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| MITRE Information Infrastructure September 2000 It's Sunday night in Los Angeles. You are doing last-minute preparations for tomorrow morning's client briefing. You suddenly realize that you are missing important facts. Your company is three thousand miles away on the East Coast, and there is no one there at this hour. What do you do? You hook up the modem on your laptop, enter your digital security authentication code, and log onto the company network. You launch your browser, and your corporate intranet appears. After a few clicks, you have viewed the project homepage, found out who has the information you need, and downloaded it from your colleague's transfer folder. You perform an advanced search to locate other related information, download a presentation from the MITRE Technology Program collection, access the risk management resources to find lessons learned on similar projects, check your email for new information, and send a status email to your boss and the 10-member project team. Because your project team members are located across the company's headquarters and sites, you feel the need to hold a group discussion on several key issues of your project. So you go to the video teleconferencing site, check room and time availability, and schedule a video teleconference with the project team upon your return to the office. While online, you also fill out your time card and check out the latest corporate news to hear the multimedia announcement presented by your CEO.
Because of its Web-based capabilities and impressive collection, which are indispensable for knowledge management and collaboration, the MII was chosen by CIO Magazine for its 1999 Enterprise Value Award. The MII set an example of how a public interest company in partnership with the federal government could lead the technology front and integrate information in a massive and effective corporate network. The MII unifies the company and enables collaboration The MII offers integrated, Web-based access to MITRE's administrative and business systems as well as technical information in the corporate knowledge base. It not only provides easy access to company news, job openings, video teleconference scheduling, and employee directory, but also allows information sharing and collaboration through a series of folders. Each employee has a transfer folder for sharing work-in-progress, and a document folder for published knowledge. Project publishing permits information collections organized by projects. A company saying is, "if someone knows it, the company knows it." In this way, the MII unifies the company both culturally and technologically. Knowledge Enabler (K.En.)
Each of MITRE's three Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) has its own intranet on the MII. For example, the intranet for the IRS FFRDC, Knowledge Enabler (K.En.), contains IRS FFRDC-specific information and adds new features for instant access and collaboration. Based on the concept of the MII's Corporate transfer folders, IRS FFRDC employees use a set of indexed, searchable shared folders to publish project and customer information. In addition, K.En.'s development process ties into the development of the MII. Because K.En. operates on a smaller scale, it often is able to test features similar to those planned by the MII. K.En.'s chief developer goes to MII technical meetings regularly, and shares lessons-learned on pilot programs and new features. In essence, K.En. and MII developers have become strategic partners who collaborate and use each other's knowledge. Desktop Computing Almost everything employees need to know for everyday desktop computing is on the MII. They can find out information on the Computer Life-Cycle program, contact the corporate help desk, update the software to a newer version, test Y2K readiness, load the latest virus protection software, fill out forms for all administrative tasks, use templates for their presentations and documents, and order software—all online. With technology changing at an exponential pace, it is unrealistic and cost-prohibitive to assume that all staff will remain fluent in all technology advances. The MII solves this problem by providing staff easy access to the collective knowledge and experience of the entire company. For example, the MII's sophisticated search capability, combined with its easy access to the corporate knowledge base, helped MITRE win its IRS FFRDC contract and subsequently start its new work program. In addition, the MII helps MITRE stay current in its domain areas, share solutions to common problems with the government customers, and work toward inter-agency standards. As an integral part of MITRE's knowledge management program, the MII highlights the information and knowledge created by MITRE. In this way, the MII enables a culture of collaboration and information sharing. MITRE's corporate directory is the unifying principle behind the MII. Developed using the latest Web technologies including Java, XML, and XSL, heterogeneous databases can be seamlessly accessed and searched. Personal content fields, such as name, employee number, room number, and phone number, are linked to more detailed information such as transfer folders or project data. Employees use the corporate directory as an "expert finder" to drill down into the appropriate level of detail and to discover connections or information contacts pertinent to their technical or administrative needs. In the newest release of the corporate directory, the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is incorporated to provide faster retrieval of employee information. For information sharing and document publishing, MITRE employees have three centrally managed folders.
