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Fed 100 recognizes two PEO EIS leaders
By PEO EIS Public Affairs
I am pleased to announce that two members of the PEO EIS team have been recognized as Fed 100 Award winners by Federal Computer Week. COL Pat Burden, Program Manager for GFEBS, and Mr. Victor Hernandez, Director of Program Management at PEO EIS, were recognized as two of the top 100 government and industry leaders who have played pivotal roles in the federal government IT community. The awards recognize individuals who have gone above and beyond their daily responsibilities and have made a difference in the way technology has transformed their agency or accelerated their mission, and I couldn't agree more.
COL Burden has been recognized for leading the design, testing, training and fielding of GFEBS. This was a monumental effort, critical to meeting the Army's goal of audit readiness by 2017. He was the driving force behind the full-fielding of GFEBS to over 53,000 users across the Army during FY13. Thanks to COL Burden's leadership and outstanding team performance, for the first time in the history of the Army, senior leaders have accurate, reliable and timely financial information, and we have improved forecasting and allocation of resource capabilities thanks to his important work.
Victor Hernandez is recognized for his actions associated with the Congressional reprogramming effort supporting network modernization. The Army took the first steps towards architecting an enterprise network focused on improving capacity and security while minimizing stovepipes globally. This joint strategy, a partnership with DOD CIO, DISA, Army and Air Force, required large procurements to minimize overall costs and ensure equipment availability, which had not been included in the budget. Victor worked with stakeholders across the Department to ensure that dollars were executed to make this vision a reality.
Both winners will be recognized at the Federal 100 Awards Gala March 20 at the Washington Hilton. A full list of award winners can be found here: http://fcw.com/articles/2014/02/04/announcing-the-2014-fed-100.aspx.
Congratulations to both awardees!
Douglas K. Wiltsie
Posted February 26, 2014
CHESS Conducts Successful Information Exchange with Industry
By Jo Manson, PEO EIS Public Affairs
The Computer Hardware, Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS) program office conducted a successful information exchange event February 20 in Wallace Theater, Fort Belvoir, Va. Over 600 attendees participated in this event that included an audience comprised of DA civilians, military, contractors and private industry. Army Contracting Command – Rock Island (ACC-RI) personnel were present to facilitate discussions and answer questions on site.
The program started at 1200 hours with PEO EIS Mr. Douglas Wiltsie providing opening remarks. Following his remarks, the following agenda was presented:
- CHESS Overview, Mr. Brendan Burke, Project Director, PD CHESS
- Information Technology Enterprise Solutions – Software (ITES-SW), Ms. Dorothy Bowen, Product Leader, CHESS
- Information Technology Enterprise Solutions – 3 Services (ITES-3S), Mr. Keith Copeland, Product Leader, CHESS
- IT Strategic Sourcing Panel
- Mr. Brendan Burke, PD CHESS
- Mr. Gregg Judge, Chief, Enterprise Licensing Division, Army CIO/G-6
- Mr. Harold Williams, Office of the Senior Services Manager, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Procurement)
- Mr. Jeffery Gollon, Chief, IT Contracting Division, ACC-RI
Mr. Burke closed the event by thanking all attendees and reminding them that questions and responses would be posted to the PEO EIS website in the near future.
Posted February 26, 2014
P2E Achieves Full Operational Capability of the Main Communications Facility, Camp Arifjan, Kuwait
By Courtney N. Cashdollar, P2E Public Affairs
The Product Manager Power Projection Enablers (PdM P2E) Team, lead by LTC Mollie A. Pearson and Mr. Art Olson, achieved Full Operational Capability (FOC) of the Main Communications Facility (MCF) on Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, December 28, 2013, three days ahead of schedule and approximately $3 million dollars under budget.
