SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill, Sept. 22, 2006 – U.S. Transportation Command received a Leadership in Government Transformation award from the E-Gov Institute Sept. 16 for Enterprise Architecture work in support of the expanded Distribution Process Owner mission.

The award recognizes best practices in developing and implementing successful Enterprise Architectures.

It was accepted by Steve Pierson, Command, Control, Computer and Communications Directorate, U.S. Transportation Command, in a ceremony at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.

According to Pierson, Federal agencies are required to build architectures to better plan for capabilities and technology investments while ensuring agency programs receive funding.

Through Office of Management and Budget’s Federal Enterprise Architecture and Department of Defense’s Business Enterprise Architecture, this supply chain–based framework known as the Joint Deployment and Distribution Architecture is designed to create greater efficiencies and streamline inter-agency collaboration and communication.

“The latest challenge in expanding agency-based enterprise architectures is attempting to understand broader relationships and interdependencies among partnering agencies,” Pierson said.

“U.S. Transportation Command has successfully pioneered an approach that has effectively aligned interdependent yet disparate enterprise architectures, enabling a holistic view of end-to-end scenarios, portfolios, and organizations,” he noted.

“By working with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and the Defense Logistics Agency, U.S. Transportation Command has been able to map the interconnections between agencies without drastically altering individual agency architectures,” Pierson continued.

“Benefits gained through this federated approach were the use of a reference model allowing participants to describe their business using a common language resulting in an ability to view and display broader end-to-end processes including their seams,” he explained.

“Of importance, the framework provides an outstanding foundation to support capability analysis, operational planning, program management and system development, and IT investment,” Pierson added.  “It is estimated this effort conservatively resulted in a cost avoidance of more than $20 million.”

Brig. Gen. Michael Basla, director of Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems Directorate, U.S. Transportation Command, expressed his appreciation for the award.

“We are extremely pleased to have the efforts of so many people at U.S. Transportation Command, especially the enterprise architects, recognized by the E-Gov Institute with the distinguished Leadership in Government Transformation award,” Basla said.