Army CIO reaching for IT budget control

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Army's chief information officer is already responsible for the service's entire information technology budget, but that office is still two years away from being able to centrally manage those dollars, according to the Army deputy CIO.

"Being responsible for it and being able to do it is two different things," David Borland, Army deputy CIO, told FCW. "The highly centralized management of the Army's IT budget is two years away."

Speaking June 4 at the Army Small Computer Program's IT conference, Borland said the Army's IT budget for fiscal 2004 is $5.58 billion, or about 6 percent of the service's total funding.

"Being able to unravel a complicated budget like the Army's, and centrally managing it, are different things," Borland told FCW.

Elsewhere in the realm of Army IT, Borland said the third Army Knowledge Management guidance memorandum, which focused on personnel, was approved within the past few months. The fourth memo, which addresses the logistics community, is in draft form and approval is "imminent," he said.

The Army's original AKM guidance laid out the service's top five transformation priorities, including enterprise management, human capital and advancing the Army Knowledge Online Web portal. The second memo focused on server and application consolidation.

When asked by an audience member which of the original five goals was most critical to the Army's transformation, Borland said the people — or human capital —- piece, because well-trained soldiers help keep the Army agile and superior.

"There is nothing like education to make one agile," he said.