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Defense IRM: Strategy Needed for Logistics Information Technology Improvement Efforts

AIMD-97-6 Published: Nov 14, 1996. Publicly Released: Nov 14, 1996.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) efforts over the last 4 years to improve its information systems in the depot maintenance, materiel management, and transportation business areas, focusing on whether selected standard information systems will allow DOD to meet its business objective to dramatically improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its logistics operations.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense To ensure that DOD optimizes its use of information technology to achieve its logistics Corporate Information Management (CIM) goals of dramatic business process improvement and operational cost reduction, the Secretary of Defense should direct that immediate cost-benefit analyses of each logistics migration system be undertaken and halt deployment of those that: (1) cannot be shown to have significant return-on-investment; (2) will not facilitate ongoing efforts to privatize logistics business functions; or (3) do not support efforts to achieve interoperability between and among business activities.
Closed – Implemented
In response to the report, the Director of Logistics Systems Modernization conducted reviews of CIM migration efforts (i.e., ongoing efforts to improve existing systems), including analyses of their return-on-investment. These reviews resulted in two systems within these efforts being terminated and the associated costs through FY 2001 being saved. On the basis of DOD's estimated cost for completing these efforts, the combined cost savings on the two efforts for FY 2000 and FY 2001 are $316 million and $306 million, respectively.
Department of Defense To ensure that DOD optimizes its use of information technology to achieve its logistics CIM goals of dramatic business process improvement and operational cost reduction, the Secretary of Defense should expedite development of a strategic information resources management plan that anchors DOD use of logistics information resources to its highest priority business objectives. The plan should conform with requirements established by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, and the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996.
Closed – Implemented
This recommendation was implemented in FY 2000 when The Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Materiel Readiness (DUSD L&MR) published a new Defense Logistics Strategy under the DOD 2020 Strategic Plan and the 21st Century Logistics Plan. These plans direct the military services and the Defense Logistics Agency to proceed with implementing their seperate logistics strategies and called for anchoring information technology investments to the prioritized logistics goals of the department. Each of the military services and DLA have in turn, developed, and are implementing logistics strategies that contain prioritized goals derived from the DOD 2020 Strategic Plan and the 21st Century Logistics Plan.

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Topics

Defense cost controlDefense economic analysisDefense procurementInformation resources managementInformation technologyLogisticsManagement reengineeringPrivatizationStrategic information systems planningInformation management