FORT LIBERTY, N.C. — A three-day inaugural Army Data Summit brought data managers and analysists from across the Army together for a multifaceted event that’s paving the way for future effective data management and analytics in the Army community.
Dr. David M. Markowitz, the U.S. Army’s chief data and analytics officer was the keynote speaker on the first day of the summit held at Fort Liberty. Markowitz outlined three key issues regarding Army data management and addressed each in succession: what we’re trying to do, where are we, and where we’re going.
“Fundamentally, we are trying to create information advantage-outthink and outpace any adversary,” said Markowitz. “As long as we are thinking faster than any of our adversaries, we’ll win the battlefield.”
Using mobile applications as an example, he discussed how quickly technology develops. He said today’s apps provide users with real-time information and updates that allow them to pull and share information across applications. It’s this kind of speed that Markowitz wants for mission command and for the Army.
“By making standardized data available that’s easy to use with rapid turns, it gives us the ability to outpace and outthink an adversary,” he said, “and that’s what we are trying to do.”
So where are we now with that technology? Markowitz said it has taken four years of building and development to get where we are today. Building foundational capabilities within the Army, providing operational capability to the field, and allowing the field to mature has been key. The addition of data stewards and data officers means there’s now someone responsible for data, and that individual determines what’s important and what’s just noise.
Easy to use access to that data allows everyone from echelon to the unit supply sergeant to access new tools and have data at their fingertips. This also allows the Army to see what information is being requested and how it is being used. Currently, major platforms receive 15,000 data requests daily. Queries range from finance contracting data to readiness data.
From logistics to surveillance activities, the amount of data the Army has is immense. Being able to ingest it, makes sense of it, and provide it again to keep the information moving is important, explained Markowitz. Where we’re going with all this information is something else Markowitz put into perspective.
“We have been spending a lot of years collecting the data,” he said. “We are at the point we need to start to pivot and shape the data into what it should look like,” said Markowitz.
He explained that what needs to be collected is not being collected right now, and that’s a different part of the data journey the Army is about to embark on.
An abundance of unorganized data may seem overwhelming and confusing for many which causes them to look elsewhere for information. However, by sifting through the data, organizing it and shaping it in a way that is clear and easy to access, people will view it as a tool. Shaping data changes the processes and turns it from mundane into a useful interface between the user and the data. There’s a catch though.
“You can’t buy this technology,” said Markowitz. “We will have to generate this, and it’s not going to be easy to get these things right,” he said. “As soon as we start to do it, it will change the way we do the work and change the way we build that innovation for information advantage and get that decision cycle going faster.”
Expanding on the concept, he acknowledged much of the Army’s information and data systems do not communicate well with command-and-control systems. Integration of these systems is essential for commanders and leaders at all levels and essential for the Army to stay ahead of adversaries.
“I think if we start to look to the other areas where we want to transform,” explained Markowitz, “we’ll find these areas where the gears don’t seem to work. We will have to make sure data is being generated to fit those gears so that the Army can run at speed. That’s where we’re going,” he said.
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