IT Communications Process

PURPOSE ▪ SCOPE ▪ PROCESS DESCRIPTION ▪ PROCESS DIAGRAM ▪ PROCESS INPUTS/OUTPUTS ▪ PROCESS RELATIONSHIPS ▪ ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ▪ REVISION HISTORY

Process Owner: Manager, IT Business Management

Note: An owner must be a PCES-level manager or higher.

This process establishes standard tools and processes for Information Technology communications within the Postal Service Technical Environment.

1. PURPOSE

The purpose of the Information Technology Communications process is to outline the necessary steps for posting and communicating information to internal personnel.

2. SCOPE

The Information Technology Communications process includes all articles published in the USPS NewsLink, IT Newsletters, Postal Bulletin, Screen Savers, Field Communications, Direct Lines, Policy Directives, Brochures, and Surveys/Questionnaires. Any potential articles or new publications shall be directed to the Manager, IT Business Management, who will provide guidance regarding their creation and publication.

3. PROCESS DESCRIPTION

All IT employees must follow the established processes listed below, based on the communication vehicle.

USPS NewsLink – Articles

Audience: ACE users with an Outlook account
Frequency: NewsLink published daily; IT articles published as needed
Point of Contact: IT Business Management, Robin R. Miller (202-268-3285)

Communication Description

Published by Public Affairs and Communications
Contains soft information, items of interest with a marketing flavor, talks “about” things, does not establish policy
Not a vehicle for communicating/establishing business processes, but rather communicating a tidbit or reminder about business processes or other business-related things such as accomplishments, new deployments
Link articles are included in Postal Bulletin, USPS News Hard Copy, and/or other Public Affairs and Communications vehicles as deemed appropriate by Public Affairs and Communications. Originator can request such distribution.

Communication Process

Step 1:	Requester updates/composes document to be published.
Step 2:	Make sure that article contains who, what, why, when, where information and meets the 150 word limit.
Step 3:	Stakeholders review and sign off.
Step 4:	SOX portfolio group reviews for any SOX compliant issues.
Step 5:	Send document to IT Business Management.
Step 6:	IT Business Management reviews, provides guidance if needed, and sends to NewsLink editor for editing.
Step 7:	IT Business Management receives USPS NewsLink version back from NewsLink editor.
Step 8:	IT Business Management sends final edited version to originator and to all customers/departments that share in its message for approval/clearance.
Step 9:	After all approvals are received, ITIT Business Management sends article to CIO for final approval.
Step 10:	IT Business Management sends final approval to NewsLink for publication.

IT News

Audience: Field general users; CIO employees receive it also. Not distributed to HQ. “Special” distribution list for a few individuals who have requested it: Sheryl Bonifer, Nancy Laich, Debbie Powell, Christine E. Rosenberg, Emily Andrew, Mark P. Farrell, Felix Gardenhire.
Frequency: As needed; approximately monthly
Point of Contact: Sara Woldi (ext. 5037)

Communication Description

Distributed to CIO employees and to Field General Users
Does not establish policy, but can communicate policy, deployments, and general information about IT that will help users better understand and use IT

Communication Process

Step 1:	IT Business Management edits submitted articles and drafts articles that have been requested or determined to be of value.
Step 2:	Requester updates/composes document to be published and sends to IT Business Management (Sara Woldi).
Step 3:	Stakeholders review and sign off.
Step 4:	SOX portfolio group reviews for any SOX compliant issues.
Step 5:	IT Business Management edits and sends articles to originators / content owners for review / approval.
Step 6:	After approval is received, IT Business Management forward to CIO for approval.
Step 7:	Once CIO approves, IT Business Management forwards Word document to IT Website Administrator for posting on IT Web site.
Step 8:	IT Business Management imports the Word document into body of email and distributes to IT HQ and HQ Related – All, IT Admin Asst – All distribution lists.
Step 9:	IT Business Management forwards email to IT Communications Central email account and request that the newsletter be forwarded to Field IT for distribution to their users.

IT News – Inside Edition

Audience: CIO employees only
Frequency: As needed; no less than quarterly
Point of Contact: Sara Woldi (ext. 5037)

Communication Description

Inside Edition is specifically for CIO employees and addresses topics of interest to CIO personnel only (example: organizational changes).

Communication Process

Please follow the process described for IT News .

Postal Bulletin

Audience: Any Postal Service employee; published on Blue, USPS.com, available by subscription to anyone
Frequency: Every two weeks; deadline is one week before (see website)
Point of Contact: IT Business Management, Robin R. Miller (202-268-3285)

Communication Description

Published by Public Affairs and Communications
Contains hard information
Distributed in hard copy to all Postal Service facilities as well as being published online
Contains temporary and emergency instructions of a business and operational nature and fast issuance of permanent instructions before printing in permanent directives
Has force of official policy for one year

Communication Process

Step 1:	Requester updates/composes document to be published.
Step 2:	Stakeholders review and sign off.
Step 3:	SOX portfolio group reviews for any SOX compliant issues.
Step 4:	Requester sends document to Robin R. Miller in IT Business Management.
Step 5:	IT Business Management finalizes among work group and creates clearance document.
Step 6:	IT Business Management obtains signed clearance from CIO, other organizations as required.
Step 7:	IT Business Management submits to Postal Bulletin.
Step 8:	IT Business Management review edits from PB, coordinates with Subject Matter Expert, resubmits for clearance as needed, including Labor Relations, and gives final approval for publication.

