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EDS USA

Leader Spotlight: Greg Deabler
Greg Deabler is leader for Defense Logistics in EDS' Global Government Industry, with extensive experience in both defense and commercial supply chains, IT and strategic planning. He sat down with our newsletter editors to discuss Net-centric Logistics for Global Defense, EDS' capability to enable a knowledge-enabled, demand-driven, collaborative battlespace. Building on our A3 Application Architecture, EDS has the experience and know-how to help defense agencies meet this mission-critical need.

What is Net-centric Logistics for Global Defense?
Net-centric logistics is about transforming the defense logistics function into a modernized logistics network that enables the net-centric operations concept. It is a compilation of EDS' global defense logistics capability and our differentiating experience with the defense OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and commercial transportation and third-party logistics providers. Net-centric logistics addresses two painful long-standing issues - visibility and the fusion of strategic logistics with tactical logistics. You see logistics is increasingly becoming less about moving items and more about moving information about those items. Think of the FedEx model - we value the in-transit tracking information almost as much as the physical arrival of the shipment. Consequently, logistics information increasingly is an integral part of the military's joint operational picture.

We've developed a demonstration of these capabilities, called the Defense Virtual Operations Center (DVOC) that provides role-based information, supply chain intelligence and situational awareness across the domains in the context of a mock joint forces mission. It shows that net-centric logistics is not just about visualizing the mission at the time of a strike, it's about what logistics command and control needs to do four weeks prior to ensure the mission is successful. In a series of these demonstrations, EDS worked with Agility Alliance partners Cisco and Microsoft and integrated several other proven software solutions in the defense segment.

What business challenges are defense clients facing today in logistics?
Defense departments around the world have typically procured their logistics capabilities over time but now they lack the speed and quality of effects required for today's knowledge-enabled, demand-driven battlespace. Specifically, they are challenged by their own structure. The defense supply chain - particularly that of the U.S. Department of Defense - is a composite of large, siloed organizations with their own processes and systems that sub-optimize the end-to-end supply chain.

Traditionally, what this does is constrains visibility and the ultimate pace and efficiency of operations for logistics command-and-control and the warfighter. They are unable to see at times where mission-critical, in-transit assets and supplies are along the supply chain. At the root of unknown inventories and shipment status is poor data quality. Issues are further compounded by the fact that they must not only manually track down this information, they must provide "sense and respond" intelligence and situational awareness - a huge data and information challenge. Lastly, militaries continue to rely more heavily on industry and commercial providers, thereby extending the information challenge even further.

How has EDS addressed this challenge for other clients?
EDS has implemented a similar VOC capability with the Enterprise Virtual Operations Center for the City of Anaheim. EVOC uses visualization and fusion of information from disparate systems to allow Anaheim officials to be situationally aware of events, public safety, vehicle tracking and emergency management through a common operating picture. We're also implementing a similar model of EVOC for the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD), called MarView, to monitor port activity and intermodal conditions. EDS created a virtual 3-D rendering and integration platform to convert multiple disparate data sources into actionable knowledge for MARAD employees, other government officials and key commercial maritime businesses. That was a compelling translation of the VOC capability from one industry segment to the other. Of note, EDS has deployed VOC on itself as we use this capability at our SMC in Plano to provide a global common operating picture of our data centers.

In sum, DVOC is an example of a defense "front plane" as part of our A3 Application Architecture. It positions our logistics domain knowledge, innovation and industry framework along with our core capabilities in the cross-plane and back-plane (legacy integration). We use our MYP approach, service-oriented architecture and our Agile Enterprise concepts to highlight the journey. We also point to our clients' successes using the airline service-oriented architecture and our deep logistics expertise in the materiel tracking solution we developed for the German Armed Forces.

What results do clients see with net-centric logistics?
One of the first benefits clients achieve is visibility, which is just getting access to supply chain data housed in these siloed applications and presented in a common-operating picture dashboard. It provides immense value to the warfighter and supply chain users. They now get to see upstream supplies or downstream events that they otherwise didn't have access to. And then that starts breaking down and opening up possibilities on operational execution and process improvements such as placing an order or finding, for example, the location of the most worn parts. Secondarily, it unleashes a data cleansing process, which in turn unleashes operational intelligence.

So ultimately it transforms their decision support which in today's net-centric world holds great value. Net-centric logistics automates manual transactions that are out there on the supply chain. It helps move from those cumbersome transactions toward a more strategic context through business-process execution. It gets them closer to their mission, closer to the critical path and closer to the end user. And that is a transformational value that all our clients are seeking, and we're helping them deliver that.

For information contact Greg Deabler.

By Kelleyanne Pearce, EDS U.S. Government Communications