PEO C3S is considered a leader in the Army for technology and innovation in the battlefield. In the year 2000 paperless initiative, it became one of three Knowledge Management pilots within DOD. The PEO C3S Knowledge Center provides the PEO C3S community of over 6,000 worldwide users with a centralized, secure Web-based Center for information sharing, document management, real-time collaboration, and the automation of business processes.

The Challenge

The PEO C3S, a geographically dispersed organization with subordinate commands throughout the United States and with personnel worldwide, knows firsthand the challenges of Knowledge Management. The downsizing of its workforce coincided with a new mission: Integrate an extensive suite of legacy and new major weapon systems to provide them to an entire Army division as a new way to operate in the digitized battlefield. An environment where project/product managers and integrated product teams could effectively support the Army digitization effort was needed. A major need was to bridge the gap between the Tactical and Institutional Army for processes, information sharing and technologies

The Symbolic Solution

The PEO C3S needed a Knowledge Management system for its worldwide personnel with project management tools/applications and real-time collaboration capabilities. Symbolic was involved in the Knowledge Management system (Knowledge Center), from the very beginning: in the vision, business plans, design and development, project management, and the rollout of the application. Symbolic remains involved through its continuing systems integration with legacy systems, and through project management and help desk support and training.
Symbolic designed the Knowledge Center to allow access to valid users via a front page (portal) through the Internet and a standard browser. Since the users already used a standard email package, Symbolic used commercial off-the-shelf software for the basis of the application. This leveraged the existing email infrastructure to create a user friendly portal for real-time collaboration.
The Knowledge Center was created to have eight functional areas: (1) Institutional Awareness, (2) Team Tools, (3) Information Exchange, (4) Knowledge Management, (5) Document Ware-housing, (6) Collaboration and Real-time collaboration, (7) Workflow and (8) Secure Messaging. Members are provided with real-time information such as news, meetings and events, and product and project updates. Through online tools, project/product teams can manage tasks, track activities and conduct virtual meetings. The Knowledge Center replaced local data storage with a central repository for information so that project teams can share knowledge and data. The user community can utilize lessons learned through others from subject matter listings, functional knowledge areas and best practices guides. The Knowledge Center was designed to increase productivity.

The Results

Symbolic effectively and efficiently rolled out the Knowledge Center to over 6,000 users. The Knowledge Center has been a great success and was the winner of the 2000 Government Technology Leadership Award. The application is currently being reviewed for institutionalization throughout the Department of Defense. The Knowledge Center has provided a platform for the PEO to initiate the new business processes that were required to successfully develop their integrated battlefield mission. Processes that were paper based are now streamlined electronic processes. In addition, the Knowledge Center has been rolled out to 4 other Army organizations, utilizing the existing infrastructure and leveraging knowledge to provide them a low cost and quick implementation.
Symbolic remains integrally involved in the Knowledge Center’s operations. We continue to enhance the system, help coordinate training and usage through on-site project management, provide call center registration, and help desk support for its worldwide users.

About The PEO C3S