Navy gives new office IT budget authority

OPNAV Memo Establishing ACNO-IT

NEW ORLEANS--The Navy has established a new office to manage spending for enterprisewide information technology systems both afloat and ashore. Such systems account for $2 billion of the Navy's $6 billion IT expenses each year.

The office, under the Chief of Naval Operations, will construct and execute future Navywide IT budgets and put business processes in place to maximize return on the Navy's IT spending, said Mark Mohler, assistant deputy director in the Office of the Assistant Chief of Naval Operations-Information Technology (ACNO-IT).

Mohler, speaking here at the Navy’s Program Executive Office for IT (PEO-IT) conference, said such oversight over IT budgets is a rarity in the federal government. “Not many [federal] CIO’s have such authority,” Mohler said. He added that ACNO-IT will not handle acquisitions and will work with existing procurement organizations such as PEO-IT.

ACNO-IT is led by Vice Adm. James McArthur, who also serves as commander of the Norfolk-based Naval Network Warfare Command (NetWarCom). Rear Adm. Robert Reilly serves as his Pentagon-based deputy, a NetWarCom spokesman said.

When it begins operating Oct. 1, ACNO-IT will be a lean organization of about 80 people, Mohler said. The Navy established ACNO-IT in April to serve as the Navy's lead organization for IT policy and execution, according to a memo from Vice Adm. Albert Church, director of the Navy Staff.

The memo said ACNO-IT will develop a federated approach to Navy business and warfighting information management and IT systems. Mohler said such an approach will include centralized management of major IT systems, resources and hardware. Server consolidation and a Navywide enterprise voice management initiative will begin in 2006, Mohler said.