EM&I Updates ACART(R) to Comply With Business Enterprise Architecture (BEA) 8.0 Requirements

HERNDON, VA--(Marketwire - May 5, 2011) - EM&I today announced that the company has upgraded its Architecture Compliance and Requirements Traceability (ACART^®) product to help federal agencies comply with the Department of Defense's (DoD) Business Enterprise Architecture (BEA) 8.0 requirements.

Each federal agency has unique technology environments which must comply with the laws, regulations, policies (LRP) and multi-dimensional layers of enterprise architectures and requirements. 145,000 LRPs exist within the federal financial management domain alone, and compliance can be a complex, confusing and time-consuming effort. As these LRPs evolve, so too must the technologies that agencies use to assert compliance.

EM&I continuously updates ACART to help federal agencies comply with the latest regulations. EM&I has made the required upgrades to the ACART product to allow federal agencies to use ACART to comply with the new requirements outlined in BEA 8.0.

In a press release issued by the Business Transformation Agency (BTA), Larry Singer, the BEA government product manager for ACART, stated, "ACART users will find the compliance process is much easier since Data Synonyms are no longer in the BEA. The ACART application has been revised to be more intuitive in response to user and stakeholder requests."

ACART makes it easier for defense business systems program managers to assert compliance to the BEA. Title 10 U.S. Code 2222 requires compliance to the BEA of enterprise Defense Business Systems (DBS) that are modernizing to ensure interoperability.

Though Defense agencies are not required to use ACART for complying with BEA, the majority of them deploy the software to demonstrate and document their compliance. The offering helps them to satisfy compliance documentation for Investment Review Boards (IRB) and the Defense Business Systems Management Committee (DBSMC).

The Business Transformation Agency licenses ACART for use in asserting DoD financial system compliance to the Business Enterprise Architecture. Today, ACART can be licensed for use by other programs, agencies and commercial clients for multiple purposes. ACART is a configurable tool ideally suited for use in highly regulated industries (e.g., pharmaceutical, healthcare, financial, investment, SEC) subject to varying levels of laws, regulations and policies. For these highly complex industries, ACART can be used to assess, filter and federate vast numbers of enterprise requirements and LRPs at multiple levels. The requirements might include overarching architectures/business frameworks, acquisition regulations, federal and local state laws, internal checklists, and performance requirements, depending upon the need.

The LRPs incorporated into the ACART version licensed for BTA use include all of the major regulatory hot buttons such as: OMB 300, Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA), Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA), Inspector General (IG) Act, Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), Government Performance Results Act (GPRA), Clinger-Cohen, OMB Circular A-123, Department of Defense (DoD) Directive 5000, Improper Payments Information Act (IPIA) and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Act.

ACART helps answer the tough questions in regulatory compliance, including:

• How do I effectively keep track of which requirements apply to my planned scope of analysis and development?
• Are my systems in compliance?
• How do I make more informed asset investment decisions that I can support and defend?
• How do I accurately pinpoint where corrective compliance action is needed and the nature of that action?

ACART extracts what is relevant to a user's defined scope of interest. It then provides an intuitive way to assess, document and store a system or group's scope and state of compliance.

About EM&I

Engineering, Management and Integration, Inc. (EM&I) combines the discipline of engineering standards with the expertise of management consulting. This unique combination allows EM&I to help clients create realistic project roadmaps -- plans that can be executed within projected time schedules and budgets, and assists them in turning their visions into reality.

The EM&I team comprises senior industry professionals who average more than 20 years experience in project management and technology consulting. Employees are drawn from a broad base of industry, government, academia and consulting, and many employees have served as executives in industry. Most EM&I employees maintain active security clearances.

ACART^®is a registered Trademark of Engineering, Management & Integration, Inc.