PEO Perspective: December 2023

It’s hard to believe we’re winding down the calendar year and preparing to usher in another. November was a busy month at PEO EIS, with success stories to share – and more to come in 2024. But first, let’s take a look at the last month of 2023:

ARMY IGNITED CELEBRATION & AWARD

I’ve been saying it a lot recently, but an Agile approach to acquisition has been a game changer for us in terms of rapidly delivering capability to Soldiers – and ArmyIgnitED is no exception.

On November 9, PEO EIS and ArmyIgnitED welcomed Hon. Douglas Bush, Army Acquisition Executive; Dr. Wesley Smith, director of Army Credentialing and Continuing Education for Soldiers (ACCESS); Col. John Dvorak, director, TRADOC Proponent Office for ArmyIgnitED; and other special guests to ArmyIgnitED’s Full Deployment Celebration at the Fort Belvoir Community Center.

The ArmyIgnitED team achieved full deployment of the system in August 2023, less than a year after PEO EIS assumed ownership and began rolling out an upgraded version of the Soldier tuition and credentialing assistance portal, and the TRADOC Proponent Team and ACCESS were critical partners in the successful – and early – deployment of ArmyIgnitED. It was an honor to gather with them and Hon. Bush to recognize this spectacular team’s achievement.

As with any newly deployed system, there are more phases ahead. But with an Agile approach, the team will continue to leverage incremental sprints during development and upgrades for uninterrupted momentum. The next big milestone is the system’s interface with the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army – which was also successfully rolled out earlier this year. By directly linking with IPPS-A, ArmyIgnitED will be able to access data instantaneously and ensure that Soldiers receive timely responses to applications.

And that’s not all – just this past week we received news that ArmyIgnitED was awarded a 2023 DoD Defense Acquisition Workforce Award (DAWA) for Software Innovation!

The prestigious DAWA awards recognize individual and team accomplishments that demonstrate outstanding achievements and best practices in DoD acquisition, advance the National Defense Strategy and support the Secretary of Defense’s priorities to deliver at speed and scale for our warfighters, allies, and partners.

Established in 2019, the Software Innovation Team Award recognizes teams who are driving speed and innovation in continuous software development and acquisition as evidenced by frequent and high-quality delivery of software capabilities into the hands of Soldiers.

Under the leadership of Mr. Keith Baylor and Ms. Felishia Berry, the ArmyIgnitED team was recognized for their outstanding work over the past year and a half in restoring the capability for Soldiers, Cadets and Civilians to receive ongoing education assistance.  

The ArmyIgnitED team will receive their award at a recognition ceremony Jan. 24 at the Defense Acquisition University.

Congratulations, Team – your hard work and dedication to this system will provide a valuable service to Soldiers for years to come!

IPPS-A PINNACLE AWARD

Congratulations are also due to the IPPS-A team, which has won the 2023 Pinnacle Award for Team Project of the Year!

The Pinnacle Award is given by WashingtonExec to projects across the region that foster innovation for the federal government. The IPPS-A team won for completely transforming how the Army does HR following the digital human resource and talent management system’s rollout to all 1.1 million Army Soldiers earlier this year.

Last month, Col. RJ Mikesh, PM for our IPPS-A portfolio, joined Col. Rebekah Lust, director of the IPPS-A Functional Management Division (FMD) at Army G-1, in accepting the Pinnacle Award at a ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner. The team has since embraced Agile methodologies and is preparing to expand into fully integrating Military Pay.

Thank you to our past and present team, our FMD and industry partners, and RJ and the IPPS-A team for your hard work leading to this recognition; I couldn’t be prouder to be on your team!

AFCEA BELVOIR LUNCHEON

Our Agile journey was the topic of discussion during AFCEA Belvoir's Nov. 15 luncheon at the Embassy Suites in Springfield, Virginia, as well. It was a pleasure to see you all and provide the keynote for my last luncheon address to our AFCEA Belvoir industry partners, where I officially announced my retirement and shared some of the lessons I’ve learned in my three and a half years leading PEO EIS.

I truly believe we have reinvented how we do business, but we couldn’t have done this without our industry partners. Together we’re better, and I know that excellence will continue into the future; thank you for all you do to put life-changing capability into Soldiers’ hands.

FORECAST TO INDUSTRY

On Nov. 30, it was my and Deputy PEO Bill Hepworth’s honor to host a first of its kind, all-encompassing Forecast to Industry event at the Defense Acquisition University’s Howell Auditorium at Fort Belvoir. 

Nine leaders from the team briefed industry on our Agile journey, shared technical information about the latest planned procurements, and took questions from virtual and in-person audience members.

The hybrid event attracted over 600 registrations from more than 300 companies, and yielded nearly 3,000 views across LinkedIn and YouTube.

If you weren’t able to make this event, the procurement forecast slides are available on our website. This likely won’t be the last time PEO EIS hosts an event like this, so be sure to stay tuned to our website and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and X to keep up with the latest announcements.

VIRGINIA TECH CADET PROGRAM

On Dec. 5, PEO EIS hosted an outreach program to more than 200 Army Cadets at Virginia Tech to introduce them to potential career opportunities with the Army.

We invited PEO C3T’s Mr. Ward Roberts and PEO IEW&S’ Mr. Mike Schwartz to join us for the virtual program, and Ms. Rocio “Rosie” Bauer Deputy Director, ASA(ALT), Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Data, Engineering & Software), also provided some insights into opportunities at the ASAALT level. From our team, the Cadets heard from our CIO, Mike Chappell; Maj. James Oliver, Assistant PM for Army Training Information Systems (ATIS); and Sarah Steenberge, Director of Human Resources.

I truly believe it’s our responsibility to grow the next generation of Army Acquisition Corps professionals, and this group of young student Cadets are among the best in the nation. We learned through this partnership that Cadets are doing amazing things across the regiment, including a concrete-estimating competition and cyber warfare competitions – learning valuable skills that they will take with them into their future careers.

Thanks to Ms. Bauer and our sister PEOs for joining us, and special thanks to Mr. Ken Mallory, Director of the Citizen Program Track at Virginia Tech, who works closely with the Cadets and put this program together for us in Blacksburg.

These Cadets -- and recent and upcoming college graduates across the nation – are the potential Army leaders of the future. We so enjoyed spending time with them and letting them know about this rewarding career, serving Soldiers. We will be doing more events like this in the future!

YEAR IN REVIEW

It’s been another busy year at PEO EIS!  You can view a retrospective of PEO EIS events and accomplishments for 2023 on our Flickr page.

From the PEO EIS family, we wish you a happy holiday season with your loved ones, and a safe and prosperous new year in 2024….and GO ARMY, BEAT NAVY!

Connecting the Army. Working for Soldiers.

Ross R. Guckert, Program Executive Officer

PEO EIS