What is the current and anticipated level of ITS support to NRCS and its partners?
Going into FY 2008, NRCS paid OCIO-ITS to support slightly more than 22,000 computers assigned to about 15,700 NRCS and partner employees in about 3,000 locations. This payment includes the software, infrastructure, and technical support provided by more than 400 ITS employees in 200 locations. There is general agreement that the quality of service must be improved, and a primary way to do this is to reduce the number of computers to support. In order to control future costs and improve the quality of support, NRCS worked with state offices and other agency organizational units to eliminate outdated and excess computers and reduce the inventory to approximately 18,000 computers assigned to agency and partner employees. State and other agency organizational units (e.g. service centers, national headquarters, etc) have the discretion to pay for additional computer support out of their individual budgets. The current estimated cost is $3,000 per “seat.” Beginning In fiscal year 2009, NRCS
