Homeland Security

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 revealed far-reaching security vulnerabilities that require countries and governments around the world to increase their awareness of national security issues and develop proactive programs to protect their homeland. The new mission for many counties and governments is to safeguard domestic and international commerce and the related flow of goods and people across geographies. These common issues facing countries and governments require a new model of collaboration.

Identifying terrorist threats -- Improved information analysis with minimal impact on the flow of goods and people

Reducing security vulnerabilities -- Infrastructure protection and improved security

Responding to threats -- Information dissemination and inter-agency collaboration

Developing plans to recover from incidents -- Emergency assistance that reaches citizens and businesses when they need it

Insuring non-homeland activities -- Disaster assistance in non-threatening situations

Supporting missions -- Direct support for government decisions and policymakers, and indirect support for efficient day-to-day operations

No one country or government can provide the answers to the issues confronting homeland security. Any potential solution must recognize that new ways to collaborate and cooperate will be required. Among other things, this problem-solving model will require information and intelligence sharing driven by coordinated, collective actions within and between countries and governments, as set forth below.

• State of willingness and cooperation -- Governments, agencies and citizens are more likely to cooperate when leadership has committed to the prerequisites of planning and analysis such as policy formation, stakeholder interests, problem analysis, business case development and strategic planning.
  
  
• Process -- How governments perceive and respond to threats must be optimized and streamlined. This may be accomplished by analyzing related business processes that support homeland security, understanding the impact of technology on business activities, planning strategically to propose new processes and adopting new business processes through change management.
  
  
• Infrastructure and technology -- Information must flow from disparate sources to those who can quickly review and analyze it and then provide an immediate and effective response. When decisions are made and actions directed, systems and people must respond efficiently to potential threats. To help accomplish this, to the following is needed:
  
  
  • Remove incompatibilities that impede collaboration and integration between systems and processes
  • Remove duplication by consolidating business processes
  • Integrate underlying legacy infrastructures
  • Make systems scalable to match growing mission requirements
  • Provide collaborative analysis of pervasively collected data
  • Improve shared case management
  
  
• Cost effectiveness -- Governments must develop governance models where decisions are made based on sound financial planning and priorities.
  
  
• People -- Governments are only as good as the people who serve them. Resource management clarifies roles while allowing concentration on the core mission. Staff must be trained to effectively handle these new roles. Outsourcing can provide resource relief by incorporating external resources in critical roles.

IBM has extensive experience in extending the usefulness of existing assets by leveraging standard architectures that are designed to promote interoperability across the enterprise. Our on demand strategy provides a vision that guides us as we seek to address the many challenges facing countries and governments today. On demand solutions can help governments address the demands of modernization and scalability in a cost-effective manner. A on demand-enabled homeland security government agency may include the following characteristics:

• The agency is integrated end-to-end across the organization, among organizations and with key partners, suppliers and customers, so critical threat information can move more efficiently across agency borders.
  
  
• The agency has the ability to sense and respond in realtime to changing needs of citizens, businesses, employees and other governments (e.g., dynamic re-allocation of resources to address trouble areas or "hot spots")
  
  
• The agency focuses on what is core and differentiating, using strategic partners to manage outside of competencies (e.g., stopping terrorist threats at the borders)
  
  
• The agency has the ability to handle changes in the political, economic and physical environment, manage changes and threats with consistent availability, and support security and privacy on a continual basis (e.g., "always on/always up")

IBM Business Consulting and Integrated Technology Services can provide insight into many of the problems discussed above with solutions that are designed to match a customer's specific requirements. We can help governments optimize their core processes while providing a cost-effective and safeguarded means for delivering the supporting infrastructure. Our outsourcing services provide governments with an alternative to managing internal information technology (IT) resources. We are able to help governments determine new homeland requirements with greater focus and speed, providing an excellent choice to deliver those services to stakeholders. We offer one of the broadest sets of capabilities in the industry.

• Financial management -- Business case development and budget management
• Enterprise architecture support -- IT governance
• Human capital solutions -- Human resources management
• Business transformation -- Plans and performance measurements
• Customer relationship management (CRM) -- Shared case management
• Supply chain -- Partner collaboration
• Privacy and security -- Allowing open citizen access while protecting assets
• Business integration -- Providing common services across agency boundaries

• Infrastructure and systems management -- Large-scale program deployments with systems integration and device management
• Security/pervasive network architecture/design
• Network integration and deployment services
• Network management services
• Business continuity and recovery
• Integrated technology services
• Strategic outsourcing