These folders are stored in a distributed file system, the Andrew File System (AFS). AFS allows a simple drag-and-drop operation from the desktop, and is the backbone for the corporate knowledge base. The MII Improves Productivity A distinguished feature of the MII is cross-platform compatibility. More than half a million Web pages provide homogeneous access to critical resources across approximately 10,000 computers with various configurations of PCs, Macs, and UNIX workstations. MITRE's more than 4,000 employees in Bedford, Mass., Northern Virginia, and 60-plus sites worldwide access the MII daily via the corporate TCP/IP network, either directly from their offices or remotely at a range of telecommunications speeds. The MII brings a common and coherent interface to MITRE's corporate information and services. From the MII, MITRE staff can quickly find the information and resources they need without contacting administrative or organizational offices. This access is independent of location and time to support MITRE's global, mobile work force. From a recent survey of the company, more than half of the respondents indicated they accomplish more in less time because information is readily available on the MII. This improved productivity frees staff to focus on the technical quality of their work. Corporate Services & Facilities MITRE employees can bypass most administrative paperwork to change their benefits elections, view corporate-wide job postings, elect courses from the MITRE Institute, learn about corporate standards on software packages, read the latest security alerts, schedule video teleconferences, reserve conference rooms, and arrange business travel. Everything is on the MII, right at their fingertips. Time Reporting System With the Time Reporting System (TRS) on the MII, MITRE employees can quickly and easily enter their time every day. This online tool enables MITRE employees to comply with government auditing requirements. Time entered into the TRS is automatically stored in the company database and is searchable by project number and employee name. Employees can also subscribe to an email service reminding them to fill out their time cards by the end of each business day. The MII Showcases Technology The MII has an open systems architecture that facilitates the integration of emerging commercial technology. Its drag-and-drop publishing component, which automatically converts files to HTML for ease of viewing across diverse user platforms, demonstrates the technologic ingenuity that was part of the initial system deployment. In addition, teams around the company can showcase technologies they are developing with government customers or under the MITRE Technology Program. By using the MII in its daily business, MITRE leads by example, and helps its customers initiate and improve their intranets. As a technology showcase, the MII is particularly impressive because of its operational scale. It demonstrates MITRE's skills in Web technology and increases credibility in technical recommendations to its sponsors. MITRE's Technology Program MITRE's technology program is captured on the MII and accessible to every employee. The technical collection features the Risk Assessment and Management Program (RAMP) for programmatic and economic risk analyses and risk mitigation lessons learned, the Systems Engineering Process Library (SEPL), which collects system acquisition best practices and past performance of key programs, the online version of a technical newsletter called Research News, information on the annual MITRE Technology Symposium, the annual Best Papers selection, and the MITRE Technology Speaker Series. Additionally, it provides an overview of MITRE's Who's Who in Technology and details of MITRE's research program. Palmtop Integration To support MITRE's mobile work force, key MII capabilities are
being developed to provide added values to palmtop users. Data can be
transferred from the corporate calendar software and Netscape Communicator
Address Book. In spring 2000, a "File Link" feature was added
which allows the synchronization of the entire company phone book, including
employee names, locations, phone numbers, fax numbers, and email addresses,
into specified categories in the palmtop address book. In addition, a
mapping application is being developed to allow palmtop users to navigate
the MITRE campus down to the office level.
Page last updated: August 5, 2000 | Top of page |
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This
is just one example of how MITRE employees use the MITRE Information Infrastructure
(MII). The MII is the state-of-the-art corporate intranet containing massive
administrative and technical content, including a corporate directory,
access to corporate services and news, content relevant to leading technologies,
and MITRE-sponsored research programs. Employees can access the MII directly
from their desktops or from modem dial-ups anywhere in the world. More
than five years after its initial launch in June 1994, the MII has become
an integral part of daily work for every MITRE employee.