Business process management strengthens AKO/DKO portal

Editor’s Note: The evolution of C4ISR initiatives was affected by a variety of decisions this year. At the same time, efforts to improve upon the technologies that support the warfighter, including command, control, communications and computers and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems, gained new urgency.

Defense Systems asked a number of senior military officers and Pentagon personnel to answer the question: What was the most important C4ISR development of the past year and why as part of a broader year-end assessment on C4ISR developments. Following is the response from Col. Earl Noble, Army Knowledge Online project manager.

“Business process management [is one of the most important developments of the year]. In addition to the Go Mobile effort, Army Knowledge Online is focusing on expanding the use of the BPM tool that is integrated with the AKO/[Defense Knowledge Online] portal. This tool integrates and exploits portal capabilities such as document management and security, permissions, people (users and groups), organizational hierarchy, e-mail and electronic notifications, and it adds capabilities for forms, rules-based decisions, roles and routing activities."

“AKO/DKO has developed several simple processes: launch sequential routing slip, launch advanced routing slip, launch review process, and launch assign action item. Any AKO/DKO user can use these now — and they are trained as part of normal user training."

“The BPM tool enables efficient workflow modeling and cost-effective implementation of applications to support Army and DOD organizations’ missions. It permits an organization to automate a wide range of business operations using a Web-enabled development environment provided by AKO/DKO. For the modest investment required to train its BPM designers, the organization's designers can be certified for access to the AKO BPM development environment to model processes — i.e. develop BPM applications that suit the organization's needs. Currently, there is no cost to the organization for the development or for the ongoing maintenance of applications except for its personnel and training costs. AKO/DKO verifies the processes and promotes them to the operational environment when they are ready."

The designer training required for access to the development environment is available now commercially. AKO/DKO plans to begin providing this training later in fiscal 2010 with its in-house trainers.”