COE) to sustain the warfighters’ need for information anytime, anywhere. The components of this effort include the Global Command and Control System (GCCS) and the Global Combat Support System (GCSS). DISA’s Net-Centric Enterprise Services initiative will provide robust security and coordinated management of information resources. It will also enable edge users to rapidly and precisely discover data, to efficiently task information providers, to post any information they hold, and to dynamically form collaborative groups for problem solving. NCES compresses decision cycles by providing near real-time connectivity and computing power for warfighters and other national security users to pull the right information, at the right time, in the right format to meet operational and tactical needs. In business and support, it provides net-based services to reduce the need to build similar redundant capabilities and communities. By providing a core set of common services, NCES will enable system developers to focus more on providing value-added capabilities, versus building infrastructure, and allow end-users greater access to the information and functions needed to support their missions. All these capabilities allow for rapid exploitation of diverse data sources by individual and organizational users in a manner that can be customized to meet specific mission demands. 5 Personalized Portals: The Role of E-Intelligence in Federal Agency Collaboration Single Sign-On and Security The success of a personalized e-intelligence portal solution is directly contingent on the ability to tie together multiple “stovepipe” systems in a coherent, personalized way to meet the specific needs of the user. Needless to say, each of these stovepipe systems will have its own authentication management information (who you are) and entitlement management data (what you are allowed to access) credentials that need to be entered and maintained. The existence of disparate and unique security schemes is in direct opposition to what a personalized portal is all about. The notions of ease of use, and fast, efficient and accurate information will quickly deteriorate as users become increasingly frustrated by the necessity to sign in each time they require access to information in these underlying systems. The concept behind single sign-on is that users should be able to sign on once to the enterprise portal and be automatically authenticated to all components and applications to which they have access permissions. In its purest form, single sign-on relies on a centralized authentication point, for example, LDAP (Local Directory Access Protocol), but it can also be accomplished through the use of digital certificates. Single sign-on eliminates the need for users to endure the hassle of logging on to multiple systems separately, which requires remembering multiple user names and passwords. Scalability Collaboration calls for balanced performance in both computer systems and networks. Because data requirements are variable, the software must be flexible enough to accommodate fluctuating needs. Warfighters in the field are likely to have less bandwidth available to them than those working from an office site. Likewise in an emergency, people may be forced to use back-up networks that are slower than what is normally available to them. If the solution is highly scalable, adjustments can be easily made to avoid any slow down in response time. Large JPG files that are easily viewed in an office can be stripped out of content made available at remote sites, assuring that the key information is delivered in a timely manner. Within the context of personalized portals, the term scalability has two meanings. First, it refers to the ability of the portal solution to continue supplying results quickly enough to be relevant, as the underlying mission-critical systems increase the number of concurrent users and the amount of information. Second, the portal solution should be able to support additional supporting infrastructure. The portal software should have the ability to take full advantage of technology enhancements such as a larger or more varied line of computer systems with various resources and capacities in terms of CPU, DASD, and RAM. Scalability is a key component of personalized portals, ensuring that any additional overhead that personalization may bring does not slow down the performance of the enterprise portal. The generation of dynamic web pages driven by server-based application logic and required database I/O processes needs to be configured properly, to ensure that there are no application bottlenecks. 6 Personalized Portals: The Role of E-Intelligence in Federal Agency Collaboration Multi-Touchpoint Communications Greater interconnectivity—the ability to support multiple communication protocols—and heterogeneity— the ability to support multiple devices—are now major requirements for collaboration in the federal government. For example, a CIA agent may retrieve information via one type of device using a secure connection protocol, while an official reviewing inventory may require a completely different type of device and protocol. Enabling more complex information pathways, such as wireless communications, will make information more readily available to more people. However, the complexity of devices, content and protocols will also create greater challenges to the effective management of information. Personalized portals that can integrate with wireless protocols such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and Wireless Markup Language (WML) will alleviate many of the issues surrounding wireless communications. Wireless-enabled portals need to do more than simply allow the portal site to be viewed in its entirety on a wireless device. To be effective and worthwhile, wireless functionality must have the ability to integrate with business processes, as well as the following capabilities: I Allow information (content) to be subscribed to in a way that can be effectively communicated using a specific device. Enable the user to subscribe to specific COIs in a way that can be effective using a specific device. Provide a mechanism to have subscription-based alerts and notifications that notify the proper users when a condition is met via their wireless device. Supply a mechanism for interactive querying of information to improve communication and information dissemination. I I I The integration of wireless communication as part of a personalized portal creates