Board Report: 2014-IT-B-003 February 26, 2014
February 21, 2014
Mr. Mark Bialek
Office of Inspector General
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Washington, DC 20551
Dear Mark:
We have reviewed your report entitled "Opportunities Exist to Achieve Operational Efficiencies in the Board's Management of Information Technology Services" prepared as part of your office's review of the implementation of the Board 's Strategic Framework.
Upon consultation with the Chief Operating Officer and the Director of the Division of Financial Management, we agree with your first recommendation to identify specific cost centers for information technology in consultation with Board divisions and implement a consistent process to account for and track costs for information technology services across Board divisions. While this will not associate costs with specific information technology activities by type of activity, it will provide a general structure to identify Board resources devoted to the provisioning of information technology services. As you know, considerable progress has been made in this regard through a Board-wide effort to identify IT services provided by all divisions and offices and the expenditures associated with those services. This information provides the basis for monitoring information technology cost centers moving forward.
Regarding your second recommendation, we agree that the implementation of a common SDLC policy and associated procedures across Board divisions may increase operational efficiencies and mitigate risk. We will work towards implementing best practices to be used by the Board Offices and Divisions that can promote the use of a common SDLC.
We appreciate the professionalism and courtesies provided by the staff of the Office of Inspector General during the review, and we look forward to working with your office in the future. Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on this report.
Sincerely,
/signed/
Sharon Mowry
Director, Information Technology
