Air Force issues draft solicitation for info management

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Air Force officials released a draft solicitation for the Enterprise Information Management (EIM) initiative this week, an important information technology program to help manage data throughout the service.

Air Force officials want an integrated set of IT capabilities for collaboration, document and workflow management, said John Gilligan, Air Force chief information officer, speaking May 18 at the Montgomery IT Summit conference sponsored by the local chapter of AFCEA International.

Service officials hope to award a blanket purchase agreement for EIM this summer. They want to install these IT capabilities this fall at Air Force headquarters at the Pentagon and the Air Force Pacific command's head offices in Hawaii, Gilligan said.

Air Force leaders debated EIM last month about how to proceed with the initiative. Some suggested the service should move slower on the expensive initiative, for which Gilligan did not give an overall cost estimate. But others said it should move faster because information is important to improving warfighting IT capabilities, he said.

Gilligan puts EIM among three top Air Force IT initiatives:

Desktop, notebook and computer server strategy.

Digital printing and imaging strategy.

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