REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- Without going anywhere, the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command workforce will soon be fully migrated into the future.
To help improve the efficiency and speed of network usage, USASMDC/ARSTRAT G-6 is currently in the process of migrating content from the current SharePoint 2003 Portal to the SharePoint 2010 Portal.
"The SharePoint 2010 system is a more efficient collaborative and knowledge management environment for the talented members of USASMDC/ARSTRAT so that together we can provide the space and missile capabilities needed by the warfighter," said Col. Bennie J. Pokemire, SMDC G-6. "A byproduct will be a reduction in the demand on bandwidth for the command's network since members should no longer e-mail large attachments, such as large briefings, across the network to multiple recipients as they work on an upcoming briefing.
"Less demand for bandwidth usually results in a faster network," he added.
Pokemire talked about how the migration will help make the workforce more efficient in the future.
"With the right business processes and designs you will find and share information faster," Pokemire said. "The command currently has several often disparate web pages with important information scattered throughout them and across various shared drives. A customer will spend less time looking for information. Collaboration will be faster and more team members can join in to tackle a problem regardless of his or her physical location.
"Another useful feature is application-level integration," he added. "As an example, a person can create a document then publish it to a website where it is accessed as a web page and updated immediately by several different people from different locations. Viewing or reviewing the spreadsheet is possible even for those who don't have the particular client application installed on their respective PC."
Pokemire said the workforce should know and understand that SharePoint will ultimately be theirs to control.
"SharePoint is a technology that facilitates the sharing of ideas and knowledge," Pokemire said. "Those ideas and knowledge belong to the team. The team must make the effort and choice to share them. Consequently, SharePoint is the workforce's system. It is only as good as the team makes it by using it. The G-6 will deploy the best available technology.
"Equally important are the processes and procedures for maximizing collaboration and timely distribution of critical information," he added. "Each staff primary and MSE will contribute to the development of those processes."
Pokemire discussed how the new system will be more versatile than the current one and will help keep SMDC's workforce on the cutting edge.
"I am excited about the capabilities SharePoint 2010 will provide to the command," Pokemire said. "Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is a very versatile platform capable of serving many different audiences. SharePoint's versatility and integration offers a wide range of functionality which includes search, document management, work flow and business intelligence.
"The command's investment in SharePoint and Knowledge Management is an investment in its workforce," he added.
One of the command's primary goals is to reduce confusion new and current SMDC employees experience with multiple information portals.
"Right now we currently have CIMS, CommandNet and the old SharePoint 2003 system. Those are the primary portals everybody uses," said Glenn Robertson, the SharePoint administrator. "In the near future we will consolidate a number of web portals to give one presence to the user in support of Col. Pokemire's 'one-portal' direction. The intent is to provide SMDC/ARSTRAT users with a centralized secure web portal on both NIPR and SIPR networks.
"This will make everyone's job easier because it will make locating information more efficient and one consolidated resource will reduce the amount of confusion," he added.
Although planned for a while, the migration will not be without growing pains, and patience by the workforce is appreciated.
"The transfer has been in the works for nearly a year now and when Col. Pokemire arrived, he solidified the command's vision with direction to focus on 'knowledge management,'" Robertson said. "Our hope is that everyone at SMDC finds the SharePoint transfer useful and appreciates the hard work everyone has put into the new system."
As the migration continues, our goal is to inconvenience the workforce as minimally as possible while yielding maximum results.
"We, G-6, do all of the program deployment, maintenance support, data migrations and coordination from the technical end," Robertson said. "We basically facilitate the user and customer requirements, as outlined by senior leadership's guidance.
"We expect there will be some growing pains as the data migration occurs," he added. "Our biggest concerns are that we identify, transfer and coordinate data migration with our customers to ensure all data is transferred."
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