Clemins says a global intranet will help DOD achieve systems goals
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HONOLULU—The De-fense Department next year should develop a global intranet to ensure the success of initiatives such as electronic commerce and paperless contracting, Adm. Archie Clemins urged this month. "You hear all these people talking about how we're going to electronic commerce, electronic budgeting and an electronic assignment policy," the Pacific Fleet commander said this month at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association's TechNet Asia-Pacific '98 conference.
HONOLULUThe De-fense Department next year should develop a global intranet to
ensure the success of initiatives such as electronic commerce and paperless contracting,
Adm. Archie Clemins urged this month.
You hear all these people talking about how were going to electronic
commerce, electronic budgeting and an electronic assignment policy, the Pacific
Fleet commander said this month at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics
Associations TechNet Asia-Pacific 98 conference.
But we cant do any of that stuff if we dont have a corporate intranet
connected to every building, every base, every ship and every squadron, he said.
Only by implementing a departmentwide intranet can DOD realize its vision of a
knowledge-centric environment, said Clem-ins, the architect of the Navys Information
Technology for the 21st Century initiative.
Time is of the essence, he said, given the number of near-term Defense initiatives that
must rely on such a network capabilityall the more reason for DOD to deploy an
enterprisewide intranet before 2000.
If somebody wanted to make a difference in DOD, theyd say we ought to put
in a corporate intranet and were going to do it in one year, Clemins said.
I think we would save the amount of money that it would take to put it in in just
one year.
Although Clemins did not offer any specifics on the estimated costs of such a project
or how DOD might implement an intranet on such a grand scale, he said that current
commercial information technology is up to the challenge.
Joint Vision 2010 is based on 1998 technology, not 2010 technology, Clemins
said, referring to DODs long-term strategy. So, why are we waiting for
2010?
Clemins said he has already discussed his ideas about a departmentwide intranet with
senior Navy officials.