Recruitment to the ranks of the Army, Naval Service or the Air Corps is a serious business. Back in 2001, on an otherwise hum-drum reporting assignment to cover a FAS recruitment fair, I clearly remember being impressed with the Defence Forces’ stand, which resembled a temporary barracks complete with large tent, an impressive array of artillery, a Naval-issue speedboat and a full-size tank draped in camouflage.
But there was also a row of high-spec computers displaying a range of specialist IT applications, including what looked like a geographical tracking system and a network management system. I had never before linked the Defence Forces and IT in my imagination, but it became clear then that information technology obviously takes many different forms in a military environment.
It turns out that as well as the ‘sexy’ high-tech military tactical systems, the Defence Force’s use of IT also extends to the same kinds of ordinary applications that large and small companies and organisations use every day of the week. In addition, the increasing involvement of the Irish military in overseas peacekeeping operations means that open standards in IT and telecommunications takes on a greater significance in terms of facilitating secure interaction with partner forces from other countries.
The responsibility for both IT and telecommunications systems lies with Lieutenant Colonel Brian McQuaid. As director of Communications and Information Services (CIS), it’s his job to oversee the development of ICT, the training of engineers, software developers and technicians, and relations with outside IT suppliers. He’s a career army man, who joined as a cadet on leaving St Vincents in Glasnevin in 1971 and was posted to the Signal Corps on receiving his commission as a second Lieutenant in 1973. Since then he has worked in various technical roles culminating in his current job.
Working from his office at the austere Defence Forces’ HQ at McKee Barracks on Blackhorse Avenue, near Phoenix Park, McQuaid is in the somewhat unusual position of being one of the few senior officers who reports to both of the Deputy Chiefs of Staff; one with responsibility for Defence Forces operations, and the other who looks after administration and personnel support. This legacy dates back to the early 1980s, when the organisation first started to develop a HR system, which has lead to the point today where a plan to install an Oracle ERP system is being implemented.
‘Because the ERP solution is largely being run by the support side of the house, I’m directly involved in all their groupings and timing processes, but I have a much more hands on day to day involvement in the operations side of the house,’ says McQuaid.
November 1998 saw the merger of the telecommunications department, called the Signal Corp, with the Military Information Technology Section (MITS) to create the CIS Corps. Up to that point Signals looked after telecomms as well as radio, and MITS looked after software development and IT Support.
The CIS corps employs 480 people across the country and overseas. A quick perusal of publications from the Defence Forces web site, such as the annual report, doesn’t mention information and communications technologies very often, but according to the latest annual report, the organisation spent €11.6 m (or 1.6 per cent of the total budget of some €720m) on information and communication technologies in 2003, somewhat higher than the budget for that year of €9.4m. Comparisons with even public sector organisations are rendered somewhat invalid given the nature of the Defence Forces, but this seems conservative.
IT budgets
According to McQuaid, approximately €2m of the €11.6M is spent directly on IT capital and maintenance. But in addition the telecommunications budget would be invested partly in IT on the WAN and telecoms hardware routers, switches etc. ‘The technical expertise in the Corps is such that we constantly analyse and generally invest in new technologies that allow savings on existing processes. So overall I would be happy with the available monies and it has been sufficient to allow the Defence Forces to invest in new technology as it becomes available (and is required) and also to keep a reasonably modern PC infrastructure on the desktop.’
The HR system was the first serious development of application software for the Defence Forces. ‘We developed the start of a HR package using a computer system that allowed us to track roughly where the guys were, their rank and name and address and so on. Then we started to develop our own inventory management system, or stock control. We are governed by regulations; everything is defined. So basically we had to take a ledger system and convert and translate that ledger system exactly into our computer system.’
These systems have provided the Defence Forces with basic ERP capabilities over the last decade, but are soon to be replaced by an Oracle-based ERP system, which is a joint project between the organisation and the Department of Defence. At the moment, the HR package is separate, but ERP project will integrate it into a centralised financial management system, as it was recently redeveloped with the help of Version 1 using Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports running on Oracle 9iAS. The application database is Oracle 8i.
