When was the AESMS office first stood up?

The office was stood up in October 2016, and that was a result of our efforts in implementing a task management solution to the headquarters department of the Army. And in our efforts with HQDA, a lot of the other Army commands and organizations subordinate to HQDA started coming to us seeking similar solutions to what we’re providing, and as a result we had to establish a project office to manage all those requirements.

When you set out, what was the problem you were looking to solve?

HQDA identified a capability gap with task management. Prior to us implementing the task management tool for them, they were leveraging a technology-based tracking system; however, they were still using the blue folders to manage all their correspondence, as they were routing them through office to office for the various levels of edits, reviews and concurrences. The capability we’re providing them digitizes the entire process from the version control of the documents, editing of the documents, to including digital signatures for the final product.

It eliminates the personnel walking down the hallways and eliminates the stacks of papers. And it provides real-time feedback on exactly where the document is in the process and who actually has it at that time. Senior leaders can look and query that at any time and figure out where things are.

Do the blue folders still exist?

In the end, the blue folders will be phased out. Right now, the plan is for HQDA to be fully operational using the new task management tool by June.

Why didn’t you just go with the Pentagon’s system?

The product that we’re using to meet HQDA’s requirements is the task management tool, which is a product of the Accenture Federal Services. We came to that solution based on the requirement that we had to be able to interact with OSD’s staff management solution. That was a specified requirement that we had to meet; we couldn’t fold on that.

As we were doing our market research at the time, the task management tool was the only commercial off-the-shelf system that was able to interact with CATMS [Correspondence and Task Management System] out of the box.

What functionality will the system have when it reaches full operating capability in July?

By July, the vision end-state on how HQDA staff will be running is that you won’t see the folders with the staff action summary sheets on people’s desks. It’ll all be virtual in their computer and on the network.

So, first, the elimination of all those staffing folders. Secondly, I’m expecting the senior leaders to see efficiencies in the timeliness of actions being processed. Where normally you would have a policy memorandum or a revision to an Army regulation or a memorandum for record being staffed through – that would take several days to a couple weeks for it to go through three different offices – we’re hoping to be able to measure that in the number of hours or maybe even the number of days.

And then, obviously, we’re going to eliminate a lot of waste, with using a lot of paper and printing out things and whatnot. And, lastly, we’ll be able to have a concise archiving process because anything that goes into the system will be archived.

Paperwork management isn’t always sexy. How important is this tool?

For me, it’s that I can go to bed at night saying, I’m saving the taxpayer and the government money.

At a minimum, it provides a capability, at least right now, within the Army that makes everybody’s job more efficient and in some aspects easier to do. Whether that be a simple policy letter or whether it be an Army regulation or revision to doctrine, in some way that has a direct impact to the war fighter.

What is the future of AESMS?

A year from now, I see HQDA running self-sustained as far as working with AESMS and the task management tool. But I also see our interactions with other Army agencies increasing.

Supporting HQDA was just the start of the evolution. I would say that we’re going to probably have ten or so additional customers this time next year. Then, five years from now, I see this, hopefully, as a formal enterprise solution for the Army and maybe DoD; maybe not being hosted at ALTESS [Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Enterprise Systems and Services] but maybe one of the DoD clouds or in the commercial cloud environment.

What advice do you have for other project managers thinking of starting a new program office?

If you’re thinking about it within DoD, as far as trying to develop a solution set to fill in a capability gap, I would say definitely foster relationships with your industry partners because they either already have a solution or they’re already thinking about the same solution that you’re trying to do. … And, two, when you’re dealing with information technology, things are continually evolving, things are always changing, whether it be in the cybersecurity arena or whether it be in computing capacity, computing power or whether it be in software code. … The more you can leverage your relationship with industry, the more you can be in step with them and in step with the modernization.

The agency suspended Nirala’s security clearance in 2014, and a week later FBI agents uncovered more than 20 classified documents while executing a search warrant of his home, which he claimed not to have, according to Department of Justice officials.

Two years later, on March 8, 2016, law enforcement officials arrived at Nirala’s home to execute an arrest warrant. Upon finding him in the basement of his home, federal agents also discovered a box containing more than 500 pages of Secret and Top Secret material.

Nirala pleaded guilty on Sept. 16, 2016, and was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Executive of the Year: James “Hondo” Geurts

The Executive of the Year award is given to a single person that, through their vision and strength of will, pushes the boundaries of government to deliver solutions to critical problems.

In doing our due diligence on this year’s winner, Federal Times spoke with a number of colleagues who said, to a person, that we had the right man for the inaugural award.

As the leadership behind programs like SOFWERX — an incubator successfully fostering collaboration between the government and private sector to solve tough problems — and the “Ghost Program,” also known as “Top Gun for acquisition,” Special Operations Forces Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (SOF AT&L) Director James Geurts is “reinventing how USSOCOM invents,” as one acquisition official put it.

