1. NIEM Executive Briefing
Paul Wormeli
Innovation Strategist
Wormeli Consulting, LLC

2. Why NIEM?
Problem
Lack of standards leads to a decreased level of information sharing and increased costs associated with information exchange development.
Solution
The National Information Exchange Model (NIEM)
NIEM is a federal, state, local, tribal and private initiative to increase information sharing between organizations. NIEM includes a data model from which organizations can establish information sharing specifications.
NIEM adoption leads to cost avoidance, enhanced mission capabilities and low total cost of ownership.
The purpose of this slide is to review the business problems associated with information sharing and to discuss how NIEM provides information exchange solutions. After the information sharing policies were established, there remained a lack of standard processes for information sharing. This absence of standards across organizations led to a decreased level of information sharing and increased costs associated with information exchange development. To address this problem, the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) was developed. NIEM is a federal, state, local, tribal and private initiative designed to standardize information exchanges, increase information sharing between organizations, and decrease development costs.
NIEM builds upon the demonstrated success of the Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM) which originated in the Department of Justice (DOJ). NIEM extends the work done with GJXDM and is now a mature, widely adopted information sharing standard. Please note, additional information regarding the GJXDM model is listed in Helpful Background Knowledge below.
Although the values of NIEM will be discussed in detail in the following slides, it is important to identify several key NIEM benefits. NIEM was developed to enhance mission information sharing capabilities and provide low total cost of ownership through cost avoidance. The identification of these key NIEM benefits will provide participants with the information needed to understand why they should be interested in NIEM.  
Additional background information on the origins of the GJXDM and NIEM models are listed below:
HELPFUL BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE: GJXDM Background: In March 2001, DOJ sponsored an effort to create a framework for the secure and timely sharing of information across the Justice domain. After a two-year effort, the first pre-release of the GJXDM was released in April The GJXDM is an object-oriented data model for organizing the content of a data dictionary, the Global JXDM, in a database. The GJXDM removes the burden from agencies to independently create exchange standards, and because of its extensibility, there is more flexibility to manage unique agency requirements and changes.
NIEM Background: The U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security recognized and endorsed the work of the Justice stakeholders and adopted the GJXDM as a basis for the creation of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) in a Memorandum of Understanding signed in April NIEM was launched on February 28, 2005, as the result of Executive Order and complies with Section 1016 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004.
When discussing this slide, it is important to re-emphasize that NIEM is a federal, state, local, tribal and private initiative that provides a foundation for seamless information exchange.
NIEM is community-centric; it brings stakeholders and Communities of Interest (COIs) from differing organizations together to identify information sharing requirements in day-to-day operational and emergency situations through the development of IEPDs;
NIEM supports standardization through a common vocabulary and an on-line repository of information exchange package documentations (IEPDs) to support discovery and reuse;
NIEM provides technical tools to support development, discovery, dissemination and reuse of exchange documents; and
NIEM training, technical assistance and implementation support is available that enables NIEM knowledge and development.

3. What NIEM Is… A Standard that facilitates information sharing:
A Structured Approach that provides:
Across organizational and jurisdictional boundaries
At all levels of government
Development tools, processes, and methodologies
A Data model that provides:
Agreed-upon terms, definitions, and formats for various business concepts
Agreed-upon rules for how those concepts fit together
Independence from how information is stored in individual agency systems
Standardization of information exchanges is a major value associated with NIEM due to its maturity as an information exchange model. NIEM provides the information sharing structure, standards and methods for defining exchanges and sharing information. Specifically, NIEM enables community support and a structured approach.
Existing Community of Support – NIEM practitioners can leverage a large support network to help enable NIEM conformance and to decrease information exchange development time. The NIEM network consists of experienced stakeholders that play an active role on the various NIEM Communities of Interests. In addition, the availability of NIEM training and help desk support provides additional assistance that demonstrates NIEM’s community support.
Proven, Structured Approach – NIEM is a standard for information exchanges that enables information sharing across organizations. NIEM enables the reuse of information exchanges that decrease the occurrence of inconsistencies and duration of development.
NIEM supports the increase of information sharing compatibility between agencies through standardization. This, in effect, avoids costs associated with data redundancies, and reduces the time associated with the development of information exchanges.

4. Standardizing Data Moving Across Systems
Scope-of-NIEM
COMMONLY FORMATTED DATA
LEGACY
DATABASES
INTERFACE
INTERFACE
LEGACY
DATABASES
Translation
NIEM intentionally does not address standardizing data inside legacy systems. NIEM serves as a translation layer (providing a common understanding) between and across disparate systems.

