Army system measures readiness
- By Dan Caterinicchia, Dan Caterinicchia
- Jul 30, 2002
In another example of the Army using information technology to aid its ongoing
transformation, the service has selected a contractor team to automate the
new Strategic Readiness System (SRS), which is designed to manage and measure
the readiness of all areas of the Army, not just combat units.
SRS is based on the balanced score card methodology similar to that
used with the President's Management Agenda, and it is designed to align
strategic goals across an entire organization.
The Army score card is the focal point for SRS.
In March, Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, approved the
score card, which identifies the metrics of each readiness area. The score
card helps to ensure that all levels of the Army align their operations
to the service's enterprise vision and objectives, and it measures success
in achieving those goals.
The Army score card readiness areas include:
* Status of the industrial base for military equipment and supplies.
* Well-being.
* Infrastructure of all Army installations.
* Status of federal, state and local transportation nodes in reference
to their abilities to support deployments.
Thomas White, secretary of the Army, said that in the past, unit status
reports measured the readiness of personnel, equipment and training of combat
units, but SRS includes "the other three-quarters of the Army not currently
formally measured."
Another key SRS benefit, White said, is that there are "no additional
burdens on soldiers," because it takes advantage of existing systems.
The Army will continue to use unit status reports along with the SRS.
To ensure that the status of each score card is current, SRS uses an
automated program that can reach into more than 5,000 Army databases to
draw on up-to-date information and will not require commanders to fill out
another report a goal required by Shinseki.
Army Headquarters staff sections and major military commands started
using the new system in June, and its use eventually will expand to divisions
and separate brigades, officials said. The rest of the service will begin
implementation of the system in October.
Booz Allen Hamilton is the prime contractor and IT integrator for SRS,
having been awarded a nearly $17 million contract in April, said Bruce Tripp,
SRS program manager at the firm. He added that the company selected two
subcontractors Balanced Scorecard Collaborative Inc. (BSCol) and Incisive
Inc. to help implement the system.
"We're working with the Army on the front end of the system to help
them become a strategy-focused organization," said Laura Downing, senior
vice president at BSCol. "We helped them develop the internal capabilities
to develop and use balanced score cards as the cornerstone of SRS."
CorVu Corp., a provider of enterprise performance management solutions,
was selected to automate the balanced score cards with its CorManage software,
said Alan Missroon, vice president of sales at the company, which started
work in early June and has already put the software in effect for the Army.
CorManage, combined with CorVu's HyperVu and RapidScorecard, provides the
Army with an integrated enterprise performance management solution, which
includes business intelligence and the automated balanced score cards, Missroon
said.
"We sit on top of the data warehouse, extract data and present it in
cascading [score cards]" that are essentially cause-and-effect diagrams,
he said. "Our tool is then used to drill into those score cards, navigate
the chain, and do analysis and reporting of the action data."
Army Knowledge Online users can get more information on the new systems
and the score cards at https://akocomm.us.army.mil/srs/.