BENELUX, Belgium (July 14, 2017 -- The Army Community Service (ACS) Installation Award of Excellence, which was granted in June 2017 for the Year 2016, recognized the hard work done by USAG Benelux ACS for the past year and a half.
"For us, it is a quite prestigious award. It solidifies and validates the fact that our new model, our new structure, is working," said Yvette Castro, the Army Community Service Division Chief.
The new methodology Castro is referring to is a new way of delivering comprehensive ACS services while absorbing personnel cuts and consolidating three ACS centers under one ACS Director, after a 32% reduction in staff. The USAG Benelux consolidated three installations into one USAG Benelux garrison during the transformation of the European footprint and ACS was one of the first organizations to follow this example.
"We can't do more with less, so my idea to maintain all core ACS services was to change the way in which we are delivering services," Castro explained. "We provide full services with a limited amount of staff. It sounds really simple, but we are the first and only in Europe doing it this way," Castro added.
VTC or Jabber Camera
USAG Benelux ACS now projects services from a main site ACS center located on SHAPE to the ACS lite centers located in Brussels, Belgium and Schinnen, the Netherlands, through centralized program managers using technology, VTC or Jabber Camera and regularly scheduled face to face visits at each site.
Since February 2016, diversified services have been delivered by using the main site program managers who physically project services by visiting the ACS lite centers on a bi-monthly basis. At each lite site, an ACS specialist provides initial intake and customer service and then refers customers to the main site program managers who can connect with customers by using technology and giving an answer immediately. "This is quite old technology. If a doctor or a nurse can help you and diagnose you by using VTC, why can't we? We have had no negative feedback," Castro explained.
Castro is not surprised by the award as all credit goes directly to her experienced and qualified team. The next step is to add Skype technology to augment VTC classes "so that customers can sit down and speak face to face with the people in SHAPE to avoid travel and extra costs. "This will be the last piece of our fully consolidated and technology friendly ACS initiative," Castro concluded.
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