This is why the Army is implementing Single Army Logistics Enterprise and transforming logistics through the use of commercial enterprise resource planning systems. SALE provides the road map for implementing improved business processes that the service can monitor and assess, as well as redesign and improve on a continuous basis as warfighter requirements change. Through ERP applications, the Army will achieve complete visibility and tracking of items throughout the supply chain, from procurement to fulfillment.

Because of SALE’s complexity and importance, the Program Executive Officer for Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS) established a SALE program manager organization that’s comprised of three emerging programs: Global Combat Service Support–Army (Field/Tactical), the Logistics Modernization Program and the Product Lifecycle Management Plus program. Concurrently, PM SALE will sustain other current and bridge programs leading to SALE, such as the Unit Level Logistics System–Aviation Enhanced and the Standard Army Maintenance System–Enhanced.

GCSS–Army (F/T), scheduled for fielding in 2009, will support more than 160,000 users. GCSS will provide around-the-clock status of all supplies ordered on the battlefield, eliminating the need to guess when and where critical supplies will arrive. Also, GCSS will give operations officers visibility into their units’ equipment and maintenance status prior to organizing for battle. This will be a giant leap from the logistics operations on today’s battlefield.

LMP modernizes Army national-level logistics business practices and the supporting IT to meet current and future readiness requirements, consistent with the Defense Department’s Business Systems Transition Plan. The supporting ERP provides an integrated logistics management capability for supply, demand, asset availability and distribution, as well as data and financial control and reporting. In effect, LMP revolutionizes the Army’s supply chain by creating an interface directly with industry suppliers for buying and tracking of repair parts, weapons systems and materiel.

LMP will return $3.30 for every dollar invested. As the service develops and launches other SALE components, the Army expects a similar magnitude of operational efficiency and return on investment. The program is live at two Army depots and scheduled for further implementation servicewide. Under LMP, the service will replace legacy logistics systems, including the inventory management Commodity Command Standard System and the depot and arsenal operations Standard Depot System.

“We must build the world’s most cost-effective military.”

PLM+ is the technical enabler that will link GCSS–Army (F/T) and LMP to other Army, joint and external systems. PLM+ is possibly the single largest technology leap being pursued within the DOD Business Enterprise. It will be the path for moving the Army away from proprietary, tightly coupled (and expensive to build and maintain) system interfaces to service-enabled enterprise portal applications that use loosely coupled, discoverable and reusable Web services for exchanging information.

The benefits provided by modernized business systems will make sustaining widely dispersed forces more cost-effective and let the United States achieve ultimate victory in the global war on terror.

The secretary of the Army will soon announce that the entire service, not only the logistics community, will consolidate IT services at regional area processing centers. The first two APCs will be at Defense Information System Agency megacenters.

Shock and awe allows short-term victory, but our ability to economically sustain world-class support over the long haul is the key to America’s success.

Lt. Gen. Steven W. Boutelle is CIO for the Army.

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