2013 DON IM/IT Excellence & Electromagnetic Spectrum Award Winners Announced
Published, January 31, 2013
The Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer is pleased to announce the winners of the 2013 DON IM/IT Excellence Awards and the John J. Lussier Electromagnetic Spectrum Leadership Award.
The annual DON IM/IT Excellence Awards recognize IM/IT projects, teams and individuals that have transformed the Navy and Marine Corps through information technology. Winners were selected for their superior leadership skills and innovative use of IM/IT to reduce, downscale, and downsize while not duplicating existing projects, systems or solutions. Through these efforts, they significantly improved the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization in delivering its mission.
The John J. Lussier Electromagnetic Spectrum Leadership Award is given to an individual who demonstrates superior achievement in Navy and Marine Corps electromagnetic spectrum management and use. This award is named for the former DON Principal Deputy Chief Information Officer who lost his courageous battle with cancer in June 2009. Lussier was an advocate for protecting the DON's equities in the electromagnetic spectrum and advanced the DON's strategic vision for spectrum.
The following individuals and teams were selected as the 2013 winners.
DON IM/IT Excellence Award Individual Winners
Clyde Caminos, Research & Technology Protection (RTP) Manager; Marine Corps Systems Command: for the analysis, training and implementation of the Marine Corps Systems Command's RTP Program. His pragmatic approach to ensuring Marine Corps information technology and critical program information were identified and protected significantly increased the command’s protection readiness. His personal attention to duty and subject matter expertise enabled the command to increase its systems assessment of critical program information from 20 systems in fiscal year (FY) 2011, to 120 systems assessed in FY12. Caminos also provided the policy documents, letters of instruction and training necessary to ensure Marine Corps warfighting capabilities are protected from disclosure to unauthorized personnel.
Jack Q. Mills, Director, Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers (COMFRC), N6 Enterprise Information Systems: for his exceptionally superior peformance beginning with a "game-changing" strategy and culminating with the exceedingly successful deployment of the One NAVAIR Depot Maintenance System. His exemplary leadership and technical direction contributed significantly during the past six years to the establishment of an agile, sustainable, secure and cost-effective IT capability in support of COMFRC.
Pam Wenner, Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) Portfolio Manager (N614): for her support in successfully establishing the Enterprise Logistics Engineering Directorate (N6) within NAVSUP. This transformational effort consolidated all program managers within one organization, resulting in an improved and efficient portfolio management process. She established an aggressive training program and mentors NAVSUP program managers to ensure that NAVSUP products are of the highest quality. Wenner is dedicated to ensuring the portfolio management process is effective and efficient while still supporting the logistical needs of the warfighter.
DON IM/IT Excellence Award Team Winners
All Weapons Information System (AWIS) Team, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR): for the integration of the NAVAIR weapons programs and other NAVAIR product teams into the system. AWIS now supports every conventional weapons program in the Navy as well as more than 180 Air Systems Support product teams, which provide engineering and logistics support to aircraft, aviation equipment, and IT systems. Integration of these programs further improved effectiveness and efficiency within NAVAIR by avoiding the creation of duplicate systems. As a result, the amount of overhead was reduced, enabling more resources to be directed to improving fleet readiness.
Manpower, Personnel, Training & Education (MPTE) Enterprise Information Management Board & Team, Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS): for proactively addressing enterprise management and governance of MPTE data assets, and controlling and protecting personally identifiable information while supporting business requirements. The team promoted data as an enterprise asset with assigned accountability and responsibility throughout its lifecycle. The team educated MPTE personnel and instilled a culture of collaboration throughout the organization, inspiring confidence in data quality that results in greater trust in MPTE data when making decisions.
Fleet Cyber Command (FCC) IT Spend Governance Team/IT Spend Governance Initiative: for the innovative use of IM/IT to meet Navy requirements without duplicating existing programming and financial management controls at FCC headquarters and globally dispersed subordinate commands. The team's advocacy increased user capability, reduced decision cycle timelines Navy-wide and improved FCC mission effectiveness. In just 10 months, the team created processes from and conducted intensive analysis directly affecting the approval of more than 800 IT investment requirements for Navy funded, Navy Marine Corps Intranetcontinuity of services contract and nationally funded IT procurement requests. The value of these investments exceeded $100 million and encompassed telecommunication services, programs of record support, contract support services, software and hardware.
Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) IT Team/NCIS Data Center Reconstruction: for maintaining day-to-day operations of the outdated Washington Navy Yard facility while reconstituting capabilities at the new data center in Quantico, Va. The NCIS team conducted a thorough comparison of the costs, benefits, risks and value of refreshing and relocating the servers, seats and other components as opposed to moving the organization to a virtualized environment. Ultimately, the decision was made to leverage new virtualization solutions that would enhance capabilities, performance, security and sustainability. In concert with Department of Defense and Department of the Navy guidance on IT efficiencies, the team's efforts in server reduction exceeded Navy targets and timeframes and allowed NCIS to reduce overall costs while enhancing functionality. NCIS personnel have improved access to critical systems and information, allowing for the secure and rapid dissemination of mission critical information to the warfighter. The team's efforts have resulted in savings of more than $2.5 million, in addition to a 70 to 80 percent reduction in power and cooling requirements.
Information Technology Acquisition Approval Process (ITAAP) Team, (multiple DON organizations): for the design and successful implementation of a review and approval process designed to capture all Navy IT procurements without hindering the dynamic acquisition management approach the Navy has used to support the warfighter. The ITAAP team achieved success by using existing tools and standardizing the previously uncoordinated processes across the 26 budget submitting offices into one standard process. This process was implemented in a web-based application to capture all Navy IT spend and seek economies of scale while inserting a technical authority review.
Navy Food Service Management Three (FSM3) Deployment Team, Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP): for the delivery of a much-needed upgrade to the FSM System for all Navy galleys. The FSM3 team successfully delivered and activated FSM3 throughout fleet and ashore galleys. The team surpassed its goal of 70 percent activation throughout the fleet for FY12 with more than 98 percent of surface assets completed and more than 70 percent of submarine galley installations completed by October 2012. Implementation of FSM3 reduced the NAVSUP application portfolio both in number of applications and budget spent on the applications by sun-setting five outdated applications and saving more than $400,000 per year already realized from the FY12 budget and into the future. The FSM3 team led the movement from a stand-alone DOS application to a lean, distributed web-based Windows application.
Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division, Newport Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIG) Team: for the development of the STIGManager, a multi-user, collaborative, data management solution to support STIG compliance. STIGManager has contributed to higher levels of information assurance, computer network defense, critical infrastructure protection and improved cybersecurity. The information sharing and management capabilities have enabled effective decision making, increased the efficiency of task accomplishment, and improved mission effectiveness, all with significant cost savings. During the first year, the savings achieved equaled $100,000 in management of spreadsheets and $200,000 as a result of speeding up the STIG review process.
Enterprise Systems Engineering Environment (ESEE) Team, Engineering Information Management (EIM) Branch, Marine Corps Systems Command: for the design and development of engineering data interoperability and data sharing capabilities across the Marine Corps. The EIM branch provided greater data and resource efficiencies to architects and systems engineers responsible for developing, fielding and sustaining Marine Corps systems. Those achievements resulted from extensive and effective cross-organizational customer interaction in the design and ongoing development of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Collaborative Architecture Environment and the Enterprise Systems Engineering Environment. Through this visionary ability to integrate data across disparate data storage areas, the Marine Corps is moving toward true data reuse and stabilization.
John J. Lussier Electromagnetic Spectrum Leadership Award Winner
Thomas Downie, Director, Navy and Marine Corps Spectrum Center (NMSC): in recognition of his superior performance as director of the NMSC. Downie’s in-depth knowledge and exceptional dedication to resolving countless spectrum-related challenges has been essential to developmental acquisition programs and critical fleet and Marine Corps operations.
Under Downie's leadership, NMSC was recognized by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) for extraordinary technical engineering support and providing increased capability to the Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare and Combating Terrorism Department. His personal involvement improved the quality and accuracy of ONR’s spectrum certification submissions and operational capabilities. Downie expertly led support to ONR by processing applications on a national level and on a short timeline. Through his efforts, ONR obtained approval for frequency assignments well in advance of their need to support tactical communication and new technologies.
In 2012, Downie assisted Program Executive Office Space Systems, OPNAV (N2/N6) and the United States Strategic Command in accelerating the launch of Tactical Satellite-4 (TACSAT-4) to fulfill the Navy and the Department of Defense’s demand for ultra high frequency station requirements. This effort caused the reprioritization of spectrum certification requirements at NMSC, which led to three TACSAT-4 applications becoming a Navy priority. His hard work and dedication while working with the Naval Research Laboratory, Federal Aviation Administration, and National Telecommunications and Information Administration System Review Branch enabled an expeditious gain of approval for TACSAT-4 applications well in advance of their launch schedules.
Downie's achievements as director have enabled NMSC to excel at its mission and provide unprecedented service to the warfighter.