Army looks for single AKO portal contract

By the end of summer, the Army plans to award a single contract to a vendor for maintenance of its Army Knowledge Online portal.

More than 25 contractors are working on different components of the AKO portal, said Lt. Gen. Steven Boutelle, Army CIO. This has resulted in redundant efforts and now the Army wants to consolidate enterprise services on the portal, he added.

There are about 1.6 million accounts registered on AKO.

The Army is also in the process of rewriting the acquisition strategy for its Warfighter Information Network-Tactical project and will soon present the new strategy to Michael Wynne, deputy undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and technology, Boutelle added.

Through the WIN-T program, worth more than $10 billion, the Army plans to build a high-speed, high-capacity network for wired and wireless voice, data, video and imagery communications for soldiers on the battlefield.

Boutelle joined four other top service IT leaders during a plenary session today at the TechNet International 2004 show in Washington, D.C., to discuss the way ahead for their agencies. The other leaders represented the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

The Air Force is adding some waveforms to the Joint Tactical Radio System for better aircraft and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance connectivity, said Maj. Gen Charlie Croom, the Air Force's director of command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

The Marine Corps is creating a Community of Interest for civilian personnel and working on an exchange program with the Air Force. The program, according to Debra Filippi, deputy CIO, would be "a nice steppingstone for the National Civilian Personnel System" and would give each service's civilians a chance to work inside another agency.