Through these programs and other initiatives, Geurts and his teams delivered in the last year 116 aircraft/systems, 1,014 vehicles, nine maritime craft, 42,334 weapons/accessories, 235,116 operator survival items and 4,909 radios/equip — all with a permanent staff of fewer than 500 people.

Unsung Hero of the Year: Ryan Wells

In starting this awards program, Federal Times sought to ensure it was highlighting the people on the ground who are making a difference — the ones who see a problem and don’t linger, don’t wait to be asked, but act and in the process change lives.

While the other recipients of the inaugural Vanguard Awards are certainly deserving, Ryan Wells, laboratory information manager for a VA medical center in Missouri, perfectly exemplifies the true nature of this award: the ability to see a problem, identify a solution and forge ahead to get things done.

When Wells realized a colleague was forced to waste time with repetitive, rote tasks, he took it upon himself to write a program in his spare time to automate this task. That program is now being used throughout the medical center and at nearby hospitals.

“Mr. Wells was not requested to create this database,” according to the nominator. “He simply recognized an opportunity to improve care provided to the veterans in southeast Missouri and the surrounding areas through utilization of technology.”

Special thanks to the Federal Times Advisory Board: Dan Blair, president and CEO of the National Academy of Public Administration, former deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management; Robert Carey, vice president of Navy and Marine Corps Programs at Vencore, former principal deputy CIO at the Department of Defense; Karen Evans, national director of the US Cyber Challenge, former administrator of the Office of Electronic Government and IT, Office of Management and Budget; Beth McGrath, director of federal sector at Deloitte Consulting, former deputy chief management officer at the Department of Defense; Paul Posner, director of the Graduate Public Administration Program at George Mason University, former Government Accountability Office director of intergovernmental programs; Franklin Reeder, founder of the Center for Internet Security, former director of the White House Office of Administration; Stan Soloway, president and CEO at Celero Strategies, LLC, former Professional Services Council CEO, former deputy undersecretary of defense; Linda Springer, former Office of Personnel Management director; Max Stier, president and CEO of Partnership for Public Service, former deputy general counsel for litigation at the Department of Housing and Urban Development; Robert Tobias, director of business development for American University’s Key Executive Leadership Programs, former president of the National Treasury Employees Union; and Steve Watkins, founder and president of Watkins Communications, former editor of Federal Times.

James Clapper has long said he planned to retire at the end of the Obama administration, and he told the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday that he submitted his letter of resignation on Wednesday evening.

Committee members jokingly asked him to stay on for perhaps four more years. Clapper said his wife probably would have a problem with that.

Clapper has held the job since August 2010. He was previously a lieutenant general in the Air Force and director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Clapper also told the committee Russia curtailed its election-related cyber activity after the Obama administration accused Moscow of trying to interfere with the presidential election. He said Russia’s information warfare is still likely to continue.

Hacked emails from Democratic Party officials were released by Wikileaks during the presidential campaign, revealing details embarrassing to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The intelligence director and the Department of Homeland Security said in October that based on the “scope and sensitivity” of the hacking efforts, only Russia’s “senior-most officials” could have authorized the hacking. Russia has denied involvement.

Clapper told the House intelligence committee on Thursday that Russia will probably continue to conduct information warfare. Clapper said the intelligence community has less insight into how Wikileaks obtained the emails.

In general, the internet of things, machine learning and artificial intelligence are fueling an explosion of data collection by companies, and as more and more personally identifiable information is conglomerated there is even more of a need for security and risk professionals to escalate security hygiene, say company officials in 2017 cybersecurity predictions.

Broader connectivity, including cloud and bring-your-own-device adoption, creates the potential for more vulnerabilities, whether from targeted espionage, ransomware, IP theft, denial of service or privacy breaches. Forrester believes this opens the possibility of a Fortune 1000 company failing through bankruptcy, acquisition or regulatory enforcement due to a cyberattack unless proper time is spent protecting critical assets and systems.

The merger, acquisition and partnership arrangements of healthcare providers are also creating an irresistible target full of unique, permanent information, such as genetic markers and biometric data, and these conglomerates need to spend more than a quarter of their IT budget on security at a minimum.

In addition, the increase in internet of things devices opens up vulnerabilities in fleet management in transportation, security and surveillance apps in government, inventory and warehouse management apps in retail and industrial asset management in primary manufacturing. Quick remediation, including over-the-air patching, and fully automated scripted security testing should be a must from the beginning of development, suggests Forrester.

Finally, a lack of internal resources can force CISOs to turn to external services, so combining 75-percent human decision-making with 25-percent automation will reinforce the rules of engagement and improve mitigation in the case of a genuine threat.

The volume and complexity of concerns is growing, cautions the firm, so the key is to assume failure, focus on developing resilience skills and strategic resources and constantly optimize detection, prevention and response synergism.

The entire predictions guide can be downloaded from Forrester’s website.