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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General

At a Glance

10-P-0194
August 23, 2010

Catalyst for Improving the Environmen

Why We Did This Review

The Office of Inspector General
conducted this audit as a result of
receiving Hotline complaints
about desktop deployments. We
sought to determine whether the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA):

•	Responded to resolve issues
identified during Customer
Technology Solutions (CTS)
deployment.

•	Implemented processes to
eliminate recurring problems
with deploying CTS.

•	Implemented oversight
practices for the CTS
contract.

Background

CTS service includes acquiring,
installing, maintaining, and
supporting computers and
network printers. The CTS
deployment schedule projected
11,744 computers to be replaced
in 18 locations across the United
States. CTS is provisioned
through EPA's Working Capital
Fund and provides and
coordinates all information
technology end-user support and
services for Headquarters and
field offices.

For further information, contact
our Office of Congressional,
Public Affairs and Management
at (202) 566-2391.

To view the full report,
click on the following link:
www.epa.aov/oia/reports/2010/
20100823-10-P-0194.pdf

EPA Needs to Improve Management Practices to Ensure
a Successful Customer Technology Solutions Project

What We Found

Although EPA indicated it could avoid spending more than $115.4 million
over 8.5 years by consolidating the desktop computing environment,
improved management practices are needed to ensure this cost avoidance
is realized. CTS scheduled replacing 11,744 computers in 12 months, and
also began providing maintenance and support for those computers and
attached network printers, without sufficient planning to ensure ongoing
success. This lack of planning has led to questions about (1) the quality of
the helpdesk supporting the project; (2) a quality management program
that is not finalized; (3) key business processes to support ongoing
operations not being defined; and (4) vacant leadership positions needed to
facilitate communication and coordination with customers about CTS
equipment deployments. These conditions resulted in many end users
voicing dissatisfaction with the CTS deployment and continued
dissatisfaction with helpdesk support.

The CTS technical proposal indicates the consolidated desktop services
solution will result in increased customer satisfaction and provide the
technical tools and training needed to support EPA's critical programs.
However, missteps in project planning led to sustained negative customer
acceptance of CTS. Without CTS improving its service quality, end users
may foster a degree of skepticism that will be hard for EPA to overcome.

What We Recommend

We made various recommendations to the Director of the Office of
Technology Operations and Planning, Office of Environmental
Information, to include:

•	Implementing and maintaining a helpdesk that responds to and
resolves issues in a manner that meets performance metrics;

•	Improving the CTS Quality Management Program by developing
and implementing an Independent Verification and Validation
process and finalizing the Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan;

•	Documenting milestones for the completion of overdue and future
business process documents; and

•	Filling vacant CTS leadership positions.

In general, the Agency agreed with the findings and recommendations.

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