To
maintain the most powerful fighting force
in the world, the U.S. Army
Accessions Command (USAAC), the Army's combined
recruitment and training division, needs to
follow each recruit closely, from acceptance
to training to initial posting. And at each
step of the process, documents pile up—about
18 million per year, according to Gary Bishop,
USAAC's chief of Web Applications and Technologies.
Because
of the time, money, and storage space required
to maintain documents manually, the USAAC
began marching in the direction of an entirely
new, online recruiting strategy. "By
creating a paperless environment, we felt
we could improve the integrity of our data
as well as reduce the amount of paper we were
storing," says Bishop. "With electronic
document management, we're sure we're dealing
with the latest document and can validate
certain information interactively. We are
also impressing our recruits—who observe
our procedures firsthand—with the fact
that the Army is a modern, efficient organization,
not an old-fashioned bureaucracy."
To
meet its challenges, the USAAC turned to Sun
iForce Partner Documentum, Inc., to provide
secure enterprise content management with
version control, life cycle management, and
electronic signature capabilities—and
the ability to meet the U.S. Department of
Defense's stringent 5015.2 record-keeping
certification standard. And the USAAC opted
to run it all on Sun StorEdge arrays, including
the Sun StorEdge 3960 system (recently upgraded
to the Sun StorEdge 6320 system), Sun StorEdge
L700 tape library, Sun StorEdge Availability
Suite Software, and Sun StorEdge Utilization
Suite Software with Sun StorEdge SAM-FS software.
CONTENT MANAGEMENT ADDED
TO IRAQ MILITARY PORTAL
The U.S. military deploys
Xythos Software's WebFile Server to improve
the ability of soldiers stationed in Iraq
to share information.
Information Week
by Larry Greenemeier
March 30, 2004 - For the U.S.
military and its allies stationed in Iraq,
information plays a key role in battlefield
decision making. To improve the military's
ability to share information in Iraq, U.S.
Joint Forces Command in this month integrated
open, Web-based document- and file-management
software into an existing collaboration portal
known as the Cross Domain Collaborative Information
Environment.
Before the deployment of Xythos
Software's WebFile Server, the only way for
personnel stationed in Iraq to share files
outside their unit was to E-mail them or to
copy the file to a Web server and make it
accessible via a Web page, says Boyd Fletcher,
prototype development lead engineer for Joint
Forces Command's J9 Joint Experimentation
Directorate. JFCOM, one of the Defense Department's
nine unified commands, tested the software
before adding it to the collaborative information
environment portal, which is used by the United
States and several of its multinational allies
in Iraq.
The Defense Department sees
document and content management in terms of
information management, which can include
anything from an operational plan to a file
captured from the enemy, says Herbert Strauss,
a Gartner VP and principal national security
analyst. By better organizing this information
and providing broad, yet secure, access, the
military has the ability to provide its commanders
and their allies with information crucial
to their mission.
WebFile Server provides access
controls that let authorized officers and
field personnel read, write, and delete documents.
Because the document-management system, which
will be used by about 5,000 people, is Web-based,
it can be extended out to soldiers operating
throughout Iraq's combat zones, says Fletcher,
who last week returned from the implementation
effort in Iraq. The document-management system
had to be Web-based because "we didn't
want to have to install client software on
thousands and thousands of machines,"
he adds.
The key to the new software's
success is its ability to interact with any
software that's WebDav-enabled. WebDav, short
for Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning,
is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol
that allows users to collaboratively edit
and manage files on remote Web servers. Although
U.S. military personnel can access the document-management
system from the states, the heart of the system,
including the databases where documents are
stored, is run out of Iraq.
"The users in country
needed a way to manage their information,"
Fletcher says. "In the past, a lot of
document standards were based upon proprietary
interfaces to documents. We wanted something
that was entirely standards-based."
The collaborative information
environment portal into which WebFile Server
fits is notable for its use of open-source
and open-standards technology. The portal
was built using the Exo open-source platform.
Other components include Java Specification
Request 168, which enables interoperability
between portlet applications and portals;
the Web Services for Remote Portlets specification,
which defines the Web-services interfaces
and semantics for interactive, presentation-oriented
content services; and Extensible Messaging
and Presence Protocol, a set of open-source
XML streaming protocols created by the Jabber
Software Foundation for instant messaging.
JFCOM's use of technology
based on open standards, even open source,
indicates an aggressiveness to deploy new
technology, Strauss says. The role of information
management has been elevated throughout the
military as a result of the current war effort,
which encompasses military action in Iraq
and Afghanistan as well as a borderless campaign
against terrorists worldwide, he adds, saying,
"There's far more attention paid to the
ability to share information with agility
than ever before."
Military
Benefits
Reduce
costs DRAMATICALLY!:
* Reduce HIGH cost of labor expenses due to
filing, retrieving, routing, and looking for
lost documents, files and information
* Minimize costs associated with copying,
printing, and faxing and other print materials
* Improve productivity by accomplishing tasks
more efficiently
* Reduce storage cost: filing cabinets, transportation,
file preparation, and record retention, staff
payroll
* Decrease time and cost with managing compliance
programs
Reduce
cycle times:
* Streamline business processes by converting
to a paperless system
* Shorten time-to-market
* Optimize order fulfillment
* Support Lean Military, Six Sigma, and
Kaizen initiatives
* Integrate and leverage ERP, MRP, SCM, and
e-Business Applications
* Supply chain collaboration
* Simplify production, order fulfillment,
shipping and receiving, accounts payables,
and accounts receivables
Increase
Levels of Service:
* Immediate answers with simultaneous access
documents related to orders, customer requests,
and inquiries
* Improve issues resolution
* Document customer account activity
* Share knowledge articles and techniques
* Rresponsive support departments: payables,
receivables, and purchasing departments
* Strengthens customer relations
* Enhance department collaboration and communications
* Increase sales orders and accounts proficiency
-
Expedite AR & AP departments
- Increase Productivity
- Streamline Shipping & Receiving
- Improve Documentation
- Share Knowledge Assets
- Immediate Access to Information
- Track and Automate Processes
- Disaster Recovery Solution
-
Improve order and fulfillment accuracy
- Reduce receivables and lower days sales outstanding
(DSO) rates
- Fast collections and higher collection rate
- Enhance reporting and communication
- Assist Sarbanes-Oxley requirements
- Order processing
- Complete customer profiling
- Resolution handling
- ISO Compliance
- FDA Compliance
- OSHA Compliance
- Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) Compliance
- Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Compliance
- Change Process Management
- Sensitive employee document control and management
- Hiring processing
- Human Resources
- Engineering
- Customer Service
- Issue resolution
- Documented standards processes
- Safety compliance
- Complete disaster recovery
- Modular/scaleable in design
- Catalog management
- Vendor contracts