Army Enterprise Collaboration
What is it'
Army Enterprise Collaboration is an effort to improve knowledge management and promote IT efficiency through the delivery of collaboration capabilities as a managed service. The Army will use existing enterprise licenses to provide access to centrally managed versions of Microsoft SharePoint® and IBM FileNet. These products will enable team collaboration, content management, records management and business- process management among all Army users, regardless of location. Importantly, they also will integrate with the systems used by Army forces during training and deployment. While the Army will retain oversight of the Enterprise Collaboration service, its day-to-day management will rest with the service provider, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).
Why is it important to the Army'
Today's collaboration environment is limited to local SharePoint® enclaves, making it both difficult and costly to share information across the Army. An enterprise collaboration environment will allow users at different locations to work together easily, improving overall Army productivity and efficiency. It also will help users find and connect with those who have the right expertise, experience and job role. In addition, the Enterprise Collaboration environment will create new opportunities to integrate enterprise information systems the Army already owns into a common set of Army Information Management Services. It also will generate savings; individual Army organizations will not have to take on the extra cost and risks associated with server hosting, operations and maintenance.
What has the Army done'
The Combined Arms Center approved the requirements for Enterprise Collaboration in 2010. The Chief Information Officer/G-6, with help from Army Commands, has developed the initial enterprise collaboration baseline and received a service proposal from DISA. To help smooth the transition, CIO/G-6 also has captured lessons learned by various Army service providers during their implementations of SharePoint® and FileNet.
What does the Army have planned for the future'
The Army intends for the Enterprise Collaboration environment to come online in late fiscal 2011 or early 2012. Over the next several months, the Army will continue to refine enterprise collaboration requirements and will determine the exact suite of capabilities to be offered. CIO/ G-6 will craft a basic plan for organizations to follow in the transition from individual instances of SharePoint® to enterprise services, and will formally update Army-wide policy regarding SharePoint® by 2013. The Enterprise Collaboration Environment is linked to other CIO/G-6 efforts, including Enterprise Email and Active Directory migration.
Resource:
For more information, and to participate in community discussion of this initiative, please visit:
<a href="https://www.kc.army.mil/book/groups/army-SharePoint" target="_blank">MilSuite</a> (AKO log-in required)
Social Sharing