‘We are going to replace the inventory management system build it into the financial management system as part of the Oracle solution, but we will retain the HR package because the IT industry isn’t worried about the level of fitness, medical records of the individual, or core supports or the career courses taken but we have to keep those. So you can’t really get an off the shelf HR package that gives you that kind of information.’
A HR project, completed last year with the help of Version 1, extended the functions of the Department’s existing system by adding several new HR modules covering Leave, Time and Attendance, Range Practice, Medicals, Unit Returns and Overseas applications. Prior to this, the only electronic suites of the HR system were maintained at the Formation level (ie at Brigade HQ and Defence Forces Headquarters level). The modules have been designed to allow information to be entered by non-administrative staff, ie soldiers, quickly and easily while conforming to the ways data had been entered into the system before. ‘All HR functions from parade states to fitness tests and range practices results to name but a few can now be carried out at unit level in electronic rather than paper form.’
Bringing in Version 1 to finish the new HR package was the first time the Defence Forces had brought in a company from the outside to develop software. Obviously, the security sensitivity of the organisation means that it has a bit less flexibility as regards working with outside firms compared with other public sector organisations, but this hasn’t stopped McQuaid and his team from looking for suitable areas of its IT development that can feasibly be outsourced.
‘We did bring in Version 1 to finish some elements of the HR package just to speed up the process, but I don’t have a problem buying in software if it fits. The key thing for us is command and control. Not just internal strategic systems and applications but also in all our other systems.’
New priorities in terms of soldiering, particularly with the increasing demands and peacekeeping missions, means that McQuaid has the difficult job of juggling resources and ensuring that soldiers were able to get on with the business of soldiering, which often means sending IT technicians to overseas missions. ‘We can’t give 40 plus hours a week to writing software, so it suited our needs to bring in a company to help.’
‘The way I look at it now is there are 12,500 people in the organisation as against 16,000 odd when I joined (in the 1970s),’ he said, ‘and you have demands to put soldiers overseas plus all the home responsibilities. Our IT works for us if it gets more people out of the stores and the administration places to go back to their core business which is soldiering. It means there are less people tied up in administration.’
The organisation also recently invested in document management. ‘Because we’re big into regulations, rules of engagement, rules of everything that are laid down by the government, document management is a big issue.’ SoftCo Enterprise is the chosen platform for a central means of capturing, storing and retrieving electronic and paper based information. The system is accessible to forces personnel through the intranet at four locations within the Defence Forces headquarters.
Procurement
McQuaid is responsible for all ICT-related procurement, including IT, radio, telecoms, hardware software, licences, etc, and also deals personally with suppliers. ‘I don’t have much of a chance to get hands on anymore. When I go around to inspect units throughout the year, that’s the only chance I get to see some hardware and changes and to evaluate software. IT officers, engineers will usually come in and give me briefings or an outline of what they’re looking for, and then they go out and package it. They will also bring in inspections to me from time to time.’
He has a number of engineers educated to Masters degree level who help to make the call about whether a particular IT-related problem can be resolved internally or if they need outside help (McQuaid himself has two Masters degrees in science and engineering, both from TCD). ‘There’s a balance between the two to suit both needs, but we have to keep the skills up.’
The need to have the right balance of skills is something that hit home to McQuaid even before he first came into the CIS Corps at the end of 2000. ‘We lost a lot of people to the Celtic tiger, including captains, top scientists, a lot of IT talent. We had to recruit a lot of young soldiers and basically train them up from scratch.’
The CIS has also hit on the development of e-learning packages as a project that has strong potential to deliver significant value to the Defence Forces, particularly with large numbers of young personnel. This is likely to be a strong part of all levels of training, from basic army cadets to senior officers doing masters degrees. ‘At the moment the (e-learning) solutions will be text driven systems that put a book of text up on the system,’ said McQuaid. ‘I can see a lot more work over the next few years to make it more attractive, to make it sexy.’