enhanced capabilities for collaboration and crisis management. This would allow the use of tracking applications running over a wireless global positioning system (GPS). The GPS data can then be used to create dynamic pages based on other relevant information that track the location and status of equipment or people while they’re on the move. These pages would then be made available to the personalized portal, either in a web-based format or over wireless devices. Process Transformation The move to collaboration among agencies will affect processes that have been in place within the individual agencies for quite some time. For example, in the past human resources functions such as payroll have been put into place on an agency-by-agency basis without regard for interoperability between agencies. Today as the collaboration model goes into effect, agencies will need to consider ways to change the processes in a way that is of benefit to the larger group. Many of these processes are complex, and people intensive. 7 Personalized Portals: The Role of E-Intelligence in Federal Agency Collaboration Summary The ongoing threat of terrorism in the world today along with increased emphasis on reducing technology costs has sparked dramatic changes in the way government operates. The concept of independent government agencies operating as separate distinct organizations with separate technology solutions is becoming a thing of the past. Information is the key to being proactive about crises. Government agencies today are focused on collaboration and how they can best share information and make it available to those who need it, all the while maintaining security. The need to reduce technology costs and maximize investment benefits further supports the collaboration initiative. Personalized portals are a vital piece of the e-intelligence solution that will aid in reducing the time between getting information and using it. BroadVision as a Solution Provider BroadVision products are already playing a key role in helping government organizations to collaborate and move toward e-Government using technology that serves citizens, employees and suppliers more effectively. Specifically, BroadVision’s portal solution has been implemented by the United States Air Force and the United States Coast Guard. BroadVision Case Studies AFP—The United States Air Force (USAF) Portal Summary The U.S. Air Force has implemented BroadVision’s portal solution to consolidate access to multiple internal resources. To date, more than 442,000 people have entered the Air Force Portal and in some cases 50 passwords have been consolidated to one. More than 150 web communities are now available to assist in driving strategy, solving problems quickly and sharing best practices while working together from remote locations. The Problem The Air Force needed a portal to deliver decisional information that is timely, trusted, and accurate into the hands of warfighters and those who support them, on any device, at anytime, anywhere in the world. From aircraft operations on the flight line to readiness and logistic support functions, information is a key discriminator of the superior warfighting capability of the USAF—the delivery of the right information at the right time and place to the right person. 8 Personalized Portals: The Role of E-Intelligence in Federal Agency Collaboration Air Force information exists in many forms; a briefing summary, a message from a commander, a remote sensor, a notification of an aircraft maintenance technical order change, a notification of a new training program, or an air-tasking order. The Air Force realized that the application of Internet and web-based transformation technologies offered an unparalleled opportunity to expose distributed information previously inaccessible to a wide variety of USAF information producers and consumers. Further, the Air Force understood that current and future web-based services would help enable the full spectrum of information superiority in the USAF. The Solution “ It’s an exciting time. All Internet-based applications will be accessible through the Portal. Air Force Portal breaks through the clutter of the last five years.” — Maj. David Gindhart, Deputy Chief of the Systems Integration Division of the Air Force Chief Information Office in the Pentagon The USAF System Software Group contracted BroadVision to provide all organizations within the USAF a way to easily manage and deliver content and application data through the Air Force Portal (AFP). Based on the BroadVision Portal application, personalized content is delivered in a dynamic environment. AFP features include: I Collaboration: Those looking for a cross-flow of information, can join a forum to share experiences and knowledge in a creative, free-flowing web community. More than 150 communities are available to assist in driving strategy, solving problems quickly and sharing best practices while working together from remote locations. User-centric design: Customizable user workspaces accommodate the unique preferences of each worker and the activities in which they engage. These include the Air Force Home Page, My Org, My Base, My Workspace, Library, Career and Life. In addition, the main menu features the latest Air Force news, a search engine, a section for favorite web sites, the Air Force White Pages for tracking workers and an A-Z section covering a gamut of information such as military acronyms and a dictionary of military terms. Personalization: Users are able to develop and manage a set of personal profile attributes. This profile is a critical component that supports true personalization which is defined as the ability to filter and present relevant information to the user. Role-Based Access: All content and collaboration services are provided through role-based access via access groups as defined through the use of Policy Director software. For example, a member of the Logistics Group will have access to content not available to a member of the Chief Information Office. Single Sign-on: The AFP has been developed within a framework that will support the Air Force goal of single sign-on, eliminating multiple IDs and passwords. Scalability & Expandability: The AFP provides a portal foundation that the Air Force will not outgrow. I I I I I 9 Personalized Portals: The Role of E-Intelligence in Federal Agency Collaboration Benefits AFP represents one of the first efforts to truly transform a government agency from the inside out. Specifically, it enables