National Information Exchange Model (NIEM)

The framework to success.

ArdentMC provides full spectrum support to programs seeking to leverage the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) for efficient information sharing, Cross-Domain coordination, and business system integration  Our Subject Matter Experts have extensive experience with NIEM-enabling existing systems, integration of NIEM and Domain Model Management (DMM) processes and tools, and managing the NIEM and DMM lifecycles in support of our clients’ requirements.

National Information Exchange Framework

Strategy 1 – Identify optimum NIEM integration points within existing business processes
Our Subject Matter Experts and Business Process Analysts work hand in hand with Mission Owners to understand the many Internal and External Information Exchanges that occur throughout the organization’s existing business process and reporting functions.  We then identify stages in business processes where the application of NIEM could simplify and standardize information transactions or eliminate re-work.  Finally, we architect a solution for integrating NIEM data standards into existing practices in a manner transparent to users.  This results in near-instant, no-training rollout for the newly NIEM compliant information exchanges, as end users continue to use the instruments that feel familiar

Strategy 2 – Fully leverage existing Information Exchange Package Documentations (IEPDs)
The adoption of NIEM data models, referred to as Information Exchange Package Documentations (or IEPDs), for efficient transfer of data continues at a rapid pace.  As the user community grows, so does the body of vetted IEPDs that are immediately available for use across a wide variety of operational and mission functions.  Our Subject Matter Experts work very hard to stay abreast of developments in the NIEM community that may be of value to our clients.  We utilize this knowledge base to recommend and incorporate additional NIEM data standards that could enhance the functional capabilities of Mission Owners and System Operators.

Strategy 3 – Coordinate with external stakeholders when developing new IEPDs
The library of vetted NIEM data models, referred to as Information Exchange Package Documentations (or IEPDs), continues to grow at a significant pace.  However, a given mission may have informational product or exchange requirements that are not currently met within the NIEM community.   Our Subject Matter Experts will work to plug Mission Owners in to related groups of stakeholders that may working to define a new NIEM IEPD that meets requirements, or even initiate the development of a new IEPD on behalf of Mission Owners.  Using our diverse experience as information integrators, our team will work establish a community of practice around a proposed standard, and drive the consensus necessary to establish new IEPD.

Strategy 4 – Demonstrate NIEM-based value addition through information enhancement
As full-spectrum information integrators, ArdentMC sees that a core benefit of NIEM adoption is the ability to easily parse and recombine NIEM-compliant data streams into easily digested, Mission-enabling information.  This is possible, in large part, to the use of NIEM IEPDs as pre-negotiated taxonomies: any consumer of a NIEM compliant message immediately understands what each of its constituent elements is supposed to mean and the context in which it should be interpreted.  Our team of Subject Matter Experts and Business Process Analysts use our innate knowledge of clients’ missions to identify ways in which diverse NIEM messages can be synthesized into information and applied to real-world challenges.  For example, we have designed methods that incorporate NIEM-compliant Suspicious Activity Reports with facility information to produced programmatic threat assessments.

Program owners across the government and private sectors are realizing the ever-expanding potential of NIEM-based information sharing, and ArdentMC stands ready to help them incorporate NIEM-compliant data storage and transaction capabilities as central features in the architecture of new systems.  A separate, but increasingly common challenge is the adaptation of existing, mission-critical capabilities to leverage NIEM.  Based on the specific needs of a given system’s stakeholders, these adaptation efforts can include large scale data restructuring, customized Extract-Translate-Load (ETL) methods, and end-to-end modification of COTS/GOTS products. Our team has comprehensive experience in meeting these challenges.

“ArdentMC is a leading provider of information exchange solutions to integrate, visualize, and assess mission-critical data across jurisdictional, governmental, and operational boundaries.  Key recent examples that include the development of NIEM-based collaboration include our work on behalf of the DHS Geospatial Management Office to geo-enable and share Suspicious Activity Reports between Fusion Centers and DHS missions and the incorporation of NIEM into enterprise geospatial visualization and analysis platforms to be used by the Department of Justice and the Social Security Administration.”

As part of the development, Operations & Maintenance, and Program Management support that ArdentMC provides to enterprise level information systems across a wide range of client types, our specialists routinely include NIEM as a consideration in the design or adaptation of systems.  Such activities generally include the assessment of the informational and transactional needs of mission-critical investments, review of applicable existing IEPDs, and, where necessary, planning and support for the creation of new IEPDs.  For example, our personnel contributed to the development and refinement of the EDXL-Hospital Availability Exchange IEPD (EDXL-HAVE), built custom applications that facilitate NIEM data exchange, and developed the ability to map proprietary data models to existing exchange packages that can be leveraged by operational systems.  Other examples include consulting with Nlets, Police, and Emergency Response personnel on the development of Geospatial Service Oriented Architecture for Public Safety (GeoSOAPS) standard and serving on the Oasis Technical Committee for the Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL).  Our personnel regularly attend in-person and online training in NIEM and DMM process, tools, and standards made available by organizations such the IJIS Institute.

Meet the Experts

Patrick McConnell
Patrick McConnell

Project Manager, SAR Initiatives

Dr. Patrick McConnell is ArdentMC’s foremost expert on the application of Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) data using the NIEM based standard.  An extension of the practical approach to technology, Dr. McConnell utilizes the SAR documents as a method of instantiating NIEM-based data exchanges.  Dr. McConnell earned his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Temple University.

IJIS

ArdentMC is a proud member of the Institute for Justice Information Systems (IJIS), and supports IJIS’s mission to enhance the operational value of information exchanges.  ArdentMC consultants work with IJIS on a volunteer basis to help further the use of standards-based collaboration and information exchange across governments.