5. The NIEM Formula for SUCCESS
Identification of large scale, complex processes
Creation of the standardized exchange
Governance and adoption of the exchange
- Selection based on number of stakeholders and potential for reuse
- Complexity increases with numbers of entities involved
- Benefit increases with numbers of implementations

6. What NIEM Is Not… Only applicable to the Federal government
A replacement for interagency agreements
Includes many other communities at all levels of government
NIEM is a technical solution; the policy and business issues must also be worked out
A database schema
Standardization of information exchanges is a major value associated with NIEM due to its maturity as an information exchange model. NIEM provides the information sharing structure, standards and methods for defining exchanges and sharing information. Specifically, NIEM enables community support and a structured approach.
Existing Community of Support – NIEM practitioners can leverage a large support network to help enable NIEM conformance and to decrease information exchange development time. The NIEM network consists of experienced stakeholders that play an active role on the various NIEM Communities of Interests. In addition, the availability of NIEM training and help desk support provides additional assistance that demonstrates NIEM’s community support.
Proven, Structured Approach – NIEM is a standard for information exchanges that enables information sharing across organizations. NIEM enables the reuse of information exchanges that decrease the occurrence of inconsistencies and duration of development.
NIEM supports the increase of information sharing compatibility between agencies through standardization. This, in effect, avoids costs associated with data redundancies, and reduces the time associated with the development of information exchanges.
The next slide provides a description of a NIEM implementation that was successful for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The cases that follow the three value proposition overviews demonstrate a proven success story, to demonstrate the actual results of NIEM implementation.
Just a data dictionary
A programming language

7. The NIEM Framework Community Technical Framework Support Framework
NIEM connects communities of people who share a common need to exchange information in order to advance their missions, and provides a foundation for seamless information exchange between federal, state, local, and tribal agencies. Much more than a data model, NIEM offers an active user community as well as a technical and support framework.
Community
Technical Framework
Support Framework
Formal Governance Processes
Online Repositories
Mission-Oriented Domains
Self-Managing Domain Stewards
Data Model
XML Design Rules
Development Methodology
Predefined Deliverables (IEPD)
Tools for Development and Discovery
Established Training Program
Implementation Support
Help Desk & Knowledge Center

8. Repeatable, Reusable Process
The NIEM Lifecycle
Repeatable, Reusable Process
(Exchange Specification Lifecycle)
Build exchange specifications based on core data components plus domain specific components:
The Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD)

9. NIEM Governance

10. NIEM Governing Structure
NIEM’s governing structure is comprised of Federal, State, Local, Tribal and private organizations NIEM is jointly managed at an executive level by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Justice (DOJ), and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Executive Steering Council
ESC
Executive Director
Deputy Director
NIEM PMO
NIEM Communications & Outreach Committee
NC&OC
NIEM Technical Architecture Committee
NTAC
NIEM Business Architecture Committee
NBAC

11. Who governs NIEM Domains?
Executive Steward
Justice
Global Justice (State & Local)
Screening
DHS Screening Coordination Office
Immigration
DHS/ICE & USCIS
CBRN
DHS/DNDO
Maritime
DOD/DON/MDA
Cyber
DHS/NPPD/CS&C
Family Services
HHS/ACFS & DOJ
Emergency Management
DHS/FEMA, DHS/S&T (state & local)
Infrastructure Protection
DHS/NPPD
International Trade
DHS/CBP
Biometrics
DHS/NPPD, DOJ/FBI, DOD, NIST
Health
HHS/ONC & HHS/OCIO
Human Services
HHS/ACFS & NYC/HHS
Financial (Budget, Planning, Accountability, Grants)
TBD (currently HHS, OMB)

12. NIEM Value Proposition

13. Value Proposition - Standardization
The formalization of NIEM as a standard enables:
Community of Support
Structured Approach
NIEM Practitioners can leverage information sharing practitioners to decrease development time for exchanges and increase conformance
Repeatable approach that decreases the inconsistencies and duration of development
Value to Organizations: A larger community working with and developing agreed upon semantics combined with a structured approach can increase data compatibility between agencies, cost avoidance by building reusability of exchanges, and ease the development of information exchanges.
Standardization of information exchanges is a major value associated with NIEM due to its maturity as an information exchange model. NIEM provides the information sharing structure, standards and methods for defining exchanges and sharing information. Specifically, NIEM enables community support and a structured approach.
Existing Community of Support – NIEM practitioners can leverage a large support network to help enable NIEM conformance and to decrease information exchange development time. The NIEM network consists of experienced stakeholders that play an active role on the various NIEM Communities of Interests. In addition, the availability of NIEM training and help desk support provides additional assistance that demonstrates NIEM’s community support.
Proven, Structured Approach – NIEM is a standard for information exchanges that enables information sharing across organizations. NIEM enables the reuse of information exchanges that decrease the occurrence of inconsistencies and duration of development.
NIEM supports the increase of information sharing compatibility between agencies through standardization. This, in effect, avoids costs associated with data redundancies, and reduces the time associated with the development of information exchanges.
The next slide provides a description of a NIEM implementation that was successful for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The cases that follow the three value proposition overviews demonstrate a proven success story, to demonstrate the actual results of NIEM implementation.