and empowers the U.S. Air Force to better perform duties that provide protection and service to citizens of the United States by: I I I Improving the quality, timeliness and accuracy of USAF services. Reducing the total cost of ownership by unifying web infrastructure. Improving productivity through personalized self-service. Enhancing relationships through collaboration and interaction. Establishing “one voice” from the enterprise. Extending the enterprise to key stakeholders. Enabling improved government resources through e-Government initiatives. Solving problems and streamlining processes that impact all members of the USAF. Increasing productivity and saving public sector resources. Improving USAF member satisfaction. Impacting the USAF on an enterprise basis. “ Every day, every individual, every command and every department is provided a view of their readiness and deployability.” — Lt. Tom Shelton, CG Central Program Manager, U.S. Coast Guard I I I I I I I I CG Central—The United States Coast Guard Portal Summary CG Central, named to the Nielsen Norman Group’s Ten Best Intranets of 2003, serves over 40,000 Coast Guard personnel. Using BroadVision Portal technology, CG Central provides fast access to operational information and allows collaboration among COIs through the use of BroadVision’s microsite capability. The Problem The U.S. Coast Guard has over 40,000 members organized into 4,000 units throughout the country. Prior to launching their new enterprise portal, CG Central, their primary way of communicating and collaborating was by email. Information was dispersed throughout the organization. At one point there were 20,000 URLs. Broken links, out-dated files, and redundant and inconsistent information had eroded trust in the integrity of the system. Finding information in backend systems often required a custom request, custom code and a three-day wait for the information. Project collaboration often involved travel to meetings and time away from other assignments. Project information was exchanged by email and maintained inconsistently. Publishing information to the old intranet environment required knowledge of Front Page or HTML. The Coast Guard was looking for a single portal infrastructure that would streamline communication, support online collaboration and provide direct access anytime, from anywhere to information in back-end systems based on the requirements and entitlements of each user. 10 Personalized Portals: The Role of E-Intelligence in Federal Agency Collaboration The Solution—CG Central By leveraging BroadVision’s personalization engine, and integrating it with other enterprise systems, Coast Guard members can now find in three clicks what often took days and a custom query in the past. One of the most-used features of CG Central are microsites where people collaborate with others on their project teams in a virtual work space. An integrated instant messaging feature allows Coast Guard personnel to stay connected with family, friends and colleagues whether they’re afloat or tied up at the pier. Another valued feature is the readiness management system that is integrated into the portal. Using the My Readiness tab, users can see information about medical, dental, and any of 400 other records that affect their mission readiness. CG Central is also integrated with a GIS system so users can easily see where individuals and units are located in relation to others. In one or two clicks, users can get access to data that used to require a 15 or 20 minute search using a more complex system. Results from this type of search can be delivered via reports, analysis cubes, maps, portlets and other channels. CG Central key features include: I Personalization: The Coast Guard is using BroadVision’s advanced personalization technology to make it easy for individuals to find the information they need and for information to “find them.” Scalability: The Coast Guard was looking for an enterprise knowledge management solution that would scale to support a user community of 40,000. BroadVision’s portal solution is proven in hundreds of large-scale deployments, including the U.S. Air Force Portal. Open Architecture: BroadVision’s open architecture and support for J2EE allows for seamless connectivity to enterprise systems and other value-add features, including the integrated instant messaging capability. Collaboration: BroadVision’s user managed microsites enable Coast Guard teams to maintain one source of project information and conduct virtual meetings to make decisions and solve problems. I I I Benefits CG Central was one of ten organizations named to the Nielsen Norman Group’s Ten Best Intranets of 2003. Among the benefits that its users are realizing are: I I Finding in three clicks what used to take three days using a custom query in the old environment. Reducing training costs. Content managers can publish content without learning Front Page or other HTML. Less class time means more time people can spend on “real” Coast Guard work. Reducing travel costs. BroadVision’s user managed microsites enable Coast Guard teams to maintain one source of project information and conduct virtual meetings to make decisions and solve problems. Increasing time for critical operations. Coast Guard representatives state that reduced time spent coding results in more time for important maritime duties. Improving productivity by making information that workers need to do their jobs available in real time. I I I 11 BroadVision is a global provider of personalized self-service web applications. Our integrated suite of process, commerce, portal, and content solutions helps customers rapidly increase revenues and reduce costs. Over 1,000 organizations—including Circuit City, Vodafone, Cardinal Health, HewlettPackard, Toyota, Japan Airlines and the U.S. Air Force—serving nearly 60 million registered users, rely on BroadVision’s open solutions to power and personalize their mission-critical web initiatives. BroadVision, Inc. 585 Broadway Redwood City, CA 94063 Tel. 866.287.6669 www.broadvision.com © 2004, BroadVision, Inc. BroadVision, BroadVision Portal, BroadVision Process, BroadVision Commerce, and BroadVision Content, are trademarks or registered trademarks of BroadVision, Inc., in the United States and other countries. All other product names are trademarks of their respective companies. All BroadVision software products are patented (U.S. Patent #5,710,887). Specifications herein are subject to change without prior notice. Part No. WP-003-0904