state of ICT in UNDP offices. It was interesting to hear the dialogue evolve towards embracing innovation, prioritizing programme support across UNDP, and promoting a UNDP Office of the Future.

The future involves a shift for ICT staff from server room functions towards strategic support to programmes, enhancing UNDP business through innovative ICT. For more information, see ICT workshop news brief.

by Elidelson Tapia, ICT Manager, UNDP Philippines

In the aftermath of the Haiyan typhoon that hit the Philippines last November, UNDP and its partners set into motion an Early Recovery Programme with an emergency cash-for-work programme in affected areas. UNDP continues to support the Tacloban, Ormoc, Roxas, and Guiuan areas through a soon-to-be opened sub-office in Tacloban, the hardest-hit area during the typhoon. ICT has been front and center in setting up this new crisis recovery location.

The office, to be located in a building provided by the government, will implement a lean office infrastructure leveraging a lean, green, modular ICT network and office setup. It employs a Deployable Emergency Communications System (DECS) with Satellite phones, BGAN Satellite terminals, mobile printers, solar chargers, and cloud-based appliance systems, the Bratislava Regional Service Centre contributing two portable solar generators. This local assembly is similar to the new Country Office ONE Box setup that GIA/OIST/BoM is now offering to UNDP offices for lean infrastructure and integrated office operations.

Staff has communication equipment such as mobile phones with data plans, Pocket WiFi, laptops, and solar chargers with power banks. (Continued on p.2)

In the spirit of supporting the new Strategic Plan and its recent Tarrytown Outcomes, the ICT community (over sixty participants) recently convened in Kuala Lumpur to share UNDP's strategic ICT vision for change and hear about successes and challenges in Country Offices in Asia and the Pacific and in Europe and Commonwealth Independent States.

Everyone had high expectations--and they were soundly met. It was good to see the healthy

RBAP-RBEC Regional ICT Workshop in Kuala Lumpur

ICT Support for Sustained Recovery in the Philippines

Satellite sleeve technology for mobile communi-cations; cash-for work programme after Haiyan

RBA-RBAS Regional ICT Workshop in Addis Ababa, September 2013. See page 8 for details. See video interviews at http://bcove.me/qcqxvt13

Bureau of Management - Office of Information Systems and Technology (OIST/BoM) Volume 8 Spring 2014

Connecting UNDP through Information and Communications Technology

Recovery in the Philippines

RBAP-RBEC Regional Workshop

Atlas updates, training, support

ICT Strategy

ICT Roadmap 2014-2015

Enhanced ERBM

Early Warning system - eRegistry

Intranet and public websites

Intranet file shares in Tunisia

MS Lync, Polycom, Open Systems

Join the cloud!

ICT Support for Ukraine crisis

Office Initiatives - Office in a Box

Services in Brazil and Venezuela

ICT programme support Armenia

Global Two-sentence News

HLCM/CEB/ICT Network

OIST/BoM Page

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Inside This Issue

UNDP Chief Technology Officer Shirin Hamid is pleased to note that the ICT Roadmap 2014-2015 has been operationalized and is moving forward, with key initiatives to ensure efficiency, innovation and transparency in our work. See the ICT Medium-term Investment Plan 2014-2017 and its resulting roadmap.

(Continued on p.3)

(Continued from p.1) Some of the challenges met included providing streamlined mobile communications during and after the disaster, as terrestrial networks were down, limiting workers to rely on Satellite communications. In addition, the Emergency Telecoms Cluster (ETC) facility was not robust enough to support all the humanitarian workers in the field and in different hubs.

BGAN terminals were also not sufficient for data communications for more than a few people. In Manila, the office infrastructure was not ready for a high influx of SURGE and other missions from different Agencies. Procurement required a fast track to deploy solutions in a more timely fashion.

See more on the Haiyan recovery:

UNDP Typhoon Crisis - Recovery

UNDP Mobile payments

UNDP Philippines 'Happy' video

ICT Support for Sub-office in Tacloban, Philippines

ICT News is available online (http://goo.gl/IIULx0)

UNDP's Enterprise Resources Management system, Atlas, is ten years old! After a critical infrastructure refresh last year for enhanced performance, reliability, and costs savings, Atlas remains a key workhorse for UNDP. Important foundations are now in place to leverage more transparency, accountability, and integration.

