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US Army - Enterprise License

US Army - Enterprise License

With a mandate to protect freedom and preserve peace, effective and rapid decision-making is of paramount importance to the U.S. Army. Thousands of decisions are made daily -- from supply orders to medical, logistical, transportation and personnel matters.

Those decisions can’t be implemented until they are properly authorized. And for centuries, the best way to confirm that authorization was with a signature on a paper form. But that paper-based system can no longer handle the speed and flexibility that is required in the field today. Not to mention the costs and exposures of maintaining such a labor-intensive workflow.

The Army already had converted the front-end of that traditional process with computer-produced dynamic documents that helped soldiers locate, download, store and fill out forms. But the last mile in the process was the same: the form needed to be printed, signed and routed through thetraditional approval processes. In addition, the Army was looking for a way to use its forms-based processes to create an enterprise-wide backbone to automate many business processes with a single, Internet-based solution.


Full Success Story

New Process Eliminates Exposure By Soldiers To Enemy Fire

 

The Problem

Increase productivity and decrease costs for the Army’s use of forms and document-based business processes

The Solution

Convert to a single, enterprise electronic signing solution across the Army that meets compliance and legal requirements

 

The Technology

New Process Eliminates Exposure By Soldiers To Enemy Fire

As a result, the Army chose to completely re-engineer its forms-based business processes with an integrated forms management solution from PureEdge Solutions, Inc., then an IBM Business Partner, along with middleware and hardware from IBM and software from Silanis Technology, Inc.

The Army has an inventory of more than 100,000 different types of forms, used by about 1.4 million Army personnel around the world. Many of the forms will be converted to an e-forms process that enables digital signing, as well as transmission and approval of forms over the Internet.

The new forms program is expected to save $1.3 billion annually in administrative processing costs alone when the system is fully automated -- to say nothing of making Army personnel more efficient, productive and responsive. For the first time, the Army will have a single, centralized format for electronic documents based upon open standards.

The Forms Content Management Program will not only provide fillable forms, storage of data, and enable a form to be pushed from PC to PC using digital signatures, the program will also provide the U.S. Army the means to develop one single enterprise solution for automating functional business processes for the entire Army’s use,” said Jeanne Harman, chief of the Army Publishing Division, in Alexandria, Virginia.

Live Applications

  • US Army Accessions Command
    One of the Army's earliest ApproveIt adopters, the Army Accessions Command saw such compelling results that it immediately applied to equip all of its 23,000 computers with the software, once the enterprise license became available.
  • US Army - Munitions Management Office 
    With more than 8,000 Army and Marine Corps users ordering everything from 9mm rounds to rockets and missiles, the action of requesting, approving and validating must be tightly controlled, yet timely enough to allow quick response for both training and combat needs.

Productivity Gains

The implementation of XML electronic forms with digital signatures promises to improve efficiencies of Army personnel in the field. XML stands for Extensible Markup Language and is a specification designed especially for Web documents.

As a recognized standard, XML allows for the definition, transmission, validation and interpretation of data between applications and organizations. Support for XML documents, such as PureEdge e-forms built into IBM’s on demand operating environment enables the exchange of information among applications, systems and people.

The use of electronic signatures in the e-form eliminates the need for soldiers to organize combat patrols to get documents signed. These convoys consisted of several Army personnel in a three-to-four vehicle convoy transporting a printed form to a fort operating base for signature in combat areas, such as Iraq. Similarly, palettes of paper forms were flown by air cargo ships through war-torn countries back to the United States for processing and storage.

The new process will eliminate the need for Army personnel to be exposed to enemy fire in transporting forms for signature and approval.

Previous paper-based form processes were estimated, conservatively, to take 10 hours to complete each form. With one form being handled by about six personnel throughout the year, it is anticipated that Army personnel will save a total of 60 hours annually per form.

In total, the implementation of XML e-forms with electronic signature capabilities, is expected to save the Army millions of person hours across numerous departments.

ApproveIt Enterprise Platform Features

  • Support for GPEA, E-Gov, OMB and E-SIGN
  • JITC-certified and PKI-enabled approved
  • Support for DoD-PKI, .x509 digital certificates, CAC, CRL, and FIPS PUB 180-1 & 186-1
  • Support for IBM Forms, Adobe PDF, MS Word, MS Excel and XHTML forms.
  • Standardized approach for ensuring secure, compliant, legally enforceable and auditable records across all Army business processes

The Competition Was Tough . . But Not Tough Enough

Paul Chan, vice president of marketing for PureEdge, said, “The IBM/PureEdge/Silanis team was in head-to-head competition with a consortium from Oracle, BEA, Adobe and BearingPoint. The real strength of our unique solution was based on the tight integration between PureEdge e-forms and the entire IBM on demand environment. The shared open standards approach of the team gives the Army a scalable solution that will ensure flexibility for the future. The combination of IBM middleware with PureEdge e-forms built on native XML documents is a powerful one with proven success in large enterprise-wide deployments.”

How Does It Work?

Customers can work on their e-forms online or offline. A user-friendly PureEdge interface guides them easily through the form completion process. Form users can now save their work,then add to it, revise it or review it later at their convenience. WebSphere Portal will allow Army personnel to open multiple windows or portlets. Within a portlet, they can view items, such as an in-basket, a list of commonly used forms, or forms awaiting completion. They can access, use and share information or applications.