Warfighter support operation wins Knowledge Management award

By Amy Walker, PEO C3T MilTech SolutionsSeptember 18, 2009

Warfighter support operation wins Knowledge Management award
1 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Lt. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sorenson, Army Chief Information Officer (CIO)/G-6 (left) presented a Knowledge Management award to Lt. Col. Michael Rodriguez, director Battle Command and Network Support Directorate (BCNSD) (center) with John Wilder, deputy dire... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Warfighter support operation wins Knowledge Management award
2 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – The Single Interface to the Field (SIF) operation received a Knowledge Management Award during the LandWarNet conference held at Fort Lauderdale, Fla. From left to right; Ray Maxwell, SIF Support Team; John Wilder, deputy director BCNSD; Maj. Gen. Ra... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT MONMOUTH, N.J. -- A Web-based operation that is improving how Army units remain equipped and ready, Single Interface to the Field (SIF), received a top Army knowledge management (KM) award.

By facilitating the implementation and expansion of KM principles and practices within the Army, SIF received the 2009 Army Knowledge Management Award in the process category. Lt. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sorenson, Army Chief Information Officer (CIO)/G-6, presented the award Aug. 20 during the LandWarNet conference at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The SIF is an entry point from which Warfighters and forward-support personnel can at any time obtain reach-back support for any system managed by the U.S. Army CECOM Life Cycle Management Command and additional digital capabilities. Its Web portal and support operations center not only guides them to the assistance they need, it links them to mission-essential information such as fielding and training.

"We're leaning towards becoming the Army's enterprise solution for integrated field support as a Web portal," said Lt. Col. Michael Rodriguez, director Battle Command and Network Support Directorate (BCNSD). "We're slowly achieving this momentum as we partner with Army Sustainment Command by integrating and migrating their current solutions onto the SIF, as well as extending our common services to sister PEOs, such as (PEO) Ground Combat Systems, as we introduce platforms and systems, such as Bradley and Abrams into the SIF."

"This award for knowledge management relative to processes is important to the C4ISR SIF team because it helps to validate our efforts to meet the synchronized support requirements of our user community," said John Wilder, deputy director BCNSD in an e-mail.

The SIF has become a single point of information for processes such a fielding, Reset, Department of the Army reports and incident reporting. It is assigned to the BCNSD of the Army's Program Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T).

Wilder said that the SIF development team contributed significantly to the system's success. To better define the requirements and create solutions for the field environment, the development team has been directly involved in the processes of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) regional support and combat training center rotations for issue tracking and field support personnel tracking.

The SIF team also works hand-in-hand with specific programs to tailor support tools, such as the Weapon System Portfolio and the Incident Reporting Module, to fit the program's support infrastructure and processes, while still complementing the overall synchronized support environment of the SIF initiative, Wilder said.

The Weapons System Portfolio is the authoritative source for C4ISR weapon system data including point of contacts, system overviews, articles, videos, documentation, line item numbers, life cycle phase, and related system capabilities. It is a one-stop shop searchable by name, nomenclature, or type to obtain system information.

The Incident Reporting Module serves as the online standard trouble ticket/ issue reporting, tracking and problem-resolution capability for all C4ISR systems. Used both in the field and during major readiness exercises, it uses industry's latest help-desk software technology for tracking and reporting incident reports.

Stakeholders of the SIF include the Army's Program Executive Offices, Life Cycle Management and the Army Sustainment Command (ASC). Its customers include Warfighters, ASC Army Field Support Brigades, Department of the Army G3/5/7, and the Signal Center in Fort Gordon, Ga., along with the headquarters of ASC, Army Material Command and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology.

In March, SIF also received a 2009 Project Management Excellence award from the Government Information Technology Executive Council (GITEC).

Receiving prestigious awards helps to promote the SIF initiative as "a legitimate Army-wide integrated support solution," Wilder said. Because the project is a not a program of record, it relies on customer funding to continue and evolve its capabilities. The success of SIF and recognition from awards brings in new users and programs that are looking for the synchronized and integrated support capabilities offered by the SIF initiative. This in turn lowers the cost basis for each user, he said.

"This award acknowledges that we are doing the right thing in support of the Warfighter and are able to provide cost effective and workable solutions in a reasonable time frame," Wilder said.