The Atlas infrastructure now supports 4500 concurrent users (over three times what it was ten years ago), now with all UNDP able to use the Human Capital Management module. A PeopleTools upgrade is complete, with a new reporting platform. Expect this year also new Portal, CRM, and HCM capabilities with 9.2 upgrades.

Our new strategic partner for development and innovation, Infosys, has accelerated bug

Rogelio Alba training staff at UNDP Panama

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Volume 8 Spring 2014

Lessons learned include:

Satellite sleeves for smartphones

would be an ideal solution instead of

multiple communication devices

Stand-by VSAT equipment should be

in place for emergencies

A corporate Intranet site would

provide backup and disaster

recovery for information assets

The office Business Continuity Plan

and Disaster Recovery Plan needs to

be completed, updated, and tested

regularly

Office bandwidth has to be upgraded

to higher capacity.

OIST/BoM Management Support Center staff in Kuala Lumpur (see video)

fixes and streamlined software solutions.

Please see the Atlas Work Plan 2014-2015 for details.

Need Atlas training - support?

Atlas and other key enterprise systems continue to be supported by the Management Support Group.

Over the past 10 years, the group has managed 326,000 cases with over 200 On Demand training scripts and over 80 training and support missions (ps.support@undp.org for Atlas and iHelp@undp.org for non-Atlas help).

The dedicated members of the MSC team are grateful to be able to assist in ongoing support and the up and coming service delivery model.

Continuous Improvement: Atlas Training in UNDP Uzbekistan and UNDP Pakistan

by Ignacio Etcheverry, Management Support Center, Panama Regional Center

UNDP offices are undergoing major changes to staff, programme, and portfolio. Atlas refresher training and continuous learning are needed at such times, especially for new people and those who move to different positions.

Ignacio Etcheverry delivered training in February at UNDP Uzbekistan and in March with Rogelio Alba at UNDP Panama-- to great reviews. Sessions included Atlas roles & responsibilities, Internal Control Framework/ARGUS, Commitment Control, General Ledger, IPSAS ­ policies, changes, Project Management, NEX/NIM Advances/Procedures, REQ/AP/PO, Cost Recovery, Billing Module, IPSAS Dashboard and Closings, and reporting and queries.

Atlas is Ten Years Old!

Infosys Center of Innovation - A program for Tomorrow's Enterprise

The goal of the newly released Enhanced ERBM platform, a Strategic Change Implementation Group and ICT project, is to fundamentally strengthen the link between results and resources, shifting from compliance to an active performance management culture.

This system, fully integrated with unit and office Intranet sites, supports clarity of purpose, better demonstration of relevance and impact of our results, reducing work burdens.

It also supports effective programme management, enhancing management access to pertinent data, increased transparency and accountability, allowing UNDP to clearly demonstrate value for money in its development activities.

This platform has created unit workspaces on the Country, Regional, and Headquarters levels which bring together key business

ICT Strategy - Operationalizing the ICT Roadmap 2014-2015

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Volume 8 Spring 2014

processes such as the 2014 Annual Business Plan work plan processes, programme planning, support to programme monitoring, Strategic Plan implementation (e.g., IRRF baselines and target management), annual reporting (i.e. ROARs), and other associated monitoring and reporting of results. The system includes these areas:

Overview - view data as budget, utilization, or projects (SP outcomes)

Planning - Link results to Reg Bx actions

Programme - View status and monitoring of country programmes

Projects - View status and monitoring of country programme projects

Documentation - View documents by programme, office and Bureaux

Calendar - View shared calendar can be linked to corporate, office, and unit Intranet sites.

Enhanced ERBM Platform

(Continued from p.1) The Strategic Plan stresses that UNDP will make better use of ICT solutions to enhance business analytics, increase productivity, reduce transaction costs, facilitate sustainability as well as provide direct programme/project support.

The ICT Medium-term Investment Plan 2014-2017 and its resulting roadmap with prioritized projects takes up this goal around business work areas of Openness and Transparency, Knowledge Mobilization, Intelligence, Talent Management, Process Integration, Resilience, and Social Engagement.

