Achieving Transparency in the 24 Hour News Cycle

Achieving Transparency in the 24 Hour News Cycle Ron Berry August 14, 2011 Grant Thornton LLP. All rights reservedAugust 14, 2011Achieving transparency in the era of the 24 hour news cycleIn the current climate of the 24 hour news-cycle, a small mistake in reporting erodes public trust and casts doubt upon transparency.

Information needed to support transparency is typically decentralized and stored in an array of systems managed by various business units thus accurate reporting relies upon effective integration of data. Achieving Transparency in the 24 Hour News Cycle2August 14, 2011

Grant Thornton LLP. All rights reservedAugust 14, 2011The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (S. 2590), enacted in 2006 requires the full disclosure to the public of all entities receiving federal funds.

The website USAspending.gov created in December 2007 as a result of this act, is maintained by the Office Of Management and Budget.

Transparency by Legislation Achieving Transparency in the 24 Hour News Cycle3August 14, 2011

Grant Thornton LLP. All rights reservedAugust 14, 20113The ability to look at performance across agencies in greater detail is key to building public trust and supporting transparency.

Transparency through the NetNumber of payments by stateNumber of contracts by Zip codeNumber of constituents served by Congressional District Achieving Transparency in the 24 Hour News Cycle4August 14, 20114Veterans Affairs Case Study 300,000 person cabinet level departmentThree semi-autonomous administrations Aging mainframe based centralized General Leger Accounting systemDecentralized accounting transactional accounting sub-systems Early stages of Data GovernanceLimited Master Data Management Data Warehouses, though mature focused on programmatic reporting and analytics

Achieving Transparency in the 24 Hour News Cycle5August 14, 2011Veterans Affairs Case Study VBA's mission is to provide benefits and services to veterans and their families in a responsive, timely and compassionate manner in recognition of their service to the Nation. 57+ billion in annual benefit payments Achieving Transparency in the 24 Hour News Cycle6August 14, 2011Department of Veterans AffairsVeterans Health AdministrationNational Cemetery AdministrationVeterans Benefits AdministrationCompensation & pensionLoan guarantyVocational rehabilitation & employmentEducationInsurance Grant Thornton LLP. All rights reservedAugust 14, 2011Veterans Affairs Case Study Ability to consistently report benefits payment information Ability to identify and count distinct beneficiariesAbility to address data quality in an environment going through major system transformations Ability to integrate data managed through the cloud Ability to understand common data (I.e., Common Terminology)

Reporting Challenges Achieving Transparency in the 24 Hour News Cycle7August 14, 2011The data warehouse to the rescueDeveloped monthly detailed benefit level extractsIntegrated data with state, zip-code and other demographic informationSolution did not address consistency of reporting Achieving Transparency in the 24 Hour News Cycle8August 14, 2011

Data Governance, the missing link VA has expedited the implementation of a department-wide Data Governance program and Master Data Management initiative intended to: Establish organizational bodies to address enterprise information Formalize business rules and decision rights (how we "decide how to decide")Make individuals accountable for shared data that may be used externallyProvide monitoring, controls, and other enforcement methodsFoster meta-data development to improve the shared understanding of dataFormalize and measure data qualityConsistently identify constituents through an Identify resolution solutionAchieving Transparency in the 24 Hour News Cycle9August 14, 20119

How it is being implemented TRIGGER EXAMPLESBusiness Process Improvement ProjectModernization Blueprint ProjectInfo Exchange ProjectE-Gov ProjectImplement adopted data standards KEY PointsStandardizing/ adopting data that is shared or exchanged.Not always a single implementation of a standard

Review business references and artifacts with Principal Data Stewards(s)

Collect, Identify, Design, and Document data requirements.Perform business and technical stewardship coordinationDevelop, and Submit Data Submission Package with concurrence of Principal Data Steward

Resolve comments with Principal Data Steward(s)Resolution period: 2 weeks

Formally conduct cross-functionalreview, andAdopt proposed data standardsFormal Review period: 3 weeks 12345 Grant Thornton LLP. All rights reservedAugust 14, 2011Lessons Learned Without data governance and MDM, there is high risk that data may be inadvertently releasedNo two governance and stewardship programs are the same each is uniqueAdopt as many of the best practices as possibleThe best approaches to governance and MDM maintains the enterprise focus while implementing iterativelyAchieving Transparency in the 24 Hour News Cycle11August 14, 2011

MasterDataManagement Grant Thornton LLP. All rights reservedAugust 14, 2011Relevance to NASASimilarly challenged financial reporting processesData warehouse programs currently programmatically focused The complexity of this organization creates risks for inadvertent mistakes in external reporting Opportunity to target data governance initiative towards external regulatory complianceAchieving Transparency in the 24 Hour News Cycle12August 14, 2011

About MeCurrently employed with Grant Thornton, LLP, Global Public Sector (GPS) serving as a director managing large data warehouse projects. Twenty eight years of expertise in information technology, providing programming, enterprise architecture, project management, and product support to large financial services organizations, Government Sponsored Entities (GSE), telecommunications companies, and public sector clients.

Prior to joining Grant Thornton, served as a Director at Oracle. Prior to Oracle, managed Enterprise Architecture Planning for Fannie Mae.

Currently supporting a large data warehouse at the Department Of Veterans Affairs participating in the implementation of an agency-wide Data Governance program. Achieving Transparency in the 24 Hour News Cycle13August 14, 2011Questions THANK YOURon Berry, DirectorGrant Thornton, LLP, Global Public Sector333 John Carlyle Street Alexandria, VA 22304Tel: (703) 637-3012 E-mail: Ron.Berry@us.gt.com

Grant Thornton LLP. All rights reservedAugust 14, 2011