Wireless service companies provide their customers with “dashboards” detailing their usage trends to substantiate charges. Some even analyze usage and suggest ways customers can pay less while maintaining appropriate coverage. Wireless companies use dynamic data analysis to break down personal phone bills into easily understandable content; DON CIO uses the same technology to review the Department of the Navy’s IT expenditures via the DON IT Efficiencies Dashboard, as shown in Figure 1. The Dashboard enables DON leadership to make the right decisions at the right time based on timely, actionable information. Having an ongoing and consistent review of the data is critical, because efficiency is not a one-time task.
Starting in fiscal year 2012, the DON transitioned to a single primary purchaser of mobility services. With the help of the Fleet Logistics Center San Diego contract office, the Dashboard team was able to map mobile device costs. The DON Dashboard employs usage and spending data from the Navy enterprise contract for mobile devices to provide visibility into spending across the DON, as shown in Figure 2. The data, provided at both the enterprise and command levels, has enabled decisions that have reduced department mobile device spending by nearly $1 million per month or more than $10 million throughout FY 13 without affecting mission capability.
Another DON efficiency initiative, the data center consolidation effort, revealed a gap in situational awareness. DON CIO collaborated with the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Dominance (OPNAV N2/N6) and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) to develop an interactive map that provides a full accounting of all Navy data centers. Universal cost elements such as power and labor, and other cost and risk elements were mapped to locations to help leaders make better decisions regarding data center consolidation. The map challenged preconceived consolidation targets with accurate site cost data versus anecdotal information.
Like the mobility initiative, the infrastructure map (see Figure 3) is consistently updated to reflect changes across the enterprise. The DON tool aligns with DoD’s authoritative data source, the Characterization and Dependency Analysis Tool (CADAT).
The Dashboard will continue to be refined and its data integrated into authoritative systems, such as the Program/Budget initiative System for Information Technology (PBIS IT), to create better information and support informed decisions.
LINK TO DASHBOARD FOR CAC HOLDERS: https://www.doncio.navy.mil/don-cio-dashboard/