The roadmap is further divided into Flexible clusters (the investment portfolio) of new projects and Fixed clusters (our 'Keeping the Lights On' operational service and support). ICT projects will be monitored and evaluated within the OIST/BoM projects area of the Enhanced ERBM platform.

Early Warning System and eRegistry

An Early Warning System is being developed for proactive crisis prevention, integrating an intelligence tool (Recorded Future) that collects, analyzes, and visualizes real-time cyber intelligence, corporate security, and crisis data to provide real-time crisis prevention warnings.

The eRegistry project is now underway, with simple document scanning to reduce the number of physical files.

ASD/BoM is now piloting this process, after which it can be rolled out to offices and units. Optical Character Recognition

(OCR) software and auto-tagging will be implemented to seamlessly route and tag documents in online archives.

eRegistry also means email documents can be sent to a drop-off library to have them filed using the OCR and auto-tagging software.

Enterprise Information Portal - Overview - Support

ICT projects will be monitored and reported on in the corporate Enhanced ERBM platform

Brand new Intranet site at UNDP Solomon Islands

From 79 office websites Oct 2013 to 133 sites in May 2014

MS Lync application modalities - March 2014 Instant Messaging is the winner with 466,373 messages!

Public websites: 5 more launches - 6 in content review stage

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The Intranet continues to experience greater user adoption while providing enhanced business benefits. Corporate sites provide secure, ready-to-use team workspaces, libraries, lists, Calendars, News and Announcements, and business workflows to streamline office operations and programme activities.

All Country Offices have sites now and over 112 Country Offices are actively leveraging their sites. New Intranet sites include Country Offices in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burkina Faso,

The UNDP public websites rollout continues to advance at a faster pace, with solid buy-in and teamwork between Country Office management, Communications, and ICT staff, working to make this happen.

133 sites have been launched, at around 92% of the total of 145 sites.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the first region to have completed the Web upgrade project, with 46 Country Office websites on the new corporate platform!

There are still some offices pending and we encourage them to sign up to make the transition to the improved website

Volume 8 Spring 2014

Central African Republic, Comoros, Iran, Liberia, Lesotho, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mozambique, Samoa, , Seychelles, Sierra Leone, the Solomon Islands, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia. Benefits include:

Reduced operational costs

Increased mobility

Integration with HQ tools such as tagging and taxonomy

Streamlined operations through business applications

Integration with Enhanced ERBM

Functional upgrades

For news and information on the Intranet rollout, please visit the Intranet Rollout page.

Badreddine Essayeh, ICT Manager, UNDP Tunisia, worked in 2013 with his office staff to move all file shares to the Intranet. He created unit workspaces (HR, Finance, Procurement, ICT, etc.) as well as programme sites (Democratic Governance, Elections, Environment and Energy, etc.).

He then ported the files, communicated the move, trained users, mapped network drives to new spaces, retired 3 servers, and installed a single new one for Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, and FAX. Staff now uses the Intranet for all file sharing and secure file storing. Lessons learned? Save time, streamline infrastructure, and realize savings to the office and the organization!

platform for UNDP's online advocacy and communications results. Benefits include:

24/7 access to the website (no

maintenance downtime)

Improved stability and

performance, improved security,

improved search, expanded digital

asset management (photo library

and document library)

See updates at: https://undp.unteamworks.org/webupgrade.

Need to Communicate Virtually Via Videoconferencing?

Khaled Hajji, OIST/BoM Telecoms Specialist

Many staff still use fee-based Global Crossings for their webinars. Skype, MS Lync and Polycom Virtual Meeting Room bridges are all low-cost options--mostly interoperable and available to all offices. MS Lync also features UNDP click-to-call directory, desktop sharing, video, voice, IM, file share, and video-recording capabilities.

Virtual Meeting Room participants can join from phones, laptops, mobile devices, tablets, desktops, video based rooms. Please contact OIST/BoM telephone services for information or to use Virtual Meeting Rooms.

Managed Security Services

Open Systems now offers some valuable best practices and videos from within the Files area of the Mission Control dashboard, the ICT Manual, and here:

Portal overview (video)

Open a Ticket (document - video)

Password reset (document)

Set notifications (document - video)

What About All Those Server File Shares?