Screen Savers

Audience: Users of ACE workstations
Frequency: Run for two weeks, schedule maintained by Public Affairs and Communications
Point of Contact: IT Business Management, Robin R. Miller (202-268-3285); Design, Ilze Sella (ext. 2062), David West (ext. 6871); Implement, Adam Scherer

Communication Description

Managed by Public Affairs and Communications, which determines whether a subject warrants a screen saver
Screen Savers typically run for two weeks and are scheduled well in advance
Takes 5 weeks to process a screen saver; 2 weeks for design, 3 weeks for testing and deployment by Raleigh IT

Communication Process

Step 1:	Originator sends idea/request for screen saver to IT Business Management.
Step 2:	IT Business Management will work with originator to identify the purpose of the screen saver and the key points to be presented
Step 3:	IT Business Management will submit to Ilze Sella/David West in Public Affairs and Communications, who will approve the concept and manage development of concept, graphics, and text
Step 4:	Once the screen saver is drafted, IT Business Management will send to originator to review and ensure the message is correct and conveys what was intended
Step 5:	Originator provides approval to IT Business Management.
Step 6:	IT Business Management sends to CIO for final approval.
Step 7:	PA&C will then submit to Raleigh IT for pilot and implementation.

Field Communications

Audience: Field IT, General Field Users
Frequency: Bulletin to Field IT distributed weekly; bulletin to users and target audiences as needed
Point of Contact: Paul Labrecque, Larry Fong, Terry Moran, IT Management Review, IT Communications Central

Communication Description

Owned by Field Apps Portfolio (Terry Moran)
Used to communicate basic IT information such as application updates to targeted groups, including:
- Field IT
- General Field Users
- Target Audiences (examples: TACS coordinators, BlackBerry users)
Go to Field Applications main page for Process Guide, Quick Reference Guide, Notice templates, and all published notices

Communication Process

Below is the Quick Reference Guide for the Field Communications Process. There are four templates for preparing IT Notices and one for distributing emergency information from these notices:

IT Notice for Action (RFAs)
IT Notice for Information (FYIs, ESDs, PRBs, CUBs)
Pilot IT Notice for Action (RFAs)
Pilot IT Notice for Information (FYIs, ESDs, PRBs, CUBs)
IT Alert – designed for emergencies only and will be generated by the IT Notice originator and submitted along with the IT Notice for distribution immediately upon approval

The Notice and IT Alert Templates and the full Process Guide are available online at the IT Web site.

Information from the Notice templates is extracted and distributed as follows:

Vehicle	Audience	Distribution	Submission Deadline (Assumes No Processing Delays)
IT Weekly Bulletin For IT Personnel	Field IT	Tuesdays	COB Tuesday of previous week
Target Bulletin (Summary of notice for target audience from Tuesday Bulletin)	Target Audience (such as TACS, DOIS, S-AMS)	Wednesdays	COB Tuesday of previous week
IT Bulletin for Computer Users	General Computer Users	Thursdays, as needed, following notice in Tuesday IT Bulletin	COB Tuesday of previous week
Special Issue, IT Alert	IT Computer Users, Target Audience, as appropriate	As needed	N/A; allow for expedited review/approval

Direct Lines

Audience: Headquarters Employees
Frequency: As needed
Point of Contact: IT Business Management, Robin R. Miller (202-268-3285)

Communication Description

Published by Public Affairs and Communications as needed
Distributed to the HQ campus only at L’Enfant Plaza and the DC metropolitan area (Rosslyn, Merrifield)
From the Chief Technology Officer
Information must be specific to the HQ campus

Communication Process

Step 1:	Requester composes document to be published and sends it to IT Business Management.
Step 2:	IT Business Management edits draft.
Step 3:	IT Business Management sends draft to Direct Line for editing.
Step 4:	After receiving final copy from DL, IT Business Management sends it to the originator and all stakeholders for clearance.
Step 5:	IT Business Management sends the cleared copy to CIO for final clearance.
Step 6:	IT Business Management sends CIO cleared copy to Direct Line along with any specific requirements (i.e., publication date).

Use of Surveys and Questionnaires

Any survey or questionnaire that a member of the IT organization wishes to conduct or distribute must be reviewed and approved by the Manager, IT Business Management.

External Media Inquiries

IT staff members approached by the media must speak with the Manager, IT Business Management, before responding to any media inquiries, requests for interviews, etc., from the media, vendors/business partners, and/or suppliers. The Manager, IT Business Management, will then coordinate with the IT liaison within Corporate Public Relations and any IT staff members as appropriate. IT staff members should never provide data, comments, or other information to a media outlet without first contacting the IT liaison and receiving his or her guidance on the matter.

4. PROCESS DIAGRAM

5. PROCESS INPUTS/OUTPUTS

There are no process inputs/outputs for this process.

6. PROCESS RELATIONSHIPS

There are no process relationships for this process.

7. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Requestor: The requestor is responsible for composing the document.

Stakeholder: Stakeholders are responsible for reviewing the document and providing input and approval.

Information Policies and Procedures (IPP): IPP is responsible for posting the documents on Policy Net as needed.

Manager, IT Business Management: The Manager, IT Business Management, is responsible for reviewing and providing guidance as needed, and preparing the document for communication.

Manager, SOX/Postal Reform Portfolio: The Manager, SOX/Postal Reform Portfolio, is responsible for reviewing and approving any SOX related issues.

8. REVISION HISTORY

Version #1.0
Section(s) Revised:        N/A
Revision Description:      Baseline
Revision Date:

Version #2.0
Section(s) Revised:        All
Revision Description:     This document was made Section 508 compliant and was converted to HTML.
Revision Date:               FY12/Q3