Doing Business With: Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Title: Chief information officerTook the job: May 2002Hometown: Born in London, raised in New YorkHome now: VirginiaHobbies: "My new granddaughter, bird watching, stained glass when I have time. I also want to learn more about sea kayaking."Last book read: "Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results," by Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul and John ChristensenCurrently reading: "The Present" by Spencer JohnsonAlma mater: Master of science in information resource management specializing in federal government from Syracuse University; graduate of the Department of Defense's National Defense University CIO Certificate Program Schultz: It's really interesting. There are two answers.First, we are a Microsoft-centric organization using the standard suite of Microsoft Office tools to support day-to-day operations. We also have custom-built, mission-critical applications that support our regulatory functions related to the futures and options markets. These applications support ongoing market surveillance to detect and prevent price distortion and manipulation. They also support clearing and intermediary oversight, which includes monitoring the financial and operational integrity of the clearinghouses and intermediaries, ensuring that customer funds are protected, and that safeguards are in place to prevent the financial problems of a single entity from spreading throughout the system.Second, the commission receives a great deal of financial and transactional data from the futures and options market community. Finding the best ways to employ technology to enhance the commission's ability to analyze this volume of information in creating a stronger knowledge management environment that is unique for us.Schultz: From the mission-critical applications perspective, using technology, we have developed systems that make it possible for us to see a vast amount of information and analyze it quickly and thoroughly to fulfill our regulatory mission. For example, through technology we have daily electronic interfaces with futures commission merchants, so that we have a view of the marketplace, in particular from the large trader perspective. We can use these systems to look at how professionals are trading in the markets, and identify patterns that may indicate circumstances that require action on our part. Generally speaking, information is more readily available to those who need it, when they need it to support the commission's regulatory mission.From the business operations perspective, applying technology has made it easier to share information within the commission. Critical information is not just in the bottom of one person's desk drawer; it's in a common location on our well-defined network file structure, making key information available to many.Having an established standard suite of commercial products, such as [Microsoft] Office and Project and SAS, across the commission allows critical staff resources to focus on accomplishing the mission rather than being concerned about how they should efficiently communicate business materials internally. Schultz: There are a couple of things. It's changed some of the things that we have oversight to. Now we share the responsibility of single-stock futures, we have more electronic exchanges. It's really a case of moving from a regulatory perspective to an oversight perspective, and changing some of the things we focus on from a business perspective. That means modifying systems to incorporate new needs for data and new analysis purposes. It's provided us some interesting ways of approaching the business. Schultz: This is pretty exciting. We are testing a technology called AudioCite, which allows an investigator to do a keyword search through hundreds of hours of indexed audiotapes, rather than having to listen to each tape trying to find the relevant parts. This technology is showing great promise, saving both the investigator's valuable time and identifying key information for an investigation file. Schultz: Besides the obvious ? a company that would provide the best value for the taxpayers dollars ? we look at three things: a company's past performance in the work we are contracting for; the depth of their "bench" to support our effort, which reduces the risk to our project if a company loses a key staff member on the effort; and an understanding of our business. Schultz: We are planning for an integrated information environment that is Web-based to improve the delivery, availability and reliability of the commission's critical information. We expect storage areas networks, enhanced broadband capability and Web services to play key roles in our future environment.Schultz: It will be a busy year, but it will be exciting. We will have a technology solution that delivers an automated law office in support of the commission's investigative, trial and appellate work. We will have a more robust, commissionwide SANs solution to support our mission-critical applications and the volumes of data in those applications. And we will begin to redefine how we use one of our mission-critical systems to stay abreast of the changing trading world, which is moving from the open outcry style of trading to electronic trading systems. This new system will facilitate the commission's mission objective to monitor trade practices.Schultz: That's an easy one. We are doing very well with moving from a paper-based environment to the electronic world. We've met the administration's October Government Paperwork Elimination Act goals. As we reported to [the Office of Management and Budget] in our 2001, 2002 and 2003 GPEA reports, the commission receives and disseminates the bulk of it information in electronic form.