Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/476674
B BIg DAtA www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 37 business operations, including information technology, supply chain, workforce mobility and real estate infrastructure to reduce costs. These opportunities for transformation can reduce costs while still maintaining or improving overall mission effectiveness for defence organizations. But many are now turning to big data analytics information management systems to reveal relevant in- sights from their data, as well as to help better quantify results and better predict and respond to future changes. Defence organizations should consolidate data centres, using cloud computing and IT transformation. This helps consolidate and standardize IT across boundaries while retaining essential lo- cal controls of functions where needed. By implementing shared services and creating more "intelligent" operations with analytics, defence organizations can leverage econ- omies of scale, from start to fi nish, to reduce costs. This includes providing shared services for common functions in which applica- tions on legacy networks are migrated to a network-centric shared services environment. Moving from manual to automated process- es can reduce costs, improve responsiveness and user satisfaction. By eliminating duplication of multiple supply chains, defence or- ganizations can further optimize inventory by calculating optimal order quantities, safety quantities, availability and required service levels. In Canada, the Department of National Defence is working on a major transformation project across the military that allows personnel to create equipment and vehicle maintenance requisi- tions and work-orders on their computers in the fi eld, eliminating paper-based processes. Improving effi ciency, maintenance actions and building utiliza- tion for military organizations using instrumentation and analysis to improve facility management helps create smarter installations. Connecting disparate data sources provides an enterprise view of resources while minimizing investment costs. Individual productivity can be improved by integrating com- munications and collaboration tools into a single unifi ed user experience. Social computing software and presence technology enhancements present an opportunity to accelerate decision-mak- ing, streamline business processes, simplify communications, and enable effective collaboration. Applying advanced analytics to identify new insights from the tremendous streams of data available helps make connections and make more effective use of scarce resources. Financial improve- ment efforts will provide needed accountability and inject rigor into fi nancial processes. Defence organizations set the vision for change in these areas by having a multitude of silos with competing internal interests for funding and control of the activities that are critical to their mis- sion. This paradox occurs because few organizations want to risk their ability to succeed in performing assigned tasks by depending on personnel, systems or responsiveness outside of their control. However, this challenge leads to signifi cant redundancies, ineffi - ciencies and incompatible systems, even within a single service, let alone an entire defence organization. Program managers can only affect results within their span of control. Achieving a step change in effi ciency and cost-effectiveness re- quires strategic vision and clear direction from senior leaders from the start. Consolidation, cross-organization dependencies and sup- port tasking must be assigned by those with the authority to be directive in those actions, both with policy and budget controls.