volume, with 33,000 calls received over the course of the year.  FEMA 

personnel in both the regional and the disaster field offices reported that the IT 

help desk at Mount Weather provided excellent support.  The helpdesk 

supports all areas of IT, including dial up access, account access for new 

users, troubleshooting, and remote access.  The views of personnel with whom 

we spoke were substantiated by a client satisfaction survey conducted during 

2004 by the Customer Care Institute, an external firm specializing in customer 

satisfaction surveys.  The response rate was 37 percent, or 302 of the 816 

clients surveyed.  The survey results helped identify current client satisfaction 

levels, as well as establish a benchmark for future surveys.  According to the 

survey, approximately 97 percent of the respondents were satisfied with the 

service that they received from the helpdesk, and 46 percent were extremely 

satisfied. 

Additional IT Guidance and Training Needed   

According to 

Office of Management and Budget Circular A 130

, users of 

federal information resources must have the skills, knowledge, and training to 

manage information resources, enabling the federal government to serve the 

public through automated means.  According to the 

Clinger Cohen Act of 

1996

,

15

 agencies are responsible for ensuring that IT users receive the training 

that they need to do their jobs.  Although EP&R's IT technical support 

personnel responded effectively to system user needs, especially prior to and 

during the Florida disasters, additional guidance and training for system users 

is necessary to ensure that users have the knowledge and information 

necessary to perform their jobs efficiently and effectively. 

Specifically, although the EP&R CIO's office maintains up to date systems 

procedure manuals and guidance, such as online job aids, a number of FEMA 

field personnel whom we interviewed were not aware of their existence.  

Unaware of online resources, users relied on out of date manuals or created 

their own individual reference documents: two of the three regions that we 

visited were using out of date, hard copy systems manuals that were still in 

draft format.   

In addition, the online IT manuals only described the procedures necessary to 

complete actions in the systems; they did not contain the business context for 

when and why the procedures would be used.  This information, provided in 

separate manuals created by the program areas, forced system users to refer to 

15

 Sections D and E of Public Law 104 106. 

Emergency Preparedness and Response Could Better Integrate Information Technology  

with Incident Response and Recovery 

Page 17