Legislative Activity Guide (500 copies, 350 pages each) Congressional Record page references; 106,976 House Actions processed) Member Profiles (1,760 total, 4 editions yearly, 1 per Member) Reports Due to Congress (2,000 copies book/year, daily issues) Department of Office Furnishings Furniture Tracking (123,956 items) Building Supplies (3,160 items) Disposals (6,698 items) DATA COMMUNICATION NETWORKS House SNA Network (2,917 connections) House Ethernet Network (2,486 connections) House ASN Network (1,290 connections) House Wide Area Network (200 connections) House LAN/WAN Network (14 connections) House FDDI Backbone Network (184 connections) Kermit Software (69 House office installations) Member Office Moves (334 offices, 111 new installs) MEMBER AND COMMITTEE OFFICE SYSTEMS MICROMIN Totals (263 sites, 156 offices) Member offices (129 offices) Member Washington offices (113 sites) Member District offices (123 sites) Committees (21 sites) House Support offices (6 sites) ISIS House offices (202 offices) House users (2,293 users) ELECTRONIC MAIL House (192 Members, 59 committees, 8 Support offices) OFFICE AUTOMATION ASSISTANCE EASTERN EUROPE (9 Legislatures, 3 system designs, 12 RFPs, 32 contracts) APPENDIX C HOUSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS FISCAL YEAR 1993 ACTIVITIES HIGHLIGHTS In FY 93, the last completed fiscal year, growth in House demand for information technology services provided by H.I.S. continued. With the exception of the House Broadband Network (which has been phased out) and VAX mini computers in Committees (which are gradually being replaced by more efficient Local Area Networks), workload counts are up in every category. In addition, H.I.S. has assumed a leadership role in helping offices make the best use of information technology. This includes networking to integrate Members' Washington and district office operations, access to the Internet, communicating with constituents via electronic mail, publishing via CD-ROM, improving Hill-wide security via digitized imaging and access control, and further expansion of the ISIS system, which integrates databases with PC and Macintosh desktop technology. The narrative below touches on most areas of H.I.S. accomplishments and activities for FY 93. DIRECT SERVICES TO MEMBERS AND COMMITTEES HOUSE ELECTRONIC MAIL. H.I.S. implemented a House-wide ACCESS TO THE INTERNET. A House connection to the Internet was established along with a security "firewall" to form the basis for all House Members and staff to access the resources of the Internet while protecting their own office systems from unauthorized access by outsiders. Implementation of Internet access for House offices will begin in FY 94. MEMBER INFORMATION NETWORK (MIN). In FY 93, over 660 offices representing more than 5,155 users accessed MIN. MIN information databases totaled 83, with the addition of three new services: the Greenwire Newsletter, the Health Line Newsletter, and the Office of Technology Assessment Reports. The MIN Bulletin Board was expanded to 22 categories, which included the addition of White House press releases and transcripts. As an adjunct to the MIN services, an electronic database holding Congressional district map boundaries for the 103d Congress was developed. These boundaries are used in the production of thematic maps displaying unemployment statistics, Federal contract/grant data, and Census demographic data. Maps were generated from this database for the House Banking Committee. MICROMIN. MicroMIN is an integrated office automation package that runs on PCs and LANS, and includes correspondence management, word processing, office accounts, Member scheduling, casework tracking, and postal patron. In FY 93, 71 new MicroMIN sites were added, bringing the total to 263. Of these, 113 are Member Washington sites, 123 are district office sites, six are House Support office sites, and 21 are committee sites. MicroMIN applications software is being used in 156 offices (129 Member, 21 committees, and six House Support offices). Over ten improvements were made to the MicroMIN. H.I.S. developed and installed a new MicroMIN release (Version 4.0) in 123 MicroMIN sites, delivered WordPerfect and WordPerfect Office installation tapes to Personal Computer (PC) Local Area Network (LAN) vendors to use in configuring new Member and committee file servers, and instituted a LAN vendor checklist to ensure that House LANS are installed to meet specifications. Eighteen MicroMIN offices acquired the ISIS MicroMIN client. Interfaces for NCOA and ZIP+4 were improved, and 57 databases were converted to MicroMIN. Four MicroMIN user group meetings were held to glean comments and thereby improve operations. Work continued in improving installation and support. Twelve MicroMIN offices received follow-up visits to solicit feedback on support and services. An automated procedure was implemented for installing and updating MicroMIN software over the House Ethernet backbone. Also, a menu-driven support system was created from which all H.I.S. support functions can be performed to increase responsiveness to user problems and to give district office staff a more user-friendly access to these complex utilities. CUSTOMER SUPPORT SERVICES. The User Assistance Office (UAO) fielded 49,662 hotline calls and resolved over half immediately. Field Services received 5,867 calls. A Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) was installed in the UAO to assist users with speech and hearing impairments. In FY 93, H.I.S. Office Automation Analysts made 10,840 Member office contacts; provided 6,229 consultations and demonstrations to Member, Leadership, and House support offices; provided 294 equipment configurations; and made 413 proactive Member office visits to disseminate materials and address questions on H.I.S. services. Computer Effectiveness Reviews and Reports were completed for twelve new MicroMIN offices. A total of 685 site surveys (floor plans) and 158 flat wire surveys were performed for House offices. In addition, consultants satisfied 290 requests for infotap information and 133 requests for cables and adapters. Support staff published a quarterly House computer newsletter (House Computer News) that was distributed to 981 district and 800 Washington offices, planned and hosted two H.I.S. Open Houses to assist with office purchase planning, gave an overview of H.I.S. services to the Republican Press Secretaries Association, and coordinated 36 House User Group meetings. Computer training classes were conducted for 2,968 House staff. Specialized courseware was developed for WordPerfect for Windows and used in training 70 staff from the Committee on Ways and Means. Special training classes in the use of basic WordPerfect were held for 60 staff of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation. Staff in 16 Member district offices were given training on MicroMIN and related applications. Outside training consultants were hired to handle the surge of PC training classes at the start of the 103d Congress. In FY 93, trainers began teaching MicroMIN classes. Courseware for Fundamentals of PCs and Understanding DOS was rewritten, and the following courseware was updated by H.I.S. staff: MIN (to include House E-Mail and new services); MicroMIN CMS, Casework, and Scheduling; Macintosh Accounting; Windows 3.1; and PC PageMaker 5.0. Three special computer training classes were held in which eight Members were trained and received overviews of H.I.S. services. Teaching staff attended a WordPerfect (WP) Office 4.0 Design Conference to gather information in designing courseware for WP Office 4.0. The following new software videotapes were added to the H.I.S. PC videotape library: DOS 6.0, WP 6.0, Word 5.1, Excel 4.0, FileMaker Pro 2.0, and Powerbooks. During FY 93, H.I.S. updated and installed 133 Lotus 1-2-3-based Accounting Systems. The Macintosh Official Expenses application was installed in three new Member offices bringing the total count of Macintosh accounting offices to 21. A new accounting system was developed for the House Republican Policy Committee. The H.I.S. Official Expenses application was enhanced to facilitate printing and voucher processing, and the Macintosh Clerk Hire System was released as part of the Macintosh Accounting System. The Committee Accounting System was installed for the Committee on the District of Columbia. Product Evaluations staff made 2,436 contacts and participated in negotiating and implementing the WordPerfect site license for the U.S. House of Representatives, renewed the Macintosh Virex antivirus subscription license, and obtained a site license for Macintosh MacTCP software. Evaluations staff also tested, evaluated, and procured Central Point anti-virus NLM for H.I.S. Novell file servers. During FY 93, they completed testing and evaluation of 68 products proposed for the House Approved List |