PEO EIS Industry Day 2003: developing a shared understanding to support the warfighter - Information Dominance

Program Manager, May-June, 2003 by Kelly Tapp

The Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) Belvoir Chapter hosted the first Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS) Industry Day on March 26, 2003, at the Fairview Park Marriott in Falls Church, Va. Industry Day was conceived by PEO EIS as a means to help develop a shared understanding between vendors from the private sector and PEO EIS Program Managers (PMs). As such, it provided a unique forum for PMs to meet with industry counterparts, share ideas and best practices, and develop innovative strategies best suited to meet the PEO EIS mission.

Supporting the Warfighter

PEO EIS is responsible for developing, acquiring, and deploying tactical and non-tactical information technology systems and communications to assure the Department of Defense and the U.S. Army of victory through information dominance. To that end, PEO EIS is dedicated to supporting the warfighter through infostructure and information management systems.

Participation in Industry Day exceeded initial projections and demonstrated readiness by both PMs and the private sector to form partnerships to help the warfighter. Fifty-five vendors from the private sector, 17 Project and Product Managers from PEO EIS, and teams from Army Knowledge On-Line and Navy-Marine Corps Internet exhibited at the conference. Over 400 participants attended the full conference and more than 140 others registered to view the exhibit hall.

Welcome

Welcoming the participants to the first PEO EIS Industry Day was Kevin Carroll, Army Program Executive Officer for Enterprise Information Systems. Reviewing the origins of PEO EIS, he explained that PEO EIS is actually a recent consolidation of three other organizations: Program Executive Office, Standard Army Management Information Systems (PEO STAMIS); Communications Electronics Command (Army) Systems Management Center (CECOM SMC); and Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Enterprise Systems and Services (ALTESS).

PEO EIS, Carroll said, is a pivotal information technology enabler responsible for implementing its three Deputy Program Executive Offices: Business Information Systems, Army Enterprise, and Communications. A large number of EIS systems, he added, are supporting operations in Southwest Asia with on-the-ground government and contractor partner support teams.

BIS Project Manager Presentation

Following Carroll's remarks, Deputy Program Executive Officer for Business Information Systems (BIS) Gregory Kee introduced the BIS Project Managers. Focusing on the business tools needed to achieve total information dominance, the PMs discussed their products and programs, sharing information on how they are working to provide such tools.

LT. COL. JOSEPH KLUMPP, PRODUCT MANAGER, ARMY HUMAN RESOURCES SYSTEM (AHRS)

Klumpp discussed how AHRS supports commanders with an automated personnel management system that serves the Army during peacetime, during mobilization, in war, and during demobilization.

COL. STEPHEN BROUGHALL, PROJECT MANAGER FOR LOGISTICS INFORMATION SYSTEMS (LIS)

Broughall demonstrated how LIS products and programs direct, coordinate, report, and evaluate all functional, programmatic, and technical aspects of assigned standard Army logistics systems.

LT. COL. CLAUDE HINES, PRODUCT MANAGER FOR MEDICAL COMMUNICATIONS FOR COMBAT CASUALTY CARE (MC4)

Hines explained MC4'S role in developing and deploying to the Army an integrated family of medical communications and automated information systems to enhance Army and Joint combat casualty care, whether at peace or war. These systems, according to Hines, provide commanders with visibility of their medical situation as well as the status of their troops.

GARY WINKLER, PROJECT MANAGER FOR TRANSPORTATION INFORMATION SYSTEMS (TIS)

Winkler described how TIS automates the processes of planning, organizing, coordinating, and controlling unit-related deployments, sustainment, day-to-day Installation Transportation Officer/Transportation Management Officer operations, redeployment, and retrograde operations in support of the Defense Transportation System.

MAJ. JOSEPH JEFFERSON, ASSISTANT PROJECT MANAGER FOR TACTICAL LOGISTICS DATA DIGITIZATION (TLDD)

Jefferson described the project as the collaboration of multiple information technology initiatives that will result in automating current supply and maintenance processes to reduce paper and clerical errors on the battlefield.

Keynote Speaker

Lt. Gen. Peter Cuviello, Army Chief Information Officer/G6, addressed Industry Day attendees during a lunchtime presentation. Cuviello's presentation focused on making the Army more knowledge-enabled and network-centric. Recent Army directives, he noted, call for a more wired backbone and significant server and application consolidations. Part of the struggle to consolidate servers, he said, is getting through the "if I don't own it, and I don't run it, it isn't [worth anything] mentality."

Cuviello said that the Army has been able to track most of its vehicles and troops on the ground in Iraq through contributions of PEO EIS technologies. The new PEO EIS satellite-based Movement Tracking System (MTS), together with other satellite, Global Positioning System (GPS), and mapping systems technology significantly improved tracking of, and communications with, vehicles in the field--a concept known as Blue Force Tracking. Improved Blue Force Tracking, Cuviello said, provides commanders with a continual, near-real-time picture of where military vehicles are at any given moment. The system provides communications technology in places where standard radios fail, giving warfighters the information when they need it.