Norfolk – Naval Information Forces (NAVIFOR) held a three-day Fleet Waterfront Applications Workshop on Norfolk Naval Base, April 18-20.
Fleet Waterfront Applications Workshops, hosted by the NAVIFOR Fleet Functional Area Manager (FAM), are intended to provide training and best practices on shipboard network systems and applications. The workshops are open to all ratings and designators, government civilians and contractors.
These workshops stemmed from information gathered by the NAVIFOR Fleet Applications and Solutions Team (FAST) over a four-year period. According to more than 2,100 surveys completed by shipboard personnel across all ratings, Sailors identified configuring, troubleshooting and maintaining shipboard systems and applications as their most challenging issues.
“Sometimes the issues are operator related, training related and in some cases the program itself simply has faults,” said John Toomer, NAVIFOR Fleet Functional Area manager. “The purpose of the workshop conducted this week was intended to help the fleet with just-in-time training on these systems.”
The workshops help the participants share their issues with the FAM team who in turn work to empower them with the training, skills and solutions needed to manage and maintain applications and shipboard systems on their own.
“The ultimate goal is to work our way out of these training workshops,” Toomer said. “This would mean that the knowledge of the users is increasing and the issues Sailors are having with these applications are going away.”
Those who attend the workshops come away with valuable knowledge that they can take back to their ships, creating a “train-the-trainer” mentality.
“The workshop is designed to give us an understanding of how the fleet works with the approved applications onboard the ships,” said Information System Security Manager for Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), Ensign Tara Mark. “I’m looking to take from this a way forward that’s fleet-wide and a baseline process that will make it easier for us as a ship to either request applications, to know what applications are approved, and to know what applications are unauthorized to help us maintain our cybersecurity status and standard.”
The greater the attendance at the workshops, the less ships will need to contact subject matter experts to help troubleshoot system faults.
“If we can get leadership on ships to allow their Sailors to attend this workshop, I think that would be one way to reach our goals,” Toomer said. “The more we can increase participation and attendance in these workshops, the fewer trouble tickets we will see in the future on many of these systems.”
The Fleet Functional Area Manager’s Office is designated as N41 under NAVIFOR. NAVIFOR’ s mission is to support operational commanders ashore and afloat by providing combat-ready Information Warfare forces, which are forward deployable, fully trained, properly manned, capably equipped, always ready, well maintained, and combat sustainable.
For more information on NAVIFOR, visit the command's website at http://www.navidfor.navy.mil, our Navy News web page at http://www.navy.mil/local/navidfor/ or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/USNavyInformationDominanceForces.