Information and Communication Technology
ICT Evolution and Strategic outlook
The Service Desk underwent a major change in 2014 by extending its service beyond ICT-related issues. In coordination with the Conference, Security and General Services Section, a complete client service approach was adopted to monitor and follow up on all ICT, conference, building and office service related requests. The new Service Desk is a central point of access for services throughout ICAO and offers support to Headquarters staff, Regional Offices staff and National Delegations. This centralized Service Desk improved the overall approach to, and response time for, incident management, following best practice industry standards, especially in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).
Several key revenue-generating solutions have been developed including the eTools platform for the sale of mobile apps and the Three Letter Designator (3LD) platform for the sale of 3LD codes. Other operational systems, outlined on the Enhanced Efficiency and Effectiveness page, will increase efficiencies and access for key stakeholders in the working process of several ICAO programmes.
Data Management training for ICAO staff was conducted to drive the adoption of a holistic framework for enterprise data management in ICAO as the basis for an organization-wide data strategy and data flow management.
Key Projects and Achievements for Enhancing Efficiency and Supporting Programme Activities
ICT has been implementing a Unified Communications and Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony across the Organization. The key objectives of the project are the deployment of a robust Unified Communication and IP Telephony Infrastructure at Headquarters and all Regional Offices, and the deployment of IP based systems to replace the existing system. In addition to improving service efficiency and communication, expected benefits of this project include significant cost reductions for long distance communications with Regional Offices, conferencing and virtual meeting rooms as well as administration and maintenance.
A new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application has been introduced to manage sales and marketing activities related to publications, exhibitors and sponsors. The CRM is also being used to manage all ICAO registrations for events. This new system eliminates several redundant procedures in the registration process and enables the re-use of a meeting participant’s profile across multiple events, which provides the Organization with better management of its events and facilitates registration by Member States for participation in ICAO’s events.
An upgrade of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system was also concluded. The tool is used to manage key processes across the Organization including Finance, Human Resources and Procurement, which enables the Organization to modernize the administrative process.
ICAO’s public website now offers all six UN languages on select meeting websites to further support its multilingual community. The migration of all Regional Office websites has been completed to reaffirm ICAO’s visual identity across its regions, promoting the culture of “One ICAO”. Additionally, towards its goal of becoming more paper-smart, ICAO’s Secure Portal has been updated to hold previously published versions of publications in electronic format to facilitate Member States in searching ICAO publications. Lastly, a system to manage user identities across application domains and enable single sign-on instead of multiple usernames and passwords was also introduced in a pilot phase.
