Military

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, July 3, 2003) The Army has signed a six-year contract worth more than $470 million with Microsoft, to consolidate software purchases and licenses in an effort to improve security and access to information Army-wide.

The Enterprise Software Consolidation contract covers 494,000 users as well as software for the Army enterprise network, and is expected to save the Army $15 million over the next six years, officials said.

As part of the Department of Defense Enterprise Software Initiative, ESI, the contract comes under the Army Knowledge Management strategy to better support Army operations through access to information, according to Col. Mark Barnette, chief of the Army's Information Infrastructure Division, G6.

"The ESI aims to provide a net-centric environment where management and movement of information is critical to the needs of the war fighter," he said.

At present, each Army post, camp and station buys software on different contracts. This requires more labor and creates more costs, including extra paperwork and systems administration work, said Peggy Henderson, acting deputy director of Enterprise Systems Technology Activity.

She added that different elements of the Army may then be on different baselines - that is, have different operating systems and applications - which aren't necessarily compatible.

In addition, many older systems to which Microsoft will no longer provide technical support are more vulnerable to computer viruses and hackers. Henderson noted that buying this mass amount of software will make it much easier for people to get to more current versions.

Barnette outlined three strategic goals for the Army's AKM transformation: to defend the information network, to support the Objective Force, the Army's future, and to reduce the cost of operations.

Henderson said the new contract is particularly relevant to the last of these goals.

"We're trying to be more like a corporation, be more business-oriented," she said. "For example with buying paper, instead of just buying it for your own office, you're buying for the whole organization because it's substantially cheaper. Enterprise is about treating the army as one integrated organization."

Integration, she said, also enables more efficient information access.

"If you have the most current information, you're going to do a better job of protecting yourself, winning the battle," said Henderson. "Running the Army as an enterprise means that people down on the ground can have the most current information and be in a better position to make immediate decisions in their area rather than waiting for someone on high to get the information and assimilate it."

The aim is to have one Army network, one Army portal, a single sign-on capability, a universal directory service, and the ability for plug-in play, where soldiers can go anywhere, anytime and plug in to the network for their work, and gain universal access to information across the Army, according to Barnette.

The Army will buy the software from Microsoft reseller Softmart Government Services, Inc., based in Downingtown, Pa.