CLIENT SERVICES GROUP MISSION AND OBJECTIVES The mission of the Client Services Group of House Information Resources is to provide complete and timely support to House offices for their office automation and telecommunications needs. Our goals are to be responsive to customer requirements and to provide high quality technical support. In meeting this mission, we have established the following objectives: Develop a relationship of mutual respect with all customers. Identify customer requirements and share this information as required with Collaborate with other H.I.R. groups to assure that best possible support is Commit to establishing partnerships with our vendors. Invest in training and equipment that allow our staff to perform at the highest possible level. Focus on frequent and regular communications with staff, customers, and Develop and implement a Strategic Plan to meet these goals. FUNCTIONAL AREAS Technical Support The Technical Support Representative (TSR) provides assistance to Member, committee, and House support offices in the effective use of microcomputer and local area network technology. The TSR is an advocate for the office and works on behalf of the office to deliver total office automation solutions which meet the technology goals of the House leadership. Each TSR is assigned 12-15 House offices for which they provide support. Systems Engineering The Systems Engineers provide advice and counsel to other support personnel on complex hardware, software, and WAN/LAN network configuration issues. They provide technical direction to TSRs, including both hands-on assistance in support of House offices and the design of new methods of support using World Wide Web and multi-media technology. They are responsible for the implementation planning and packaging of the release of new services to the House offices and for designing an ongoing technical support structure for them. They work directly with House Systems Integrators to ensure that their products integrate effectively with House applications and networking infrastructure. Training Training responsible for the development of a comprehensive plan for training House staff in the use of technology. Requirements include the development and delivery of classroom training as well as monitoring vendors in out-sourcing training. In-office training is provided as needed and overview seminars are developed for the introduction of new products and concepts. New emphasis is being placed on multi-media applications for both Washington and district office training. To reflect the many changes anticipated in delivery of training, the name has been changed from Demonstration and Training Center to the Learning Center. Graphics The Graphics department provides support for House offices in the areas of graphics creation, artwork scanning, and desktop publishing. Poster-sized charts are designed by the Graphics specialists or can be produced from customer files. The Graphics staff writes, edits and designs brochures, catalogs, booklets and other printed materials for H.I.R. and other offices of the CAO. They provide telephone support to House offices for graphics-related "how to" questions. Oneon-one demonstrations of graphics programs are also provided upon request. Telecommunications Support The Telecommunications Support team provides ongoing services and assistance, including requests for new service, rearrangement of existing service, billing, and telephone training to all House offices. They coordinate installation and maintenance of telephone service and equipment in district offices, including processing and payment of all telephone invoices. They provide trouble resolution for non-working telephones and features and assist offices with billing questions. The Capitol Telephone Exchange provides operator services for the House and Senate. They answer approximately 25,000 calls per day and provide support for teleconferences. They maintain a joint directory database and are called upon to assist constituents who wish to call Congress but are uncertain as to the specific recipient of their call. The Capitol Exchange helps Members and Senators to locate one another as well as other government officials as needed during non-business hours. 240 INTEGRATION GROUP GROUP MISSION AND OBJECTIVES The H.I.R. Integration Group identifies the information and processing needs of House offices, develops strategies, integrates software, and implements systems and databases to meet their needs in a cost-effective manner. Responsibilities include supporting the objectives of the Leadership in providing public electronic access to institutional information, elimination of unnecessary duplication of data resources within the Legislative Branch, and the use of technology to raise the performance of the House while reducing overall costs. The Integration Group achieves its mission by providing high quality information technology strategies, relevant and efficient application software and timely information databases best suited to House needs. OBJECTIVES 1. Provide responsive and reliable support of existing operational systems. 2. Define and begin implementation of a new superior product line of systems and information services for House offices that synergistically combine off-the-shelf capabilities, vendor offerings and H.LR.-developed capabilities. 3. Leverage existing assets in the building of new capabilities. 4. Support the CAO in modernizing its services. 5. Further the technology policies of the Committee on House Oversight. 6. Make the investments necessary to train and retain the Integration Group staff. 7. Establish trust, free and open communications, and cooperation with the Client FUNCTIONAL AREAS Desktop Systems Areas of focus for this team are to: - design and develop desktop systems with emphasis on using or integrating commerciallyavailable products as opposed to developing from scratch within our organization. provide applications that support “paperless” or electronic routing of information. - provide applications that support electronic handling or preprocessing of information through electronic filters. - add value to existing applications and databases with Caller-ID. - integrate interactive voice response systems within the House and Members' district offices for automated notification and automated surveys. - integrate two-way pager capability within the House for automated notification. - include Interactive Multimedia Training for all H.I.R. supported and developed applications. support user developed applications with appropriate tools for the non-professional - participate with House user groups to obtain insight on their needs, acceptance of H.I.R. developed products through Beta testing programs and House community awareness of products and services. - create an electronic document room based on Standard Generalized Mark-up Language(SGML) format specifications. Message-Based Applications This team is responsible for implementation and maintenance of in-office systems and client/server systems with particular emphasis on Member and committee offices and the use of off-the-shelf packages and tools. Message-based applications will focus on the implementation and support of desktop office system with emphasis on administrative transaction processing applications. This team is specifically responsible for implementing all messaging capabilities. It will work on universal in-box capabilities (E-Mail, fax, voice mail, multimedia, etc.) and the use of message-enabled and workflow applications that will reduce the workload and delays now occurring in Member and committee offices due to paper-based administrative transactions. Information Retrieval This team is responsible for integration of information retrieval facilities available to the House with emphasis on use of the World Wide Web model and for simplifying access to information by integrating the databases used by Members and committees and making them available through a point-and-click graphical user interface such as Netscape. Application Integration This team is responsible for the implementation, support and integration of all desktop systems as follows: - implement specific applications needed by Member offices and generic applications for use by the entire House. - implement and integrate legislative and document-based applications for Members and committees. - implement databases and applications specific to committee needs, (both generic and unique jurisdictional requirements). support the MIS and Customer Service systems needed by H.I.R. and the entire CAO organization. These capabilities will dovetail with the paperless initiatives providing Members and committees direct access to the House support and service structure. assist vendors in adapting products to the CyberCongress desktop systems environment. |