UN - GA LAUNCHES NEW ICT SYSTEM AND STRATEGY AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 USUN NEW YORK 000068 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AORC KUNR PREL UNGA SUBJECT: UN - GA LAUNCHES NEW ICT SYSTEM AND STRATEGY AND DECIDES ON THE GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE TO MANAGE THEM REF: A. 08 USUN 000985 ¶B. 08 USUN 000913 ¶1. Summary: The General Assembly, on December 24, 2008, took action on the proposals contained in several reports from the Secretary-General on the Secretariat,s information and communications technology (ICT) systems. The reform of the Organization's ICT systems was one of the reforms identified by the 2005 Summit of World Leaders. The central component of the resolution adopted by the GA approves the process of replacing the backbone information system for managing the financial, human and physical resources of the Secretariat and other fragmented, incompatible systems with a single, commercially available, integrated system for the entire Secretariat, including peacekeeping and field missions. Recognizing the need for central management, the GA also decided to place the Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT) in the Executive Office of the SYG.. ¶2. The following reports were among those considered by the Fifth Committee: Enterprise systems for the UN Secretariat worldwide - A/62/510/Rev.1; ICT governance and strategy - A/62/793 and Corr.1 and Add.1; Disaster recovery and business continuity - A/62/477; and the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) - A/63/487 and Corrs.1-2. The major components of the resolution are reviewed in the paragraphs below. ¶3. As reported in the following paragraphs, the GA also took action on a number of related issues, including on disaster recovery and business continuity, including the relocation of the Secretariat's HQ data center during the Capital Master Plan (CMP) construction period, and establishment of a secondary communications facility in Valencia, Spain to support peacekeeping operations. The GA also took action on other enterprise systems, including the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems; on implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS); and on Knowledge Management. ¶4. Financial Implications. The estimated costs of all components of the Secretary-General's proposals during the period 2008 - 2013 are now estimated to be in the range of $275 - $325 million. Such expenses will cover items such as software licenses, customization, hardware, integration, �A;change management and training. Implementation will take place in phases. Decisions on funding throughout the propject period will follow the GA's considering of regularly-scheduled progress reports. The expenditures will be funded under the regular budget, peacekeeping support account, and from extrabudgetary resources. Initial expenditures of approximately $13 will be charged against the 2008-2009 regular budget. Approximately $8.5 million will be charged against the July 08/June 09 peacekeeping support account and approximately $7.9 million will be financed during the 2008-2009 biennium from extrabudgetary resources. ¶5. The Fifth Committee, during its March 2009 resumed session, will consider a report on the Secretariat's plan to manage the risk of moving the Secretariat's primary data center to a new facility under the North Lawn at UN Headquarters during the CMP construction phase. End Summary. Replacing IMIS with ERP -------------- ¶6. Following up on the decision taken by the GA, in resolution 60/283 on July 7, 2006, to replace the fragmented, out-of-date, Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) - the backbone information system for managing the core financial, administrative and management operations of the Secretariat including at Headquarters, agencies, funds and programs, regional offices and peacekeeping missions - with a next-generation Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or other comparable system, the GA launched the 5-year process of replacing IMIS with an ERP system - a single, commercially available, industry-standard information system widely deployed worldwide. The ERP system will be used by all Secretariat staff, regardless of their location. Adoption of IPSAS -------------- ¶7. As noted in the SYG,s latest progress report on implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) by the Organization (A/62/806),adoption of the Standards, which incorporate international best practices USUN NEW Y 00000068 002 OF 002 for public sector and not-for-profit organizations accounting, is a key UN management reform initiative that will improve UN governance, accountability and transparency. It is expected that IPSAS implementation in the Secretariat, originally scheduled to start in 2010, will commence in 2012 when the required information system requirements will be provided by the ERP system. ICT Governance -------------- ¶8. Recognizing the need for central management, application of common standards and system-wide coordination of the Organization,s ICT systems and related information management processes and capabilities, the GA decided to place the Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT),headed by the Chief Information Technology Office at the A-SYG level, in the Executive Office of the SYG. The governance structure reflects an appropriate division of labor - with management of the centralized ICT strategy residing in the OICT and day-to-day management of critical communication systems being retained by the Department of Field Support (DFS). CRM and ECM Enterprise Systems -------------- ¶9. The GA also continued implementation of these important complementary systems. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system addresses the detailed processes involved in the provision of specific services to specific staff members. The Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system addresses information assets of a substantive nature and is applied in the following priority areas: the Official Documents System (ODS),the UN internet site, and in the peacekeeping reporting process. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity -------------- ¶10. Valencia - the GA approved the establishment of a secondary active telecommunications facility in Valencia, Spain to ensure that communications systems in peacekeeping missions, currently managed at the UN Logistics Base (UNLB) in Brindisi, Italy, will continue to operate in the event of a catastrophic incident. ¶11. Secondary (back-up) data center for UN Headquarters - following the Secretariat's mishandling of its plan (as presented in A/62/477) for establishing a secondary data facility in the borough of Queens in New York City, the GA called on the Secretariat to present a revised plan to the Fifth Committee at its March 2009 session. Time is of the essence. The Secretariat must have, at minimum, temporary backup systems in place by the third quarter of 2009 to ensure that the Secretariat's core information systems will continue to operate during the move of the Secretariat's primary data center to the new data center under the North Lawn at UN Headquarters during the CMP construction period. A delay in vacating the primary data center could cost the CMP over $11 million per month. Knowledge Management -------------- ¶12. The Secretariat's "knowledge management" initiatives will improve the organization, accessibility and usability of the vast amount of information that crosses staff members desks each day and should prove to be particularly useful in gathering, retaining and sharing the institutional knowledge of retiring staff members. Rice