Telecoms
In the telecoms area, the late 80s also marked an increased ownership of telecommunications infrastructure. Prior to this, the telephone system was owned by the old Department of Posts and Telegraph and then by the Department of Defence. The decision was taken to replace the old switchboard with its own privately owned ND 110 switchboard, which marked the first stage of Defence Forces developing its own relationships with outside suppliers.
Since then, suppliers have worked with the organisation to replace things like the mail server, firewalls and virus cards.
The only circumstances under which the defence forces can go outside the public tendering process for ICT equipment is for reasons of state security, for which it has a narrower shortlist of specific suppliers and undertakes a special process to determine the nature of the whole system.
The Defence Forces may have lost a bit of IT talent, but one upshot is that the IT section has more ears to the ground, as many of those who left during the boom years are working for some of the Defence Forces’ IT suppliers. McQuaid says many of them will still meet up with their army buddies socially, during which they’d often talk about new products and what’s going on in the marketplace.
In addition, McQuaid takes a proactive approach to relationships with suppliers.
‘I really believe in relationships. We work hard at building a solid relationship with all our suppliers and potential suppliers so that if they get the business they get the business but if they don’t get it, that they’ll still be quite happy to come in a meet the army lads and have a chat and see what’s going on.’
Internal communitacions
Individual barracks in Ireland are connected by a combination of VPN, leased lines and private microwave links. The Defence Forces has recently invested nearly €15 million in a state of the art digital radio system, replacing an analogue system. One tactical IT application that relies on the digital radios is the Tactical Battlefield Management System, which was developed by Geosolutions. Built on an ERSI platform, this system allows the transmission of messages over a tactical radio network, transferring information from these messages directly onto a digital map and also the tracking own assets using an embedded GPS receiver within the radio.
Another ESRI system enables the Defence Forces generate its own maps from a digital map source, which has been especially useful in overseas missions such as Liberia, where it is not possible to purchase local maps.
Creating a network centric ICT system enables the Army not just to be more efficient as an organisation, but to use its resources more effectively on the battlefield. ‘It’s often said that the more information you have about the customer the better the product you can put on the shelf. That’s become a big military issue as well, in that rather than spreading your forces over complete terrains, you focus in on where the enemies are and you maximise your forces in that area. That’s really what we’re doing with radar information, tactical information, cavalry information etc putting it all into one central management system for efficiency.’
Satellites keep peace keepers in touch
The commitment to peacekeeping missions in remote parts of the world has increased the urgency of accessing satellite systems in order to keep in touch with home. It certainly made a dramatic difference to the quality of communications on missions to Lebanon many years ago.
In previous overseas missions, in the days before cellular phones, individual soldiers had no way of contacting home. Essential data transmissions relied on a pitifully slow VHF transfer of around 50 bit/s. Since Lebanon, soldiers have been able to dial home through a satellite link from places like Kosovo and Liberia.
According to McQuaid, there is 128kbit/s second of bandwidth through the satellite link with a dedicated 64kbit/s for data so all the strategic applications, plus e-mail are running on one 64kbit/s link and the other 64kbit/s is for voice. The army also uses data compression devices on the voice channel to maximise the six channels in on the 64kbit/s voice channel. The army also avails of the Iridium satellite system, which provides open channel voice telecommunications to mobile handsets.
Open standards have also become a top priority in the ICT preparation for overseas missions. ‘When we go to work in the UN environment or in partnership with other forces, we have to be capable of interoperating with our partners, who may come from anywhere,’ he said. ‘In the case of Liberia, the Defence Forces is working with the Swedish army, so hardware of each army should be mutually interoperable.’
According to McQuaid, popular enterprise applications are commonly found in EU military environments. For instance, Microsoft Office is more or less the standard operating suite for PFP (partnership for peace) nations. ‘At the military low level, an off-the shelf solution is preferred rather than reinvesting a fortune in military type systems more and more armies are going towards commercial type solutions.’ Army ICT engineers might try take an X400 standard for telecoms and try and modify it to suit a particular military need but the basic research has already been carried out by industry, he adds.
31/01/05
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers