FORT JACKSON, S.C. -- As of Oct. 1, Fort Jackson no longer has a Directorate of Information Management. Instead, DOIM is now known as the U.S. Army Signal Network Enterprise Center, or NEC.
The change came as part of the Army's initiative to establish a global network enterprise, in which 37 former DOIMs transferred from being commanded by IMCOM to being under the command of NETCOM.
The Fort Jackson NEC marked the transition with a ceremony that was attended by the organization's workforce, Fort Jackson leaders and guests from the 7th Signal Command at Fort Gordon, Ga., which oversees all NECs in the continental United States.
"We're establishing unity of command," said Col. Edward Morris, 7th Signal Command chief of staff. "We're bringing together the authority and the resources. If it's within my authority to direct you to do something, it's also on me to provide you the resources to accomplish that mission. In the past, it was not that way."
Jesus RosaVelez, NEC director, said that whereas the new name and command structure will impact the organization internally, local network users will not notice any changes.
"From an overarching perspective, the shifting of responsibility for network operations from IMCOM to NETCOM is the significant change," RosaVelez said. "From a local standpoint, nothing has changed from the service support our customers are used to."
He added that as part of the transformation, visual information support, which includes official photos, graphics and audio support, is now the responsibility of the Directorate of Planning, Training, Mobilization and Security.
Col. Lillian Dixon, garrison commander, compared the change to military units changing their uniform patch.
"I don't expect there to be any change in the relationship between us and 7th Signal Command, and now, the NEC," Dixon said. "I think that it will be a seamless transition. We have a wonderful working relationship. I think the only thing that's going to happen is the service is probably going to be much better."
Dennis Sheppard, deputy to the 7th Signal Command commanding general, said the transformation is part of a long-term effort to standardize and localize the Army network.
"A couple of ... major steps have already been taken," Sheppard said. "The 9th Army Signal Command -- also called NETCOM -- was given the lead to be the single network provider ... . The second step was standing up the 7th Signal Command, which has the responsibility for the CONUS portion. ... Today we're here for a third major step, which is to join what were the DOIMs as a NEC, as a Network Enterprise Center."
Sheppard added that future plans call for the integration of other Army networks into one network, which allows Soldiers and DA civilians to move between installations without having to change their e-mail address, for example.
"Over the next 12 to 24 months, we're going to see the DOIMs from AMC (Army Materiel Command), from the Corps of Engineers, from MEDCOM (Medical Command) -- they'll be coming over and joining the 7th in CONUS and the other theater commands across the globe until we form a single IT infrastructure for the entire globe."
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