Army small computer program launches it e-mart, next-generation government website

Army Communicator, Winter, 2003

FORT MONMOUTH, N.J. -- The Army Small Computer Program officially launched its new it e-mart website on Nov. 12, integrating the features of ASCP's MarketPlace Direct online shopping site with ASCP's website information about contracts and enterprise agreements all into one seamless web site.

"This is the 'next-generation' of government procurement websites," said Olga Lawrence, assistant project manager, ASCP. "Our goal is to give it e-mart the intuitive look and feel of the best commercial websites."

Marian Keitelman, ASCP product leader, agreed. "The experience of using it e-mart is like using a sophisticated commercial site," she said "--easy and intuitive to navigate through, but very powerful in what it allows customers to do."

An improved, robust search engine allows customers to quickly locate products and services from multiple vendors and compare them on a single screen. "You don't have to log in to search, browse or create a temporary cart, "said Keitelman. "You can do everything but save or execute a shopping cart or request a quote without logging in."

Customers can create and save multiple shopping carts, allowing them to manage multiple orders separately, Keitelman said. The site maintains a history of executed carts so customers can reference previous order histories. Then they can e-mail a Request for Quote to vendors, who can quickly respond through it e-mart. Customers can make credit card purchases, Keitelman said, and submit them to vendors, online.

AKO single sign-on, Business-to-Business Integration

Keeping in step with the Army Chief Information Officer/G6 goal of a single Army portal, ASCP has incorporated single-sign-on integration with Army Knowledge Online into it e-mart.

"If you've ever logged in to AKO, you're already registered with it e-mart," said Keitelman. She said that customers who have signed onto AKO and then click the ASCP link--or vice-versa--will be logged into the other site without being prompted to enter a user id and password.

Another area where ASCP is keeping step with the latest in the IT world is with Business-to-Business Integration. ASCP has invited all of its vendors to team with them in a B2Bi application, where customers browsing it e-mart can "punch out" to a vendor site.

"Say a customer is looking for PCs, and says, 'Oh, let me see what Vendor X has,'" said Keitelman. "They can punch out to the vendor site, put items in their cart, and then seamlessly come back to our site to execute the order." So far, Keitelman said, only Dell is online with this it e-mart B2Bi capability, with MPC soon to be ready. "We've invited all of our vendors to participate and look forward to when they do," said Keitelman.

ASCP's Technical Support Group, contracted to CSC, has been working closely with ASCP and GTSI/Appian in this upgrade. Irby Kennedy, technical team lead, said that, as part of this effort, ASCP's URL is changing--the new URL for it e-mart is https:// ascp.monmouth.army.mil. "Don't forget the 's' after 'http,'" said Kennedy, "because this protects our customers' privacy and data exchange over the Internet."

The entire site uses SSL--Secure Socket Layer (128 bit encryption) to provide this level of protection, he said.

ASCP, part of the Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems' Project Manager, Enterprise Infostructure, is the Army's Commercial Center of Excellence for IT products and services. ASCP develops, implements and manages IT contracts and agreements that provide comprehensive hardware and software solutions with enterprise-focused support services within the Army Knowledge Enterprise Architecture.