In 2010, United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) implemented the most ambitious and consequential IT initiative in its history. The two key components of the initiative were an enhanced Enterprise Architecture and iDistribute.mil, an enterprise-wide work-centric portal. In concert, they are transforming Department of Defense (DoD) logistics worldwide:

Cost Savings:

In this past year alone, this initiative has directly contributed to a minimum of $500M+ in savings:

• Its impact on the enterprise Corporate Governance Process investment decision process is projected to deliver $400M in annual savings.
• The integrated use of the JDDA-E Governance, Mission, and Programs & Initiatives models provided a total cost avoidance of approximately $35M.
• The prescription of a Common Computing Environment created $50 million in cost avoidance in initial delivery by reducing unnecessary hardware and software redundancies.

Improved Productivity

• 75% reduction in the planning required for global ocean and land transportation movements.
• 26% improvement in transportation container utilization for CENTCOM and EUCOM cargo.
• Operators in the Joint Operational Support Airlift Center (JOSAC) no longer use emails for shift change reports. Instead, they use iDistribute.mil’s discussion thread feature, decreasing shift change time from 30 minutes to five. Impressively, JOSAC has done all of this without spending a dime on new capabilities.
• Instead of “spreadsheet wars,” couriers around the globe update requirements and status changes to a commonly viewable calendar. Real- time scheduling of updates for Courier Division saves two days per week over former processes and yields global schedule visibility.

Reduced Cycle Times

• Global special-lift aircraft validation cycle time reduction from 3 weeks to 10 minutes
• iDistribute.mil automated workflow is estimated to increase the speed of CENTCOM’s Air Cargo validation process by as much as 25%; additional rollouts to EUCOM, AFRICOM, PACOM, NORTHCOM, SOCOM, and STRATCOM are planned.
• Time between delivery and deployment has been reduced by as much as 18 months since within the accredited architecture framework.

Improved Processes

• The iDistribute.mil Portal is transitioning the enterprise away from 50+ stove-piped systems that operate end-to-end distribution processes today. It is designed for customer self-service rather than dependence upon IT experts, exploiting information as a strategic asset. This iGoogle-like capability supports individual workflows across the USTRANSCOM operational command center, including Web 2.0 collaboration tools such as file-sharing, instant messaging, wiki pages, that make data available across the enterprise.
• The architecture’s integrated reference models have determined the optimal course of action for over 100 of the most challenging enterprise requirements.
• For the first time ever, scheduling and visibility of highly sensitive materials available to over 100 Defense Courier stations are available through a single integrated view.
• Unprecedented single view into over 27 million annual U.S.-based supply and resupply requisitions for world-wide air movement; eliminating a huge data-mining burden on the operator.
• Real- time scheduling updates posted to iDistribute.mil discussion threads increase situational awareness and ease reporting burdens.
• The initiative has pioneered a methodology that integrates Lean Six Sigma into an Agile development methodology.