Change Management, Consolidation Help Needed for DoD Realignment

With the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission's recommendations for reshaping the Defense Department's infrastructure and force structure passed into law late last year, the DoD has until mid-2007 to begin closing and realigning the named installations and until 2011 to complete the process. To do that, agencies will look to the private sector for change management and the consolidation of systems and processes, which will potentially require a significant amount of IT work.

"The increasing expectation [of government] is driven by technologies that shrink time and distance," said Anthony Principi, chairman of the BRAC Commission, at an event hosted by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA). Specifically, that includes networking and wireless solutions to improve communication and decrease cost, web-based applications that more efficiently distribute information and enable processes, and security offerings that ensure sensitive data in kept under lock and key. Beyond implementing the technologies themselves, agencies will rely on system integrators and consultants to provide proper change management and consolidation strategies.

"Managing change and enabling change are among the most differentiating and important responsibilities of IT leadership," Principi said. "Over the long term, status quo and a dynamic environment are not compatible. Change is constant and IT leaders and the contractors that support them have an indispensable role [to drive] that change in the right direction."

BRAC 2005, the fifth round of recommendations to drive the reform of the DoD, is promised to be the most ambitious--with more than 800 base installations across the country affected. In total, 22 major closures and seven realignments will take place. The four previous BRAC rounds that took place in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995 resulted in net savings of about $17.7 billion through 2001, and recurring savings beyond that of about $7 billion annually.