FDA Consolidates using an Enterprise Architecture Platform : A Case Study
You think you have a tough job - how about taking care of the health of all Americans, from infant to elderly? The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is an operating division of the Department of Health and Human Services with 10,000 employees. Their mission? To ensure that all foods, drugs, and cosmetics are safe and properly labeled; that drugs and medical devices are safe and effective; that the American blood supply is safe and adequate; and finally that equipment that uses radiant energy, such as X-ray machines, is safe. Whew.
To accomplish its mission, the FDA’s IT Department has an annual IT budget of $200 million. That might seem like it has a lot of headroom, but, per capita, the $200 million in use by 10,000 employees comes to just $2000 per employee, which is low by any Life Science standard, in the first decade of the 21st century.
And the FDA’s IT infrastructure? The FDA’s Enterprise Architecture spans 172 applications running on over 900 servers and 10,000 desktops at 150 sites nationwide. A variety of technology solutions, including the Metis visual modeling tool, have helped the FDA achieve IT-business process alignment, enhance capital asset planning and improve national security by facilitating information flow to counter bioterrorism attacks.
It’s safe to say that the executive management at the FDA is on constant alert for opportunities to wring additional cost savings out of the IT budget. Prime among programs to streamline are the FDA’s administrative programs.
The Challenges
In support of the President’s Management Agenda, HHS established its "One HHS" initiative to consolidate, streamline and standardize administrative programs. They faced challenges including: The need to align information technology (IT) with the Agency business strategy;
- Limited funding and resources;
- FDA’s eight service centers and offices operated in a decentralized manner;
- Lack of standardized processes and systems to share and exchange information;
- Corporate culture resistant to change;
- High expectations of FDA divisions.
The Process
The FDA turned to Enterprise Architecture (EA) to serve as the methodology to design its desired state of efficiency and effectiveness. FDA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) reorganized, establishing the Office of IT Shared Services which allowed the department to focus on the agency’s core business, goals, and objectives. They added the role of Chief Enterprise Architect (CEA) to work with stakeholders in the development of operating centers and FDA Enterprise baseline and target architectures. FDA developed a communications strategy which demonstrated the use and value of EA to all agency stakeholders. This effort resulted in FDA having a federated IT approach, meaning all centers are expected to follow the same framework and approach as set forth at the Agency level.
The Results
EA-driven IT consolidation has enabled FDA, despite IT budget constraints, to use fewer resources while operating more efficiently and providing better services to citizens. FDA is moving forward with its plans for technology refresh, containment and retirement. Systems and technology are still being consolidated. The key results and outcomes of this effort are widespread.
Increased cost savings. Over the next five years, IT consolidation will help the FDA to avoid $10 million in additional IT costs.
Documented and standardized business processes. Using the EA framework, over 85% of Agency-wide processes to-date have been documented. The FDA has plans to standardize common IT processes such as requirements analysis and capacity planning.
Consolidation of IT infrastructure. The EA effort was able to identify and reduce a number of applications, which included decreasing correspondence tracking systems from 24 to 2. The FDA plans to decrease its current server inventory of 778 in half by 2010.
Improved communication and efficiency. The EA initiative provided the forum to improve communications among stakeholders. The FDA was able to identify unneeded hierarchy and reduced decision-making levels to four. Consolidation of administrative functions was aimed at improving headquarter cost and effectiveness.
Improved decision making. EA was integrated with other Agency processes, allowing portfolio managers to decide where to spend IT dollars across its 31 investment areas and reducing the number of OMB Exhibit 300’s from 37 to 13.
At the conclusion of its EA experience, Gary Washington, the FDA’s Chief Architect commented, “We now have an agency view of EA—we can analyze business processes and identify duplicate technologies. Our stakeholders are represented at all FDA locations.”
In September of 2005, the FDA won the prestigious Excellence in Enterprise Architecture Awards. The awards, which recognize best practices in developing and implementing a successful Enterprise Architecture are now in their third year. Given the Federal Enterprise Architecture initiatives as issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the FDA can be very proud of gaining such rapid EA expertise.
By Holt Hackney