PdM P2E initiated the contract on September 14, 2012. The purpose of the project was to increase efficiency, performance, data security, and command and control of the information technology (IT) environment on Camp Arifjan. The previous environment, a largely ad-hoc build without coordinated architecture, included a Main Data Processing Facility with several disjointed data storage sites that provided limited support for the increased volume of Soldiers, a high risk of data loss or corruption, insufficient maintenance support, and a lack of integrated data storage capability. The current capability has served the Army well, but the mission has outgrown the existing capability. Now, the IT environment is much more efficient, maximizes virtual applications, and provides services to joint customers.
This $50 million dollar, 20,000 square foot facility will serve as the hub for all voice, data, and video-teleconferencing capabilities across Southwest Asia (SWA), including all 19 Countries in the U.S. Central Command Area of Responsibility. The MCF project, including the migration of an entire communications facility, is the largest and most complex project ever completed by P2E. This is a very important undertaking that is critical not only to the region, but to the future communications structure around the world. This project will increase efficiency, performance, data security, and the command and control for the IT environment on Camp Arifjan and beyond.
The heavy lifters of the PdM P2E MCF Team were On-site Project Lead, Ms. Pam Warren; Contracting Officers’ Representative, Mr. Rey Quebral; Assistant Project Managers, MAJ Kyle McFarland and MAJ Peter Moore; and PdM P2E SWA Director, Mr. Mike Moseley. This team accomplished the mission despite austere and arduous working conditions inherent to the SWA region; numerous long hours over holidays and weekends; a significant eight hour time zone difference from the leadership and higher headquarters at Fort Belvoir, Virginia; and numerous stakeholders (including Southwest Asia Cyber Center (SWACC); the 160th, 54th, and 335th Signal Commands; US Army Forces, US Central Command (ARCENT).
Additional challenges included a complex contract; a volatile military mission and political landscape in Theater; coordination complexities due to multiple stakeholders and business areas; complex dependencies with receipt of equipment; and technical complexities involving affecting power generation, cooling and capacity, services migration, and circuit cut-over from the old facility. Furthermore, six to nine month stakeholder rotations in theater, including three transitions in the leadership of the 335th Signal Command (Theater)(Provisional) throughout the life of the project, and the lack of flexibility to hire additional government personnel on the ground in theater challenged the concept of continuity.
Finally, the team faced unforeseen disruptions including unplanned power outages, changes in policy that required the replacement of two thirds of the batteries for the Uninterrupted Power Supply System before it could be certified, flooding, and two fires on Camp Arifjan that detrimentally affected the schedule for the MCF.
Regardless of the aforementioned challenges, the P2E Team effectively developed courses of action to mitigate these disruptions and demonstrated superior leadership expertise, dedication to duty, commitment to the mission, outstanding people skills, organizational skills, and expertise with regard to coordination and collaboration with multiple stakeholders. The team in Kuwait built trust across many organizations, ensured the smooth transfer of accurate information, identified risks and issues, marshaled resources, and ensured a common vision of customer support requirements across Southwest Asia. As a result, the team met Full Operational Capability (FOC) on December 28th, 2013, three days ahead of schedule and approximately $3 million dollars under budget.
The MCF represents an enormous step in enhancing the capabilities and capacity of Information Technology (IT) service provision in Southwest Asia. This is also the first time since 1992 that the bulk of IT services are emanating out of one facility, providing critical communications capabilities in support of coalition operations in Kuwait. The MCF will now connect thousands of Soldiers across Southwest Asia and the globe with increased efficiency, performance, data security, and command and control of the information technology (IT) environment on Camp Arifjan.
PdM P2E is extremely proud of the challenging, arduous work accomplished by the team. A ribbon-cutting ceremony, hosted by Brigadier General Christopher Kemp (Commander, 335th Signal Command (Theater) (Provisional)) and Mr. Douglas Wiltsie (Executive Officer, Program Executive Office-Enterprise Information Services), was held January 14th, 2014. Department of the Army awards and PEO EIS coins were presented to Project Leads, Ms. Warren and Mr. Quebral for their outstanding achievement throughout the duration of the project.
Posted February 12, 2014