The Foreign Service Journal, December 2005

world over were linked through State’s unclassified OpenNet, which included broadband Internet access. Nearly all embassies were embraced in an expanded clas- sified network. These networks in turn could access inter- agency intranets. OpenNet computers offered the Open Source Information System, while ClassNet computers displayed the secret-level SIPRNet. The business systems on State’s networks needed cost- ly upgrades as well. Incompatible software programs could not provide the consolidated management informa- tion needed by State’s new, hands-on leadership. Grant Green, Powell’s under secretary for management, over- ruled Chief Information Officer Fernando Burbano to assume direct oversight of key projects to modernize the old software with commercial, off-the-shelf systems. The Powell team added a further upgrade to the agenda: a 21st-century messaging system to replace cables, which dated back to the end of World War II, as the depart- ment’s main communications network. Other budget resources went into less visible up- grades: a permanent set-aside to refresh equipment, and accountability programs strengthening network security. As a result of the work done over Powell’s tenure, the President’s Management Agenda, which summarizes all agencies’ fitness with simple traffic-light indicators, flipped State’s color first to yellow, then to green. The new Secretary billed himself as a chief executive officer, but his role (unlike that of his predecessors) was more like a rainmaker, according to Smullen and Bruce Morrison, who replaced Burbano as chief information officer in December 2002 and served until last year. Consider the move to give Internet access to everyone on the unclassified network. That may seem a no-brainer, but it actually took Powell’s personal intervention. Morrison describes the internal controversy this way: “It was a difficult situation, because of the fact that we share our Sensitive-But-Unclassified network with FSNs. [The open Internet link] made the possibility of any security breaches much more likely. We went back and forth with Diplomatic Security for well over a year before finally working out a method. Secretary Powell’s eagerness to get it done helped us all to get to a compromise. In his first town hall meeting, he had talked about Internet on the desktop, and he told us he would find the resources. In the end, it cost over $100 million to do it.” The Secretary also pressed for more open information- sharing generally, referring to his own experience on the board of America Online. For instance, he made known his complaint that Diplomatic Security took away his per- sonal digital assistant. Smullen recalls, “The computer was always on in his office; he talked online all day.” Powell would check clas- sified memos against public information obtained from Google. He pushed to get broadband on his official air- craft. When traveling, he would duck into embassy offices at random to check his e-mail. At daily senior staff meet- ings, he would often point out official Web sites that were out of date, and he amiably nagged his press spokesman to get more pictures and human-interest information on State’s public Web site. It made the IT transformation about more than new gear. Systems Integration: A Work in Progress But just as the work did not begin with Powell, it was not complete at his departure. Secretary Condoleezza Rice has expressed support for continuing investments in IT. Still, sometimes State reminds me of myself two years ago, trying to transfer masses of information to new com- puter circuits. One major challenge is the integration of commercial standard software to manage basic business functions like human resources, budgeting and logistical support to embassies. Old systems developed by individual bureaus would not share information, so managers had difficulty relating expenses to budget lines, or merging bits of per- sonnel information to make and execute personnel deci- sions. Over the past decade, the department has acquired new computer programs built and maintained by large software vendors. The problem arises in adapting the standard software to State’s entrenched bureaucratic processes, and in making the major components work properly with each other. Broadly, this process is called systems integration. Christopher Bronk, who wrote software before enter- ing the Foreign Service, summarizes the difficulty: “The issue is combining so many different systems into a homogenous network. Do you change the software to fit the business function, or the function to fit the software?” A common technique is to make diverse databases deliver their information to Web browsers like Windows Internet Explorer or Mozilla, which most workers can use efficient- ly. “The goal,” says Bronk, is “making the State computer environment work the way common transactions do when you buy something from Amazon over the Internet.” F O C U S D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 23