Army streamlines applications

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Army will reduce its redundant applications by 80 percent by 2007.

Lt. Gen. Steve Boutelle, the Army’s chief information officer, said he must submit a consolidation plan to service officials within 60 days. He said the Army will eliminate redundancy by following the golden rule of government: identify unnecessary applications and cut their funding.

For example, Boutelle said, Lt. Gen. Jerry Sinn, the Army’s budget director, plans to reduce the number of applications he operates from 200 to three. The service issued a statement on the new policy last month, he said, while speaking Aug. 23 to attendees of the 2005 Army Directors of Information Management/Army Knowledge Management conference.

Boutelle said Army officials will soon approve another plan the CIO’s office worked on this past spring to improve the integration of service systems. He said he reworked the plan because Francis Harvey, the Army’s secretary, wanted it to include business systems, which explains its delay.

Under the new interoperability plan, Army officials who oversee domains including business and logistics must identify the systems they operate and register them for testing at the Central Technical Support Facility at Fort Hood, Texas. The plan also puts the facility under the control of the CIO’s office.