UNDP Public Websites - What's New!

SharePoint Intranet - What's New!

Connectivity and the Cloud

Migrate to Microsoft Office 365 - Now!

Adoption and Readiness

• MS Office 365 Presentation

• UNDP Overview Presentation

• Office 365 Quick Guide

• Minimum Standards

• Exchange Online Protection

• Join the Cloud website

Training page (Overview video)

Brochure - Poster Tips and Tricks

MS Data Center 101

UNDP Lesotho - Delivering as One and Intranet Starter Kit - In June, UN Agencies in Lesotho undertook Business

Operations Strategy (BOS) training. One outcome was an online inter-Agency system to log airport pickups. Currently, we

see three different UN vehicles at the airport to drop travelling staff members/departing visitors and/or collect arrivals. The

result of this system will be one vehicle/driver sent out for pick-ups to and from the airport.

Lesotho implemented its Intranet Starter Kit (ISK) this August. An ICT Support Request Tracker was immediately rolled

out, increasing our efficiency. This ICT services tracker is going to be launched in the App Store for other offices to benefit

from based on the work already done in Lesotho. Judith Tiheli, ICT Manager

Shathiso Nyathi, Global ICT Specialist, OIST/BoM

Cloud computing brings benefits to Country Offices, from 24/7 productivity, cost efficiencies in service delivery, to serving a mobile work force with full business continuity planning. It means greater use of the Internet to access enterprise solutions, view online reports, share documents, communicate virtually, and work with geographically distributed teams. More bandwidth is needed to meet these enhanced functionalities, so connectivity in Country Offices is being optimized.

A number of offices have taken advantage of growing connectivity options. Some offices have realized savings with compliance to corporate connectivity standards (for example, two independent Internet links):

UNDP Democratic Republic of Congo is putting in a fiber optic link with higher capacity at lower costs than their VSAT

UNDP Timor-Leste is leveraging a fiber link from Indonesia and terminating their VSAT link (with a backup secondary link)

UNDP Lesotho is sharing a terrestrial link with UN Agencies (VSAT now as backup only)

UNDP Gambia now has a primary fiber optic connection (a leased line from a local telecoms company) and closed VSAT

UNDP Myanmar is taking advantage of an alternate VSAT LTA, for a realization of savings for connectivity type and capacity.

The enterprise strategy is to increase reliance on

less costly connectivity options, particularly

VSAT links with high monthly recurring costs.

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Volume 8 Spring 2014

Crisis in Ukraine: Support for Business Continuity

UNDP has been an active participant in the development of Ukraine, a middle-income country that has made good progress in reforming its economic and social systems since attaining independence in 1991.

UNDP has focused on environmental issues, social exclusion challenges, and the promotion of local self-governance and regional development.

The ICT setup of UNDP Ukraine reflects one of a Country Office in a stable country in Eastern Europe, with access to excellent connectivity and good availability of services in the local market.

Office staff worked successfully from home in December 2013 and February 2014 during civil unrest, because enterprise ICT systems were in place.

While ICT has been an active participant in driving the UNDP programme, it must also do its part to ensure resilience and safety

Benefits of Cloud Computing

Enterprise MS Office 365 suite, with:

50GB email box quota

Ample user online storage (1 TB)!

MS Lync 2013 for cost-free

audio/video/web conferencing

Familiar online and desktop

productivity tools (Word, Excel, etc.)

MS Yammer and SharePoint 2013

Google Apps for Business LTA for

projects and partners

UNDP has begun its email migration to Microsoft Office 365, now with 3000 users reporting a seamless transition (total of 22,000). Offices are being scheduled (May-August) for migration as throughput is increased for UNDP's 80TB of data (to achieve a throughput of 4GB/hour). Time frame:

May-August. No hassle email migration

30 June. Cutover to MS Lync 2013

3Q 2014. User online storage with OneDrive (1TB of storage space - see Information Week!)

3Q 2014. Office 365 productivity tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote) and MS Yammer

Later phases: SharePoint 2013 and Azure hosting platform for Country Office apps

Are you still on XP? Please note that 5% of users

have operating systems that will not be supported (XP OS). OIST/BoM is working with ICT Regional Coordinators to upgrade/replace computers over the next months. Minimum Standards have been updated to reflect these requirements.

