WIESBADEN, Germany - For decades, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District has had a long-lived reliance on paper. But thanks to an innovative computer program, the organization is one step closer to being paperless.
The Projects and Acquisitions Portal, or PnA Portal, is a program designed to allow project and program managers, engineers, and other employees find, track and update project information with the click of a mouse without the normal paper consumption.
"For the average user, the portal is a one-stop-shop for project information," Bernice Hazelwood, a PnA Portal program manager, said. "The portal is all about centralization of documentation and records management."
The PnA Portal was designed to eliminate duplication of project and contract information on network drives. It helps users indentify the most recent version and clarify edits to a project package.
It is constantly evolving in accordance with users' needs and feedback, Hazelwood said. When the PnA Portal first became available, only pre-awards and awards for direct contracts were available, but now indirect contracts are managed on the portal as well.
A second version of the Portal is now in development. According to Hazelwood, it is especially designed to simplify the Job Order Contract task orders and is expected to be "rolled out" before the end of the fiscal year.
"With any system that mirrors, or tries to mirror, human business processes, the evolution will never end, " she said. "However, our goal is that PnA v2 will last for several years before v3 comes online but it all depends on the users, requirement changes, and request for changes."
Traditionally, project information was maintained on a user's computer hard drive, a network drive or in print form in folders on a user's desk. When another employee or office needed information, stacks of printed documents were hand-carried to the next user. Then the new user manually logged the project's location in a paper binder. When changes were made, new copies were also made, generating more paper.
According to the Resource Conservation Alliance website, the average office employee in the United States uses 10,000 sheets of paper each year. On average, the U.S., which has less than five percent of the world's population, consumes 30 percent of the world's paper.
"Using the portal requires a mindset change," Hazelwood said. "The challenge is getting employees to stop making hardcopies of information stored on the portal."
She said getting employees to use the portal is a lot like getting people to make the switch from paper books to e-readers.
"A lot of people just like the physical paper in their hands to read, but everyone has to get away from that if we are going to maximize the portal's effectiveness," Hazelwood said.
Mark Ziminske, the district's Environmental Branch chief, said if everyone used the portal to its full capacity, the environmental savings would be tremendous.
"I would estimate that the Environmental Branch uses more than 8 feet of paper per year in just contracting documents alone," Ziminske said.
Vanessa Bauders, an environmental project manager, believes the district and other organizations have to take responsibility to reduce their long-term effect on the environment.
"The goal of the PnA Portal is to eliminate the need for paper copies and become completely electronic in the future," Bauders said. "By reducing our paper consumption we reduce our environmental footprint, and everyone wins."
Information stored in the portal can be easily accessed from anywhere in the world. As long as there is an Internet connection and virtual private network, project information is only a click away. Additionally, by not physically moving project information, users reduce the possibility of lost documents, Hazelwood said.
Darrell Cullins, Israel's area engineer said the PnA Portal allows everyone to read from the same "sheet of music."
"Up until now, most everything was stored in a records management system, in our district, or local area office shared drives. If Contracting, E&C [Engineering and Construction], or anyone in the district wanted some information, they would have to ask us to send it," Cullins said. "Now the entire district can access our files."
Regine Mueller, a senior project manager, said the PnA Portal is an intricate part of her day-to-day work. Overall, there is less paper and now users can electronically add their signatures which further eliminating the need to print documents.
"A primary benefit is that I don't have to print anything and I don't have the stacks of folders on my desk," Mueller said. "Some other organizations are trying to go paperless, but the PnA Portal really is taking us there."
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