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![1105 Media [valor]](/images/ds1_pntmlogo.gif "1105 Media [valor]") |
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home > May/June 2007 issue > article
Urgent needs system gets smarter
By Brian Robinson
Special to Defense Systems
Marines in the field use something called the Universal Needs System to get the supplies they needed yesterday. But until recently, the system’s technology didn’t fit its speedy goals.
The warfighters would make their requests by filling out a Microsoft Word template and then sending the document as an attachment through regular e-mail. Not surprisingly, this often caused a scramble to find out how many of those requests had been made and where they were in the system.
When Ron Simmons recently came to the Marine Corps on loan from the Federal Aviation Administration, he suggested a new approach that would use Microsoft SharePoint and CorasWorks’ Workplace suite of Web-based collaboration applications, something FAA has used with good results.
Layered on top of the Microsoft collaboration and information services, the CorasWorks applications enable much more transparent workflows so that everyone involved in the process — from troops on the ground to issue and acquisition specialists — knows just what requests have been made and when, and where those requests are at any time in the fulfillment process.
The CorasWork tools allow for rapid development of whatever is needed by collaboration environment users, said Simmons, director of knowledge management integration at the Marine Corps.
“We had the first prototype done in a week, and the second and third iterations just a little later,” he said.
The tools are simple enough that the Marine Corps will easily be able to maintain the system after the initial development team closes shop, said Larry Roshfeld, senior vice president of marketing at CorasWorks.
“No custom coding is required, and since everything is done through on-screen settings and policy tables, you don’t even need development knowledge,” he said. “A Marine in the field who has basic Word or Excel skills will easily be able to modify it.”
Because the system is also modular and the applications can make calls to any standard databases, parts of the system can be reused in other ones.
“We’re already getting requests from other DOD agencies for them to use program modules in their systems,” Simmons said.
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