Volume 2006, Issue 1
April 10, 2006

Headquarters Happenings

IIa at 18

March 18 was IIa’s “golden birthday”...18 years old on the 18th of the month. What was Bonnie Carroll’s one-woman show 18 years ago is today an information management, systems, and technology company that spans from California across the U.S. and into Europe. We continue to make steady progress toward our vision to be recognized as the benchmark of excellence in information management by 2010.

Since its founding, IIa has become a recognized leader in information management, working across the full spectrum of the information lifecycle—information creation, collection, accessibility, and preservation. Remarkably, the company continues to manage the contract with which it opened its doors in 1988...serving as the Secretariat for CENDI, the Federal STI Managers Group (scientific and technical information managers of 12 federal agencies).

Today, you’ll find that IIa not only manages CENDI, but also Department of Defense scientific and technical libraries, base libraries, and administrative records operations. We work for the Department of Energy, managing their Oak Ridge Information Center and providing information technology infrastructure to the Office of Scientific and Technical Information. We have just undertaken work for the Government Printing Office in web harvesting.

Since 1998, we have been doing open source research on foreign medical capabilities for the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center. This year alone, we are doing 24 such studies for AFMIC and have recently completed four studies for a commercial entity about avian flu in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries. In February, we were awarded a contract with Brookhaven National Laboratory in the open source field.

For the Department of Interior, we are heavily involved with biodiversity informatics through the U.S. Geological Survey. Our work with USGS links us to the global information scene to work with the Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Another of IIa’s international projects is managing the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information in France. In recent years, we have had international clients such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, NATO, and the World Bank.

IIa has had steady growth as a company, and has made a conscious effort to hire employees who are dedicated to the high standards of excellence and customer service on which the company was founded. That is borne out by the consistent excellent and exceptional ratings our project staffs earn along with repeated citations as Best in Command libraries and education centers and achieving four and five star statuses at our military libraries.

To commemorate the 18th anniversary, IIa is awarding a special scholarship in science and math education. The $1,800 scholarship will go to an Oak Ridge High School student entering a Tennessee college or university to become a science or math teacher. IIa chose to commemorate the anniversary in this way because of the critical shortage of science and math teachers. Here in Oak Ridge, we have world-class science being conducted everyday. We have to ensure that both our local and national communities can continue to be world players. IIa has been a part of the national science community since its inception.

HQ Has Moved

Ongoing company growth necessitated expanding our corporate office space. So in January, the corporate office moved up the hill into larger quarters in the same office complex. You’ll find IIa now at 1055 Commerce Park, Suite 110 in Oak Ridge. Although moving can be a bit of a hassle, corporate growth is good for us all!

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At IIa, We Value...

In the last issue of InfoEdge, we looked at three of the corporate values announced in August. Since then, IIa President Bonnie C. Carroll has invited you to recognize colleagues who demonstrate five more of IIa’s 12 values. In November, we looked at the value we place on partnering with our customers and providing outstanding customer service. Bonnie applauded the “phenomenal job” staff members do with customer service. She noted that the “most successful customer relationships are those that are built on strong partnerships where what we produce for our customer benefits them and us.”

In December, we played to the festivities of the holidays to look at how we value having a stimulating workplace. At IIa, it is important that the place where we work, the place where we spend so many of our waking hours, is pleasant, fun, and a place where we do interesting, challenging work. We value colleagues who challenge us to be creative and those who make us laugh and feel like part of the IIa family.

We started off the new year in January thinking about lifelong learning…about the sense of self-improvement that so many of us think about when the new year breaks.. IIa places a lot of value on professional advancement and has a strong Educational Assistance Policy in place to support continuing education. The company supports employees who are committed to expanding their job knowledge through either formal or informal training and through professional networking.

February was the month to focus on the balance we each struggle for in our lives. As a company, we supported the American Heart Association’s “Wear Red Day” to underscore the importance of good health as a factor in balancing our lives. IIa’s corporate philosophy includes a belief that excellence is built on a strong commitment to work responsibilities, along with a commitment to the family and community who provide you with creative outlets.

We have most recently looked at how we as a company and as individuals value good communication. At IIa, good communication means an open dialogue...a two-way conversation up and down the decision chain that helps us feel more connected, even though our offices and our customers are widespread geographically.

We have now considered eight of the 12 corporate values, recognizing our colleagues for how strongly they hold each of these. To date, 94% of the staff have been recognized for one or more values; 49% have submitted recognitions of their co-workers. Four more values to go: innovation, integrity, empowerment, and having the right person in the right job.

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