CASE STUDY

Industry: Mortgage Banking
Client: Ginnie Mae

Service Offering: Business Process Reengineering

IES led the Ginnie Mae Enterprise-wide Business Process Improvement (BPI) Initiative which provided an operational blueprint for the modernization of Ginnie Mae’s infrastructure. Ginnie Mae Management identified this initiative as a critical catalyst to support the Enterprise Architecture recommendations made in the most recent version of the Information Strategic Plan.

During this initiative IES provided focus on the business transactions that touch the customer for assessment and optimization. This analysis identified the sources of bottlenecks, data integrity issues, highlighted work-arounds that staff has had to employ to accomplish their stated functions and identified weaknesses in the operating infrastructure supporting those key business transactions. Following the Business Diagnostic analysis, IES led a series of Envisioning sessions to creatively identify how these processes could be enhanced. During this second phase lenders, document custodians, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank were contacted to provide Ginnie Mae with unfiltered perspectives of issuers’ commentary and context for how the industry participants are addressing similar operational requirements. This analysis was captured within the Process Direction deliverable.

With the delivery of the Recommended Solution IES enabled Ginnie Mae to accomplish the following objectives:

• Establish an operational blueprint to achieve the vision of a world-class financial institution through the use of effective and efficient enterprise architecture
• Promote consistency, accuracy, timeliness, integrity, availability, access and sharing of information throughout Ginnie Mae.
• Provide a mechanism and the relevant inputs to support effective planning and decision making
• Enable senior management to assess the options and opportunities for modernizing Ginnie Mae’s computing infrastructure.

Service Offering: Enterprise Architecture Planning / Detailed Technical Architecture

In 2003, Ginnie Mae conducted a Business Process Improvement (BPI) initiative that focused on its core business processes enterprise-wide. A Detailed Technical Architecture (DTA) was subsequently performed in order to provide the BPI recommendations with the information technologies and infrastructure needed to enable the improved and reengineered processes. The DTA was performed pursuant to the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) initiative out of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which required that one of the key FEA components, namely the Technical Reference Model (TRM), be completed for Ginnie Mae. In addition, a new Business System Architecture (BSA), new information technology (IT) infrastructure, and new IT management model were developed for Ginnie Mae. These various elements define a DTA for Ginnie Mae that will guide it through the next several years as it undertakes the challenging path of modernizing its business processes and systems. Modernization and improvement of Ginnie Mae’s systems must first proceed from an understanding of the current environment.

Consequently, the DTA began with researching applicable guidance to determine what information was needed to conduct the DTA analysis. This insight was used to create and use a survey form to capture key as-is system and technical infrastructure data from Ginnie Mae and its service contractors, for risk analysis, and for loan pool processing and central payment to investors. Along with data gathered and analysis conducted during the BPI, this information was analyzed to determine current environment technical assessments of Ginnie Mae systems and technical infrastructure. As-is TRM and technical infrastructure diagrams were developed to express in a single set of views the IT components currently used by Ginnie Mae in its existing DTA.

To complete the DTA, best practices and leading technologies for the target DTA were identified and researched, and then compared with the current environment and technical capabilities. Along with to-be process recommendations developed in the BPI, this additional information was analyzed to determine future recommendations for Ginnie Mae systems and technical infrastructure. The target TRM and technical infrastructure diagrams were developed to express in a single set of views the IT components that should be used by Ginnie Mae in its target DTA.

The summary technical recommendation of this DTA Report is that the target BSA-defined systems, future TRM, and consolidated technical infrastructure can clearly satisfy the emerging needs of the modernized and improved business processes and customers as defined in the BPI initiative.

Service Offering: Business Continuity of Operations Planning

IES developed the standard for the federal government Continuity of Business Operations Plans for the Housing and Urban Development’s Ginnie Mae and its key business partners. The design and development pre-dated the current federal COOP and Homeland Security planning requirements and continues today to be held up as an example for others. Additionally, IES designed and developed the associated preparedness program that supports any effective readiness capability. This program and IES’ support encompasses planning maintenance activities, training, exercises and real-time response.

IES designed, developed, conducted and participated in numerous internal and intra-Agency preparedness exercises for the/a federal government /agency. IES effectively designs and develops exercises that ensure full and realistic involvement by all participants. IES exercises focus on the immediate affects of an event, interruption and relocation of business operations and business resumption activities, as well as the various required supporting response activities such as communications tests and team tabletop exercises.

IES has supplemented federal government response during heightened Homeland Security Threat Levels, and during sensitive periods of time for the country and/or federal government. IES staff response on behalf of the federal government has included information gathering, operations center support and management, communications and readiness briefings.

• The IES team identifies, analyzes, assesses, and incorporates business continuity legislation that directly instructs federal agencies to implement the said legislation and continually consistently scans federal resource documents relative to business continuity legislation to ensure Ginnie Mae’s compliance and currency with federally mandated legislation. The team modifies Ginnie Mae’s COOP accordingly.
• We conduct working sessions with management and staff to identify and confirm essential business functions necessary to maintain business continuity.
• Ginnie Mae will provide the facilities to support the key staff or staff rotation to perform the identified business functions at an alternative site. Those identified as key may be modified depending on the time of month and or duration of an emergency.
• IES will have access to and will coordinate and work with appropriate HUD representatives to ensure an appropriately integrated COOP planning effort. The Ginnie Mae Plan will not function within a vacuum. HUD provides each program area within the department guidance and mandates for COOP. The IES team reviews and analyzes these requirements and incorporates into Ginnie Mae’s COOP. Lastly, the IES team coordinated with HUD IT to develop a business continuity strategy to support Ginnie Mae in the event of a crisis.