Defense Innovation Board officials pointed to efforts to streamline the acquisition process, rapid technology deployment and promotion of competition as some of the key challenges to modernization, GovCIO Media & Research reported Friday.
“The areas we’re looking at are everything from security processes, whether that is individual security clearances or secure facilities and their broad use, to the authority to operate in a secure ecosystem, to personnel practices, to the acquisition mechanisms themselves, everything ranging from the assets that we have or the data we need to receive,” Sue Gordon, a director at CACI International and a two-time Wash100 awardee, said during the board’s Nov. 14 meeting.
Thomas Sasala, deputy director of the Army’s Enterprise Management Office, cited the importance of data readiness during the board meeting.
“Without data readiness, you can’t have a ready military force. So we need to train our soldiers on data like we train them on the platforms and the weapons they use every day. The soldiers need to be comfortable with using data at the speed of mission to achieve that operational advantage,” said Sasala.
At its Jan. 26 meeting, the board expects to release results from two studies: “Lowering Barriers to Innovation” and “Building a DOD Data Economy.”
