The Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) has now reached a new level of interoperability and integration for its users, simply by connecting them with their counterparts across the Department of Defense. A new Enterprise Global Address List (GAL) allows NMCI users to find people in the other branches of the military from their desktops.
In the spring, NMCI rolled out a new GAL that synchronizes NMCI with the Defense Information Systems Agency's (DISA) Joint Enterprise Directory Services. JEDS houses the contact information for personnel in the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED), the Integrated Shipboard Network System (IT-21/ISNS), as well as other Defense agencies.
From Microsoft Outlook, users will be able to search all DoD address books, or narrow their search by selecting a specific agency's address book. Once a contact is found, users will be able to easily add that individual to their contacts.
"The addition of this service reflects a new level of interoperability for NMCI users," said Capt. Scott Weller, program manager for NMCI, which is part of the program portfolio of the Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS). "This new GAL will allow for greater collaboration between our enterprises and the DoD community, a key component of the DON's Maritime Strategy."
Current DoD directory services do not support interoperability between services, which makes e-mail and contact information in those directories inaccessible to the larger DoD community. Per DoD Directive 8500.1, the services were instructed to become net-centric by integrating all DoD information directory services. NMCI is the first defense IT network to meet the requirements of the DoD directive.
The roll-out of the new GAL will reach all NMCI users by the end of the summer. Users will receive a user alert approximately two days prior to their scheduled installation.
To receive the new GAL, users must be logged onto their computer, but not necessarily Outlook. If users are logged into their Outlook inbox, they will receive a warning requiring them to close Microsoft Outlook. Once closed, Microsoft Outlook will briefly launch and close twice, taking about a minute to complete.
Following implementation, users can go to "Tools: Address Book: Show names from the:" to see the additional directories listed in their Windows Address Book .
The immediate benefit will be greater access to information in all DoD branches. Users will be able to search for contacts, in all DoD address books, or narrow their search by selecting a specific agency's directory. Once a contact is found, users will be able to easily copy that individual to their contacts list.
About NMCI
The Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) is the Department of the Navy's shorebased enterprise network in the United States and Okinawa and is part of the program portfolio of the Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS). NMCI provides a single, integrated IT environment for reliable, stable information transfer.
|