TESTIMONY OF
BRIGADIER GENERAL JOHN R. THOMAS
DIRECTOR, COMMAND, CONTROL,
COMMUNICATIONS AND COMPUTERS
HEADQUARTERS, UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
AND
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
DEPUTY CIO FOR THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

BEFORE THE
HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRORISM, UNCONVENTIONAL THREATS AND CAPABILITIES
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

REGARDING DOD BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION EFFORTS

 March 31, 2004
 

I.  INTRODUCTION

Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to appear before the committee to discuss the Marine Corps Business IT Transformation and our involvement in the Department of Defense Business Management Modernization Program (BMMP).

II.  BMMP DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY AND MARINE CORPS ALIGNMENT

Our business systems are critical to the efficient management of the Marine Corps for the well-being and welfare of our Marines.  We believe the tenets of BMMP directly align with our warfighter mission.  As we transform our legacy business systems into integrated enterprise solutions, we are creating efficiencies, which free resources that in turn improve our warfighting capability.  BMMP provides us the ability to better understand and improve our business processes within the context of the entire DoD business enterprise.  The Marine Corps strategy to achieve business transformation leverages those system and data consolidation efforts started well before BMMP existed.  While we believe we are in the best position to properly articulate the required capabilities from a Service perspective, BMMP provides us the ability to leverage business systems and capabilities developed outside the Marine Corps that meet our needs.  We have worked diligently to align our transformation goals with DoD and DoN efforts.

The Marine Corps has been involved for many years in the careful development, oversight, and governance of our business automated information systems.  We have been a leader in application reductions, centralized IT procurements, and the implementation of an enterprise information infrastructure.  In many respects then, the Marine Corps efforts serve as a beacon for BMMP transformation.   The Navy-Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) is serving as a catalyst for our business re-engineering to include functional application portfolio management and application rationalization.  Working with the DoN CIO, we have established 24 Functional Area Managers (FAMs) and Functional data Managers (FDMs), and assigned every application and database within the Marine Corps to one of these managers.   The FAMs are populating the Department of Navy Application and Database Management System (DADMS) with only authoritative applications and databases.  This forms the foundation of our IT investment and portfolio management process and provides an accurate inventory of financial and financial feeder systems as well as the functions/processes these systems support.

III.  MARINE CORPS BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION EFFORTS

The Marine Corps transformation to a net-centric force is inextricably linked to business solutions that leverage the components of the Global Information Grid (GIG) to deliver the right information, to the right users, at the right time.  Let me provide some examples.

Accounting and Finance:  The Marine Corps Standard Accounting, Budgeting and Reporting System (SABRS) is 75% compliant with the BMMP proposed DOD Standard Accounting Classification Structure (SACS) and we are working to achieve the remainder.  SABRS is meeting all of the BMMP core mandates of standard general ledgers, Federal Financial Management Improvement Act requirements, and undergoing Joint Financial Management Improvement Program certification testing.

Acquisition:  The Marine Corps is actively engaged in Business Process Modeling workshops, via participation in the Joint Acquisition and eBusiness Oversight Body, the centerpiece of the Acquisition Domain led by OSD-ATL, Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy.  In addition, the USMC supports DoD efforts to identify and rationalize Acquisition systems aligned with the BMMP Strategic Vision and Architecture.

Human Resource Management:  Our Human Resources (HR) systems include manpower, training, recruiting, and force structure systems that are controlled through service level governance processes. We carefully scrutinize and rationalize our HR applications while simultaneously consolidating personnel administration functions at increasingly higher levels.  The Marine Corps is currently working with the Defense Integrated Military Human Resource System (DIMHRS) program office to ensure the functionality provided by our current personnel and pay system, the Marine Corps Total Force System (MCTFS) is integrated into the DoD solution.  We are working to ensure business process changes represent best practices for the organization to reduce administrative redundancies and human interaction to mention a few.

The Total Force Administration System (TFAS) is representative of the Corps' reengineering efforts in the area of administration.  TFAS provides a web-based, virtually paperless self-serve capability for all Marines via the web portal, Marine On Line (MOL).  This year, we will increase our Marine's ability to execute self-service transactions and automate many unit capabilities such as leave, morning reports, and promotions.  In a tremendous advance, Marines at all levels will access Marine On-Line to view information on themselves and the Marines in their charge.  Over the next few months, our strategy is to consolidate the functionality of multiple legacy, stove-piped systems under TFAS.  As a result, we see TFAS/MOL as an advanced portal capability that provides a reduction in legacy support and a consolidation of authoritative data.

Other efforts include the deployment of the Defense Travel System (DTS), a seamless, paperless, temporary duty travel system that meets the needs of travelers, commanders, and process owners.  It will reduce costs, support mission requirements, and provide superior customer service.

Installations and Environment: We are standardizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and maintenance management systems thus reducing the number of separate, isolated, simultaneous instances of these systems.  Consequently, we are better positioned to manage and maintain our installations, real property, and the support staffs that keep them functioning. The Marine Corps facilities management community has been very aggressive in reducing legacy applications and standardizing business systems across the Marine Corps.  In facilities maintenance management alone, the Marine Corps is replacing 34 installation specific systems with one web-based enterprise level system, thus reducing sustainment costs while providing a single authoritative information source.  Consolidation of software licensing and centralized administration will save $1.5M annually.  Last month, the Marine Corps eliminated five cost engineering software products by working with the Navy to standardize cost engineering on a Departmental level.

Logistics:  Many of our financial feeder systems exist in our logistics functional area.  Our logistics FAM has developed an integrated logistics initiative designed to eliminate duplication, institutionalize modern supply and value chain management techniques, and to replace the numerous stovepipe automated information systems with web-based order management systems.  To date, 36 Marine Corps logistics systems have been officially retired, with an additional 20 systems identified for retirement.

Strategic Planning and Budgeting: The Marine Corps has participated in the Strategic Planning and Budget workshops to map the "as is" and develop the "to be" processes that could lead to new DoD business practices.  Our Activity Based Information System (ABIS) leverages financial and functional data in a shared data environment, creating a total cost and performance management system.  This has enabled fact based decision making, effective resource management and provided for justification in the POM process.  Use of ABIS primary data has allowed the USMC to realign significant dollars to support warfighting capabilities.

Data and process integration to support business systems:  Marine Corps Enterprise Information Technology Services (MCEITS) is our conceptual framework for realigning, collapsing, and consolidating our physical IT environment, enabling the horizontal integration of data and processes.   It will support all FAMs and the applications they need to conduct their business.  It provides us with a flexible, robust IT environment that integrates applications and data, and provides the common IT infrastructure for FAMS working with the BMMP domain owners as they unfold their initiatives.

VI.  CONCLUSION

The Marine Corps has been proactive in leveraging ongoing initiatives to help achieve BMMP goals and objectives to better serve our Marines in a net-centric environment.   Investments in business modernization and transformation have a direct and tangible impact on our forces as they support the Global War on Terrorism.   Mr. Chairman and members of the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, your continuing steadfast support for our business modernization efforts is greatly appreciated.   Thank you again for this opportunity to appear before the committee to discuss how the Marine Corps is evolving our IT architecture and capabilities in support of business IT transformation for the 21st Century.