Army reaches out to IT workers

LAS VEGAS — A top Army information technology official believes that the service's IT workers should start thinking and operating as an enterprise organization rather than disparate groups.

Army IT leaders will improve efforts to issue policy and obtain funding so IT workers can do their jobs with more ease, said Maj. Gen. Dennis Moran, director of architecture operations, network and space in the Army's Office of the Chief Information Officer/G-6. Officials want IT personnel to focus on delivering IT capabilities to soldiers and meeting enterprise goals of improved network operation, management and security, Moran said.

He spoke June 8 at the Army IT Conference sponsored by the Army Small Computer Program.

"Army IT leaders didn't provide clear and timely guidance for IT workers to do their jobs properly," Moran said during an interview after this speech.

For example, when Army IT leaders last year decided to move all of the service's PCs off Microsoft Windows NT by the end of 2004, they did not give IT workers the resources to meet that objective. The Army missed that goal as an enterprise and extended support for the product for another six months.

Army IT workers and companies that support them must start thinking of spending every IT dollar they receive with a long-term view. The government's new spending on Medicare/Medicaid and the costs related to them that come due early next decade will put a lot of pressure on the Defense Department’s discretionary spending in upcoming years, Moran said.