Amsale Admassu, Change Control Specialist and Diwen Xu, ICT (Intranet) Specialist, OIST/BoM

for the UNDP Ukraine staff, systems, services, and assets.

UNDP, through its OIST/BoM Global Advisory services, is preparing an ICT assessment to meet gaps and challenges in the office (see draft Mission Brief).

Recommendations:

Extend use of managed services

(with corporate Intranet site),

Deploy a backup VSAT link

Develop a plan for mobility and

other solutions to address

business continuity.

The UNDP Office of the Future can continue to drive development with lean and green ICT, cloud-based systems and services, an energy-efficient, paperless and wireless office infrastructure, and leasing models for office assets. A key component is Office in a Box, which aims at providing a modular solution to offices and calls for a compact, transportable rack with ready-mounted active and passive equipment.

The key to the next generation of office solutions is an integrated hardware platform built to last, supporting networking, collaboration, storage, computer, operations systems both real and virtual plus an

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Country Office Initiatives - Office in a Box

Volume 8 Spring 2014

Common and Remote ICT Services - Brazil and Venezuela

Hayk Tonoyan, ICT Manager, UNDP Armenia

UNDP Armenia is helping the Armenian government's modernization of the Bavra, Bagratashen and Gogavan border crossings (MBBG) programme, with three new crossing points designed to international standards, along with a new bridge at Bagratashen to span the river between Armenia and Georgia.

New high-speed fiber optic connections will be installed as part of the new IVT infrastructure.

More than 120km of fiber optic installation works have already been completed, with

application environment.

The first phase of the Office in a Box rollout has focused on IP telephony components, for Country Offices in Zambia, Sao Tome, Mali, Togo, Nigeria, Fiji, Saudi Arabia, and South Sudan.

Lesotho, Solomon Islands and the Democratic Republic of Congo are planning to implement Office in a Box with server blades, and there are a few more expressions of interest from offices. See the Office in a Box setup for more details.

ICT for Armenian Border Crossings to Iran and Georgia

Bagratashen border crossing to Georgia (above) Ardalan Sotoudeh, UNDP Iran and Hayk Tonoyan, UNDP Armenia (below) See video.

Nese Hatipoglu and Yuan Huang of Global ICT Advisory Services in Copenhagen

Jarle Herikstad, Global ICT Specialist, OIST/BoM in Panama

Stefan Zutt, CIO of UNICEF and I took part in a mission in Brazil with the inter-Agency Brazil ICT Working Group, to assist with solutions design for a Joint Operations Facility (JOF) and a Business Operations Strategy (for operational economies of scale), reviewing ICT services suitable for common services.

As a result, common ICT services will emphasize:

A lean ICT service delivery model

A common Help Desk

An 'application development factory'

Common videoconferencing tools

Online collaboration tools to reduce

travel costs, especially for projects.

Remote ICT management has been successfully piloted for UNDP Venezuela for the past 18 months, with the ICT function outsourced to the RBLAC Regional Service Centre in Panama.

Remote access to servers is done via VPN, whereas user support takes place through MS Lync, which enables ICT staff at the RBLAC Regional Service center in Panama to take control of user desktops in Caracas for troubleshooting purposes.

This remote ICT support model is good for small offices (30-35 staff) as well as offices with large operations and sub-offices, to streamline and improve ICT user support.

high-end modular switches and 10GE Ethernet support, and, as an alternate/backup connection, 3G/4G LTE multi SIM integrated service routers were installed in 2013. UNDP believes that building management capacities at Georgian and Iranian borders supports the socio-economic development of Armenia through improved governance standards, through increased trade and foreign direct investment, and through a reduction in organized cross-border crime.

The new UN House in Brasilia, Brazil

Other Fantastic ICT Initiatives

UNDP Bhutan UN House

UNDP Nepal Intranet

UNDP Pakistan Programme Support

The UNDP Office of the Future includes both common and remote models for services, as the ICT setup becomes commoditized and standardized, with a significant reduction in data center footprint, with more and more ICT services like messaging, network security, and knowledge mobilization being outsourced or moved to the cloud.

