Alion to Provide Analysis for U.S. Army Enterprise Transformation
Alion Science and Technology received a 3-year, $6.4 million contract (N61339-03-D-0300-221) to provide research and analysis to the U.S. Army Enterprise Task Force (ETF) Director for the Army’s enterprise transformation effort.
Alion is leading a team of contractors, including BRTRC, ICF International and Ascendant Strategy Management Group. The contract period of performance runs from May 2009 through February 2012. The Defense Technical Information Center in Fort Belvoir, VA manages the contract (N61339-03-D-0300-221).
DID has more on the Army’s enterprise transformation effort…
Under the contract, Alion will provide research, analysis, findings and recommendations to the U.S. Army ETF Director across the spectrum of Army infrastructure, processes and practices. The ETF executes the directives of the Army Secretary and Chief of Staff in developing the enterprise approach to Army decision-making and leads the adaptation of Army culture, organizations and processes.
In his farewell address Jan. 07/09, Undersecretary of the Army Nelson Ford described what real-world effects the Army hoped to achieve through the EFT:
“The Secretary and the Chief have launched the Enterprise Task Force (ETF), which, I believe, will help the Army explore how to adapt our institution to the coming fiscal challenge. From my perspective, the key test for the ETF is not in designing the new wiring diagram for the reorganization; it is to figure out what effects we are trying to achieve and how to measure our ability to achieve them.
“Let me give you an example: we all know that the modular BCTs [brigade combat teams] are more effective than legacy brigades. But, how much more effective? If we knew how much more effective they were, would that change our calculus about how many of them we need? I don’t know the answers to this question, but it is the kind of question I think we need to be asking in the future.
“The reason that understanding effects are so important is that for the Army, effectiveness is the gold standard, not efficiency. In any case, you can’t be more efficient until you understand what your effectiveness measures are-what it is you’re trying to do.
“This exercise will lead inevitably to the conclusion that the Army has more mission than money and cause us to make some tough choices. Tough choices are never easy, but they are inevitable. The question I leave you with is this-in a dangerous world, in an era of persistent engagement, when we are unlikely to have a year or two to get ready to respond, how can we sustain our readiness?
“There are likely to be things that we are attached to that we will have to forego and there will be some jobs that we just won’t be able to do. Now, I know that “no” is not an Army value, and I’m not trying to change that now. But let me suggest that when someone comes up with the next great task that they want to give the Army, we temper “yes” with some qualifiers, like “if”, or “but”, or “when.” I know this will be hard at first, but if we know what effects we are trying to achieve and we know how much money it takes to achieve each one, then we will be standing on a firm foundation-not sand-when these foreign words cross our lips.
“The alternative is an Army with too much to do and not enough money to succeed. We’ve had that experience before.”
