Navy portal links execs

Naval Medical Information Management Center

There are more than 150 Naval medical facilities worldwide, making it nearly impossible for executives to share ideas and plans — until now.

The Naval Medical Information Management Center's chief information officer's E-Business Services office has started using collaboration software that is enabling hundreds of people to share information in new ways, said Lt. Mike Whitecar, director of E-Business Services.

The portal, designed for the CIOs at the Naval medical facilities, uses Web-based collaboration software from eRoom Technology Inc. Using the eRoom software, the Naval Medical Information Management Center, located in Bethesda, Md., was able to quickly and easily create a portal, called CIO Today, Whitecar said.

Previously, the CIOs would only meet once a year at an annual conference. "That is the only time we would get to collaborate," Whitecar said. The portal allows the center to improve communication across the organization.

The portal has been operational since February and has been quickly accepted, he said, especially by new CIOs who join a facility but are given little help on how to do their job.

"Now they're performing online chats" with more tenured CIOs at larger facilities who can offer counsel in a variety of areas, he said. "I've never seen so much activity and interaction."

Simon Hayward, vice president and research director at Gartner Inc., said that collaboration software and the infrastructure necessary to run such software have matured.

"They've been broadening out what they can do," he said. "It is not just the case of posting a document." The new tools offer virtual meetings, whiteboards and chats, in addition to providing a central repository of documents.