Contact:
Nancy Draper or Navneet Arora
CGN & Associates
(888.746.4246)
ndraper@cgn.net
narora@cgn.net
CGN & Associates Enables Federal Interoperability for State of Illinois
National Scale Spring Ahead Demonstration Validates Interoperability
The State of Illinois recently participated in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Office of National Capital Region Coordination (NCRC)’s, Spring Ahead, a Federal and Mutual Aid multi-jurisdictional electronic validation demonstration leveraging Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 201-compliant and FIPS 201-interoperable credentials. CGN & Associates, Inc., a business performance consulting firm, provided program management for the State of Illinois FIPS 201 Interoperable Secure Credentialing Project. More than 30 organizations, in 20 locations across the United States, simultaneously participated in Spring Ahead, which consisted of eight scenarios.
CGN & Associates coordinated participants and technology support to successfully deliver the State of Illinois portion of the demonstration. Illinois’ participation demonstrated the ability for state-wide emergency response officials to be validated using FIPS 201 interoperability standards. A representative sample of Illinois-based emergency response officials from the emergency management, fire rescue, law enforcement, and critical infrastructure sectors reported to a simulated emergency operations center and presented smart credentials for electronic authentication and entry to the scene. Also participating in the demonstration were Entrust, Inc. represented by Brent Crossland; Corestreet, Ltd. represented by Paul DeCrisanstis;
Throughout the course of this project CGN & Associates managed a very diverse group of stake holders and vendors, coordinated interagency cooperation, and oversaw complex intricacies in order to stand-up a credentialing solution to meet the new standards. Dennis Glavin, a PMP at CGN & Associates, serves as the project manager for the State of Illinois and commented, “This demonstration was a major milestone in a multi-year project with contributions from numerous state agencies and associations. The emergency response community in Illinois recognized early on that the ability to authenticate identity of responders from multiple jurisdictions, as well as having Illinois emergency responders recognized outside of the state, was of tremendous value. I am very pleased with the results of the demonstration.”
“CGN & Associates, Inc. is very pleased to be a part of the successful State of Illinois Federal Interoperable Smart Card Credentialing and we congratulate the State of Illinois on reaching this phase of their project,” says Navneet Arora, Principal at CGN & Associates. “CGN's process management to support federal interoperability along with our unique approach to business transformation is a perfect fit for managing the complexity of credentialing with today’s technology demands and the relatively new FIPS 201 standards.”
If you’d like more information about CGN or this event, or to schedule an interview with Dennis Glavin or Navneet Arora, please contact Nancy Draper at 888.746.4246 or via email at ndraper@cgn.net.
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