UPDATE ON SMART

UNCLAS STATE 000228 FROM THE CIO JAMES VAN DERHOFF E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AMGT AINF AADP ACOA ASEC KRIM SUBJECT: UPDATE ON SMART REF: A)STATE 188033, B)STATE 86867, C)STATE 28721, D)05 STATE 219156, E) 05 STATE 152885, F)05 STATE 13048 ¶1. Please provide wide dissemination of the information in this telegram. ¶2. The SMART Program Office has completed the pilot phase of Instant Messaging (IM) and will begin worldwide deployment of IM on OpenNet and ClassNet in mid-January. ¶3. The IM application, MS Communicator, was tested with four user groups to ensure it satisfies technical and usability requirements. The first two pilots were conducted among IT professionals within IRM. The third was conducted in Washington among small non-technical user groups within 10 bureaus. The fourth pilot, which ran from December 4 through December 15, was conducted at ConGen Tijuana. ¶4. Among the 450 users in the four pilots, 100 responded to a usability survey. 66 per cent rated the application as "moderately" or "very" useful. IM will be available to all and we expect useful to many. ¶5. The schedule for worldwide deployment of Instant Messaging is: January 2007 - Athens, Belgrade, Mexico City, EUR Bureau (domestic) February 2007 - WHA, AF, NEA, SA, EAP Bureaus (domestic only) Mar-Apr 2007 - All overseas posts Feb-Apr 2007 - Functional Bureaus, Offices, and other domestic sites Deployment plans including information on establishing SMART Advocacy Teams will be provided by mid-January. ¶6. As reported earlier, all SMART applications will be developed, tested, piloted, and deployed by 2009. During 2007, the following applications will be piloted at 12 to 15 posts. Pilot posts are being identified and will be informed soon. The pilot period is scheduled to run from August to November ¶2007. Besides Instant Messaging, pilots will receive the full SMART suite, which includes: --SMART Messaging: a custom application built on an Outlook platform to consolidate e-mails, cables, and memos. It will be integrated with a searchable database consisting of a subset of SMART archival documents subject to Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). --Groove: a secure peer-to-peer collaboration tool for information sharing between State and other government agencies, NGOs, and other governments. --SharePoint: a web-based collaboration tool to be used primarily for information sharing within the Department of State and also for information sharing between State and other government agencies, NGOs, and other governments. ¶7. In a subsequent phase, connectivity between OpenNet and ClassNet will be piloted, fail-over redundancy will be provided, and full production capability will be enabled. ¶8. During the worldwide deployment phase (September 2008 to September 2009),all applications will be made available worldwide. The State Department's legacy cable system will then be retired. ¶9. Department employees will continue to be actively involved and informed. Focus groups, usability studies, and pilots provide valuable input to system designers and developers. Employees are invited to look at the newly designed SMART website (http://smart.state.gov),which is organized to support general users, system administrators, and advocates. Your feedback, which can be offered through the website, is appreciated. ¶10. Minimize considered. RICE