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CURRENT STATUS OF THE MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (MIS)

The RMPS Management Information System has made only moderate progress in
the past few months with principal emphasis placed on developmental
activities, These activities include improvements to the descriptor
sheets for operational activities, a refinement to the financial data
record for handling all budget and fiscal activities of the Regions and
the development of a standardized profile of each Region.

We are currently applying a series of 12 descriptors to each operational
component presently being funded by RMPS. The undertaking of this backlog
has been rather difficult and slow since, in addition, we have been coding
all requests for funding received from the Regions in order to maintain

an up-to-date record file.

Beginning with the May 1 application submission deadline, we will undertake
a new coding scheme which has quality control built in. Two independent
xeviews of the application are undertaken and two separate descriptor sheets
coded for each operational component, These sheets are sent to the MIS

team and compared before inclusion into the computer, If any differences
are noted, the corrections are requested prior to placing the information
inte the data base, :

Outputs from these descriptors have found wide popularity in staff usage.
We are able to present a pictorial representation of each Region according
to these various descriptor characteristics of all funded activities being
supported by RHPS. ‘These are associated with the dollar amounts in each
activity such that by reviewing the summary sheet for each Region, one can
get a very specific idea as to what types of activities the Region is
currently supporting, how the money is proportionately distributed, and

@ percentage breakdown according to each characteristic. A similar set

of descriptor codes is. being developed for Core activities and should be
ready for implementation with the applications received by the May 1
deadline.

Another area of current concentration by the MIS activity has been in the
refinement of the financial data record, a single form which will be used
to report all activities in the applications made by the Regions. Four
Regions submitted their applications in the most recent cycle and this
provided a good test bed for us to test out our output program. We do

not, as of yet, have all fiscal elements included in the MIS that are
necessary, and a concentrated effort is being planned, particularly for
historical data, to get ¢11 pertinent dollar items inte the desired format.

The Manegement Information System's Liaison Comittee has been actively
working trying to identify those elements that make up an effective
profile of the Region. The aspects of this profile that are to be
automated versus those that will be kept in a manual file are under
consideration, and it appears that final steps are being taken in the

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development of a standardized profile outline. A test case has been
developed and is being analyzed at present,

Since we are still running two systems, the old mechanized reporting system,
and the new MIS under development, an additional effort is being made to

-close out the old system, converting all data to the new format by the

end of our fiseal year (June 30, 1971). ‘The elimination of this redundant
activity should give us further flexibility in responding to questions
asked of our data.

The involvement of MIS efforts with other activities within REPS is at the
highest peak it has realized’ to date. Computer programmers on the MIS .
team are actively working with people in the Regional Development Branch,
the Grants Review Branch, .and the Grants Management Branch in order to
more accurately study their activities and facilitate the development of
more effective programs for management utilization.

Through the efforts of Dr. Pahl's Procedures Commi ates, the MIS is receiving
inputs from key operating persornel within RiS concerning those pieces

of information and data they need at select ed points in our Review Cycle.
These points will be examined by the MIS team and the appropriate inputs
defined in order to provide the outputs to these users at the time they
requeét.

We are currently responding to approximately 15-20 inquiries a week from
RMPS personnel, ‘The average time it takes us to process a request is
1.5 days. It is expected that as the system becomes more versatile, the
number of requests will increase exponentially and the time to respond
will reduce,