Jarle Herikstad, Global ICT Specialist, OIST/BoM

UNDP Albania - UNDP Tajikistan - Cloud Migration. The last time we met for a workshop we had

VSAT connections. The prior email migration was complicated and costly. Now we have fiber optics in both of our countries and the migration to Office 365 will be a breeze. Helion Kondo and Andrey Kovalanko, ICT Managers

UNDP Samoa - Helping Users to Adopt Cloud Services. We are looking forward to the migration to the cloud with Office

365. As a proponent of the UNDP Office of the Future, my main task will be to help change people's mindsets, so they feel secure to keep their data in the cloud. Aliitasi Petaia, ICT Associate

Two-sentence News from Country Offices See ICT Workshop Video Interviews A and Video Interviews B.

UNDP Liberia - Cell Phone Network. The Liberia Inter-Agency ICT Working Group

has established a Closed User Group (CUG) for UN Agencies and the UN Mission in Liberia.

UNDP Timor Leste - Office and Project Support. We are two IT geeks on the ground in Timor

Leste supporting office and projects. Last year during relocations we established standards for connectivity to support Unified Communications and cloud computing. This will mean UNDP can push ahead in delivering groundbreaking results in our country. Agapito Da Silva and Ulderico Ze Machado, ICT Managers

UNDP Pakistan - Programme Support. The UN ICT Working Group implemented a single One UN hiring portal for 19 UN

Agencies. The public can access it for UN jobs available in Pakistan. We have developed a job tracking system for operation- related services, so clients can get information about service workflows, status, and required documents. A UNDP election project provides an advisory role to the government, where 120 million voters used SMS texting to find polling stations, with a 55 % turnout of voters--one of the largest ever in Pakistan. We are also planning to develop a Strategic Information System (SIS) so that project information can be easily monitored. Mustahsen Qureshi, Operations Specialist

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UNDP Bangladesh - Intranet. We have a robust SharePoint platform going back to 2009, with many business applications

to provide productivity to our 1000 users, both in the office and in projects. We are discussing how the enterprise can leverage some of our applications. Also we are keeping ready stock on frequently used ICT items, so that procurement and rollout takes 1-2 days instead of 2-3 months. In this way, an Elections Commission project received 200 laptops in a matter of days. The office has also worked with the government to deliver Google Apps for Business (Gmail, Drive, Docs, etc.) for project use. Manjur e-Khuda, ICT Manager

UNDP Cambodia - Innovation. It's a pleasure to be at the point where innovation and ICT can help to change the way we

deliver business in UNDP. We have many innovations in the pipeline, but one to mention is, with the coming of cloud computing, to rearrange our physical spaces around a hoteling concept so staff are not divided by building (we have three), function, and floor, so that interactions can be more meaningful. Dara Bunhim, ICT Manager

UNDP Pacific Regional Service Center in Fiji - IP Telephony - We look forward to the implementation of our IP

telephony and Delivering as One initiatives with an inter-Agency ICT Working Group and a capacity development plan for the 15 island nations in our region. Farzeen Khan, ICT Manager

Volume 8 Spring 2014

UNDP Macedonia and UNDP Kyrgyzstan - Innovation, Gaming, and Way-finding. In Macedonia,

ICT projects involve the programme side, but also provide learning and fun. Recently we helped farmers to use SMS to know when to use pesticides on their crops, significantly reducing overuse. We helped with a video game they could play with their children to learn about improved farming techniques. In Kyrgyzstan, we developed a Foursquare app, allowing residents in a remote tourist area, Naryn Oblast, to post rooms and board, to make some extra money. Ljupco Mantev and Pavel Mkrtchyan, ICT Managers

This was done with CELLCOM (GSM), who provides Agency interconnectivity links for the One UN fiber internet connection, with a leased line to Valencia via the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable, lowering costs on telecommunications and internet services. We will next establish a common UN phone directory. Kaman Weah and Johnson Chelleh, ICT Managers

UNDP Afghanistan - ICT Refresh, Atlas Optimization, and IP Telephony. A mission from OIST/BoM took place

in December 2013 with the goals of assessing local ICT infrastructure, aligning workstations with standards, and optimizing Atlas business processes. The office has also now implemented Cisco IP telephony. Further office and programme enhancements are under discussion. See ICT Advisory Mission Briefing Note and 2 videos (Addis Ababa and Kuala Lumpur) with Farhad Toghian, ICT Manager

