Case Management Project

Agency of the U.S. Department of Justice

Diversified Systems provided key technical personnel on this large business-driven information technology program providing unified access to, and sharing of, information in accordance with the Agency’s mission and US Department of Justice strategic plan.  The enhanced program eliminates stove-piped systems by integrating business functions and allowing for information sharing across the Agency business areas.

By modernizing legacy applications supporting these business areas and integrating business functionality, accurate, real-time Agency information is disseminated to authorized users. The new program improves and streamlines data management at the Agency. This system also provides Agency managers with instantaneous access to available corporate information. It ensures that the accuracy of statistical management reporting for the Agency embodies new data sharing standards, performance metrics, and business processes defined by the business area program offices. The system provides supervisors with the ability to track employee activities over a designated period of time, and its audit capabilities provide management with a tool for determining the timeliness of reporting.

This Agency has several agency-wide LAN and WAN environments for classified and unclassified information. Firebird provides an unclassified desktop environment from which users access network resources, and is a wholly contained network environment, with no interfaces or connections to non-agency resources.

The Agency has approximately 13,000 Firebird workstations. They are Intel-based, running Windows XP with Office XP, along with numerous user applications. Firebird is supporting 12 physically different workstation hardware configurations. The Agency also supports a large number of stand-alone workstations in numerous Agency locations worldwide. These systems are also mission-critical and used for a variety of purposes.

The Agency has approximately 500 Firebird servers. They are predominantly Intel-based, with dual processors. The server infrastructure is currently in transition from Windows NT 4.0/Exchange 5.5 to Windows 2000/2003 and Exchange 2000. Network storage is provided by EMC Corporation (EMC) Storage Area Networks (SANs) at Division Offices (of which there are currently 25), and locally attached storage at the smaller sites. There are hard drives to support the operating system and applications, but no permanent storage on workstations.

Generally, all Firebird applications are server-based, served from Windows NT 4.0/2000 file servers and executed on the workstations. The exceptions are a small number of Citrix-supported applications, the Office XP Suite which resides locally on the Windows XP workstations, and some TN3270-accessed applications which are hosted within a Model 204 environment on a DOJ mainframe.
Most custom applications are developed in-house, with extensive use of Contractor support. Configuration, application distribution, software updates, troubleshooting services, and network services are currently provided through Agency-maintained IBM Tivoli Enterprise Management System servers.

Diversified Systems is an award-winning Ohio-based corporation founded in 1990.  We offer a wide range of Information Technology products and services in 10 states as well as the District of Columbia. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, we also have regional offices in Washington DC and Chicago, Illinois.