Enhance CBO's Web Site - Our goals are to respond to the demand for CBO products in electronic form and expand the number of relevant past publications available electronically. In fiscal year 2000, we plan to add additional "best-selling" publications from earlier years to our Web site. We will also continue to add more interactive products such as the "budget options" report mentioned earlier. Such interactive versions of our publications respond to users' demand for more targeted information, allowing users to quickly locate the portions of the report relevant to their interests. In addition, we will be expanding the site's database to enable users to search more easily for any publication CBO has issued since 1975. Centralize Report Production and Modernize Report Format - Our goal is to achieve a consistent, high-quality product and standard "corporate" look for studies, reports, memorandums, testimony, and other products while achieving efficiencies. We plan to centralize final production of our publications within the Management, Business, and Information Services Division. That should allow us to save analysts' time, improve the appearance and consistency of our documents, and produce them more economically. The cost of centralizing production should be modest but should result in real gains in efficiency and, perhaps, reduced cycle times for final report production. Internal Management Priorities As noted earlier, highly effective organizations must build a skilled staff and then provide the technology and work processes necessary to support that staff. Maintain Our Technological Edge - Our goal is to continue to provide the best technology systems economically available to support the agency's mission while constantly improving the performance of those systems and employee satisfaction. This effort focuses on desktop hardware and software, reproduction equipment, communications, data processing, access to the Internet, and analytical modeling. In the past few years, CBO has invested steadily in its technology to the point where every employee has up-to-date hardware and software and our internal network, Web site, and communications are among the best in government. That level of accomplishment allows us to reduce spending in fiscal year 2000 to accommodate a tight budget, but we must restore our procurement and development activities in fiscal year 2001 to remain effective and to adequately support the Congress. Our technology-related objectives for fiscal years 2000 and 2001 are to (1) continue to upgrade our network and communications hardware; (2) provide additional training to employees on our current technology and software; (3) identify and implement operatingcost savings and bring greater standardization to our software inventory; (4) improve Streamline Procurement - Our goal is to modernize our procurement process to emphasize a streamlined, paperless process with greater emphasis on competition in purchasing. During fiscal year 2000, we will investigate processes and supporting software used by other organizations and begin redesigning our current procurement process. In 2001, we hope to implement a new automated system for processing purchase requests, issuing purchase orders, and tracking obligations, orders, and payments to vendors and service providers. That effort may involve some reorganization to create a procurement unit within our Management Division. Reengineer Key Work Processes - Our goal is to rethink and redesign all major administrative processes to reduce staff burden and costs. During the next two years, we will survey our key administrative processes to identify priorities for redesign, then appoint process redesign teams to develop more efficient, less paper-intensive processes that reduce the staff time necessary for performing and recording transactions. Candidates for redesign are report processing, travel and training approval, and financial management. |