14. Value Proposition - Interoperability
NIEM facilitates interoperability through the use of:
Common Language and Vocabulary
Agnostic Implementation
Eliminates confusion by providing consistency of data definitions between agencies
NIEM does not dictate how agencies’ systems are implemented, but enables these systems to work together
Value to Organizations: Interoperability is the ability of many diverse systems to work together. By increasing interoperability between mission areas and jurisdictions, government can enhance its services across key functional areas such as law enforcement and emergency response.
Interoperability is another key value associated with NIEM. Interoperability is a term that refers to the ability of many different systems and organizations to work together (inter-operate). The term is often used in a technical systems engineering sense, taking into account organizational factors that impact system to system performance. NIEM’s technical and functional composition supports national-level interoperable information sharing by allowing different systems to easily share information.
Common Language and Vocabulary– NIEM helps to eliminate confusion associated with different data definitions across organizations by providing a consistent set of definitions for agencies to use. This common language and vocabulary decreases the instance of ambiguities that occur when data is organized differently across organizations. Accessible and relevant information is one of the most important government resources. For instance, there are many ways in which a person’s name is defined within organizations. NIEM provides a common definition of “name” that enables the standardization of that information, which increases interoperability among organizations.
Agnostic Implementation– NIEM is valuable in that it does not require, nor dictate, how agencies should implement their systems when using NIEM. Many diverse systems can leverage NIEM when exchanging information and there is no standard system requirement associated with NIEM.
NIEM’s interoperable nature enables the exchange of information across key functional areas that may not have the same operating system. For instance, by using NIEM, organizations such as law enforcement and emergency response agencies can more easily exchange information that may have been difficult and timely to exchange previously. NIEM is a standard that can be used regardless of system type.

15. Value Proposition - Reusability
The reuse of IEPDs, in part and whole, within NIEM will:
Decrease Development Time
Increase Consistency
Decrease the development time for information exchanges that use similar sets of data
Allows practitioners to increase the level of consistency in data definitions across their information exchanges
Value to Organizations: Reuse through NIEM can help organizations avoid costs associated with the development and maintenance of information exchanges, leading to an increased budget available to spend in mission areas
Reusability is another value proposition associated with NIEM implementation. Reusability is one of the most exciting aspects of NIEM because as NIEM adoption grows, so does reuse. Partnering organizations can reuse information exchanges, which lead to:
Decreased Development Time – NIEM provides a reusable set of definitions for information exchanges that decreases IEPD development time. The reuse of existing information exchanges can be leveraged to create new IEPDs.
Increased Consistency – The reuse of IEPDs increases the consistency of data definitions across information exchanges. This occurs when partnering organizations utilize existing information for new IEPD development.
NIEM promotes information exchange reuse which ultimately decreases resource time. Reuse through NIEM can help organizations avoid costs associated with the development and maintenance of information exchanges, which leads to an increased budget available to spend in other mission critical areas.
HELPFUL HINT: The discussion of the three value propositions, standardization, interoperability and reusability will stimulate a great deal of interest in the participants who are searching for cost avoidance solutions to implement within their organizations. Take this time to further discuss these three values and request participants to provide examples of ways in which their organization can benefit from NIEM adoption and implementation.

16. NIEM Success Story Impact on Pharmaceutical Drug Monitoring

17. ON pharmaceutical drug monitoring
NIEM IMPACT
ON pharmaceutical drug monitoring
The Standard Prescription Monitoring Information Exchange

18. NIEM Impact on Pharmaceutical Drug Monitoring
Prescription Drugs (15.1 million)
Cocaine (5.9 mil.)
Hallucinogens (4 mil.)
Inhalants (2.1 mil.)
Heroin (.3 mil.)
NATIONWIDE DRUG ABUSE
From , million Americans abused prescription drugs. That’s more than cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants, and heroin COMBINED.
During the same period, there was a 150% INCREASE in prescriptions written for controlled substances.
The brand cost of 4 mg of Dilaudid is $88.94 per The street value for the same amount is $10,000. The demand is REAL.

19. NIEM Impact on Pharmaceutical Drug Monitoring
1 in 5 teens are abusing prescription drugs to get high.
40% of teens
believe that prescription drugs are safer than illegal drugs.
29% of teens
believe that prescription pain relievers are not addictive.
It's different from other drug abuse trends because you have young people getting pills for free from the homes of family members and friends," said former White House drug czar John Walters. "Barriers like finding strangers, paying money and having to go someplace strange are not there.”
“You have young people getting pills for free from the homes of family members and friends.”
- John Walters, former White House drug czar

20. NIEM Impact on Pharmaceutical Drug Monitoring
As diversion of prescription controlled substances and the abuse involving these drugs continues to escalate, how can we improve interstate monitoring of drug use?
How do we enable prescription drug monitors to see across state lines?

21. NIEM Impact on Pharmaceutical Drug Monitoring
Before NIEM, there was large gap in interstate reporting.
As abuse and diversion escalate, law enforcement and health practitioners need a standardized, scalable solution to share patient drug history.
The Standard NIEM Prescription Monitoring Program Information Exchange assists prescribers, health agencies, and law enforcement in identifying potential abuse and diversion.

22. Strategic Next Steps for NIEM
Increasing NIEM international adoption (Canadian and Mexican cross-border initiatives)
Broadening NIEM state & local implementations across multiple domains
Developing enabling standards for NIEM and the Information Sharing Environment (Object Management Group and OASIS engagement)
Institutionalizing a common privacy & security framework
On-boarding new and strengthening existing NIEM Domains
Expanding governance to support other Federal, State, Local and International agencies