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Chief Technology Officer Shirin Hamid signing cloud LTAs with Nicholas Rosellini, Deputy Director, RBAP and Ye Aung, Chief, Global Services, OIST/BoM

22nd Meeting - CEB ICT Network Montreal, Canada 29-30 April 2014

ICT Network Chair Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure welcomed members, emphasizing the changing nature and role of ICT. He noted that many ICT activities today remain tactical (messaging, infrastructure, Unified Communications, etc.), but these will shift towards commodity arrangements, allowing ICT to have a direct contribution to programme support for Agency results.

A Peacekeeping DPKO incidents monitoring system, cloud services, and federated authentication were areas of interest.

ICT Network Work Plans (see ICT Network Programme Plan):

Future trends

ICT Reference Group progress

(FAO)

Cyber security

Information sharing on inter-

Agency ERP projects and

directions (CABIO/SAP-SIG)

Using federated

authentication to facilitate

information sharing among UN

Agencies that share Country

Office facilities

My journey with UNDP started in March 1991 as a Programme Assistant in Programme Support Unit in UNDP Bhutan with IBM AT/XT computers (640K base memory and 360/720 K floppy drive with MS DOS!) ... see my reflections on 23 years in UNDP. Most of all I want to say that life is not all about work-- enjoy yourselves and remember the habit to tackle climate change and the global warming!

Premier 100 ICT Leader Shirin Hamid, UNDP's Chief Technology Officer and Director of the Office of Information Systems and Technology, has been honored as a Computerworld Premier 100 ICT Leader for 2014. See Computerworld's December 2013 press release. Shirin was featured in the issue with an interview on 'reinvention strategies' in ICT today.

Information Security Awards and Honors

UNDP's information security programme was honored with the CSO40 award from Chief Security Officer (CSO) magazine as a top global 40 information security organization for 2013 (with Computerworld Honors 2013). UNDP’s information security incident response team has also met the requirements and been accepted for membership into the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST).

Volume 8 Spring 2014

Information Management Associates at IMA workshop, Dec 2013 The best of the best!

Fit for Purpose Exercise Your Mind!

How do OISTers stay in shape? Know who does Kuchipudi Indian Classical Dance? What about Badminton? Biking? Wine tasting? Tennis? Zumba? Ping Pong? Gardening? Golf? Guitar? Crossfit training? Guess who has a Sunday radio show (1170 am) at EBC Radio for news on happenings in Odisha, India? Know who's a member of Black Girls Run and NY Roadrunners Club? What about our kickboxing champ? Ask around... you'll find out.

Life is not all about work! B.B. Sundas, UNDP Bhutan

Digital Radio Standard

UNICEF, UNHCR and WFP have agreed on the adoption of Motorola’s DMR (mototrbo) technology as the global Digital Radio Standard for the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) and humanitarian operations. For more information, please contact global.etc@wfp.org.

UNDP ICT Governance

The Audit Advisory Group in April noted that ICT governance has moved forward with real involvement of business users and clear benefits of managed services for enterprise services (email, ERP, Intranet) They congratulated UNDP on its cloud project and leadership in the UN system, noting cost savings to UNDP programmes.

Next steps include assessing the impact of the Structural Review, re-prioritizing projects as needed, looking at ICT Innovation and Bring Your Own Device approaches to ICT assets, and aligning UNV's investment plan with UNDP's ICT Medium-term Investment Plan.

ICT Calendar 1H 2014 Already so far this year! Data Warehouse training, VSAT migration close out, IMA Alignment task team, ICT missions to Brazil and Venezuela, 2 ICT Governance Group meetings, 2 ICT Network meetings, ICT missions to Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Jordan, and Cameroon, Oracle Cloud Workshop, OIST Town Hall, ICT Reference Group, Atlas CIOs Roundtable, email migration, RBAP-RBEC ICT Workshop in Malaysia, WGET/ETC Emergency Telecoms, IP telephony at HQ, BCP/DR training and much more!