754 ELSG Division shapes, supports IT purchases across DoD

  • Published
  • By Stephen W. Hurst
  • 754th Electronic Systems Group Public Affairs
Hanscom Air Force Base --  In its ongoing support of military operations, the 754th Electronic Systems Group Enterprise Services Division continues to shape, acquire and support warfighting information technology capabilities that increase the effectiveness of the Air Force, Department of Defense and other federal agencies.

"We accomplish that mission through responsive, adaptive and cost-effective business solutions," said Matthew Benavides, 754 ELSG Enterprise Services Division director. "It is our responsibility to help agencies meet their mission by leading the Air Force in optimizing the IT investment, and delivering the right solution at the right time at the right price."

Throughout fiscal year 2006, the Enterprise Services Division supported a variety of operational programs such as the Global Combat Support Systems; the Combat Information Transport System, CITS Block 30 Spiral 1; telecommunications requirements at Hill AFB, Utah; the F-22 System Program Office, Naval Air Systems Command; Navy Installations Command and Naval Communications Station-Guam; the Army Director of Operations and Information Management at Fort Bragg, N.C., Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and Fort Rucker Ala.; the Joint Staff; U.S. Central Command; the Defense Information Systems Agency; the Defense Commissary Agency and several other federal agencies.

"Our goal continues to become the preferred contracting vehicle for the products and services government agencies need," he said. "It is important for us to share best practices with all branches of the military and other federal agencies. As a reflection of this value, a large percentage of our business occurs outside the Air Force."
A key business of the Enterprise Services Division, the Air Force Network-Centric Solutions program, had contract sales totaling $693 million for Fiscal Year 2006, of which $418 million went to small businesses.

"We recognize that small business makes up a huge part of the economy, and we have established goals to include small businesses in our program," said Mr. Benavides, "That's why it is so important to us that small business was involved in nearly two-thirds of the total dollar amount of Network-Centric Solutions business for fiscal year '06."
NETCENTS provides the Air Force, DoD and other federal agencies a primary source of networking equipment and product supply and a means of system engineering, installation, integration, operations and maintenance for a family of DoD-adopted, commercially standardized, networking solutions that are interoperable with Air Force, joint, and DoD Standardized Networking Technical Architectures, Mr. Benavides said.
In 2004, the Air Force began mandating that desktop and laptop computers be purchased through AFWay, the Quarterly Enterprise Buy process or from small businesses.

QEBs generated the purchase of 82,713 desktops, monitors and laptops for a total cost of more than $64 million with an estimated cost avoidance of more than $27 million in Fiscal Year 2006. Since the inception of the QEB, the planned purchasing of hardware has encompassed more than 287,000 units at an estimated cost avoidance of nearly $81 million.

The Enterprise Software Initiative and Enterprise Software Agreements support the purchase of commercial-off-the-shelf software and associated services and hardware for the DoD, Coast Guard, intelligence community, NATO and foreign military sales customers.

The ESI is a DoD initiative to streamline the acquisition process and provide best-priced, standards-compliant information technology. It is a business discipline used to coordinate multiple IT investments and leverage the buying power of the government for commercial IT products and services. Enterprise Services Agreements with individual IT vendors are the vehicle used to accomplish the ESI.

"By consolidating IT requirements and negotiating Enterprise Agreements with software vendors, the DoD realizes significant Total Cost of Ownership savings in IT acquisition and maintenance," Mr. Benavides said. "The goal is to develop and implement a process to identify, acquire, distribute and manage IT from the enterprise level."

Fiscal year 2006 sales against the AF ESI agreement are estimated at $119 million and expected to save the government about $19 million. ESI agreements are currently supporting major Air Force initiatives to include the Oracle, Microsoft and Symantec Enterprise Software agreements, as well as the Defense Enterprise Accounting Management System and U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Combat Support System Enterprise Resource Planning product and system integration efforts.