PEO Cross-Service Summit Puts Renewed Focus on Collaboration

Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS) hosted the quarterly PEO Cross-Service Summit in McLean, Virginia on April 7.

The summit — a strategic forum for coordinating and promoting advocacy on shared information technology (IT) solutions, best practices, shared challenges and lessons learned — was attended in-person or virtually by dozens of program executive officers and other senior leaders from DOD and the services. As the host, EIS had the opportunity to supplement the regularly discussed topics like service updates on contract writing systems and personnel and pay systems, with presentations on key Army IT initiatives like Enterprise Business Systems – Convergence; Identity, Credential and Access Management; and the Unified Network.

EIS’ daylong event began and ended with a renewed focus on the importance of cross-service collaboration. EIS leaders said the military services have common ground in their need to promptly deliver effective IT capabilities for service members — yet with fewer taxpayer dollars.

“We’re all starting to feel the pinch of needing to explain software and its associated challenges and costs,” said Dan Brockwell, an acquisition manager with EIS’ Acquisition Innovation Directorate (AID). “We want to create more of a collective voice when approaching the Pentagon to talk about these issues.”

AID Director Aric Sherwood echoed this sentiment, noting that EIS has long been talking with the other services about software and network/cyber-related projects. “Now we need to collaborate and find a single solution that will work for all of us, instead of pursuing service-centric solutions,” he said.

EIS already has begun collaborating with other military services in areas like defensive cyber, added Sherwood.

Brockwell and Sherwood said EIS’ role in the summit has blossomed in the past few years under Program Executive Officer Ross Guckert.

“The collaboration across the other services has reaped benefits for our portfolio, and I just expect this to continue,” said Guckert. “The partnerships that are established will be instrumental in developing more common solutions and creating significant efficiencies.”

The next PEO Cross-Service Summit, to be hosted by the Air Force’s Program Executive Officer for Command, Control, Communications and Networks (C3I&N), will take place at Hanscom Air Force Base during the second week of September.