Year in Review: Six highlights of 2022 for PEO EIS

As the Army continues its transformation to support large-scale multi-domain combat and become the Army of 2030, the service’s premier acquisition organization for enterprise information systems continues to evolve along with it.

Over the course of 2022, Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS) made some organizational changes to align with the Army’s latest strategic guidance and accomplished several important missions in its delivery of capability to Soldiers and other Army stakeholders. The following are just six highlights from the past year at PEO EIS.

1)    Alignment with Army’s Agile vision: At the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition in October 2022, Program Executive Officer Ross Guckert announced that PEO EIS would be transforming to align with the Army’s Agile vision. Shifting to an Agile software acquisition approach is necessary to ensure better responsiveness to Soldiers’ needs, according to Guckert, as well as to deliver capability quickly in a world where threats arise and evolve at a fast pace. Several EIS programs have already been employing Agile practices for years — like Army Training Information System and Applied Cyber Technologies — but others are now joining the bandwagon.

2)    Establishment of Chief Information Office: As part of EIS’ transformation into a more agile organization — and to rapidly and effectively support the Army’s Digital Transformation — Program Executive Officer Ross Guckert announced plans in November 2022 to create a dedicated Chief Information Office (CIO) by the end of the first quarter of FY23. EIS successfully accomplished that mission, creating a directorate-level CIO organization at its Fort Belvoir, Virginia headquarters and uniting its previously standalone software and networks portfolios, so the CIO can provide technical integration among them.

3)    Rollout of the Army’s 21st century talent management system: The Army’s much-anticipated human resources (HR) and talent management system began its go-live process in the final quarter of 2022. In November, PEO EIS’ Integrated Personnel and Pay System – Army (IPPS-A) began the brownout window for transitioning data from legacy systems to the new digital system. Then, on Dec. 20, IPPS-A Release 3, Increment II began its official rollout to HR personnel. Early in the new year, the system will be rolled out to all Soldiers across all three Army components. IPPS-A is a key element for HR and data modernization, and a critical enabler for Army talent management.

4)    ArmyIgnitED phase one rollout: In August 2022, an upgraded version of the ArmyIgnitED portal went online to provide Soldiers, education counselors, and academic institutions with a smoother and more reliable experience for processing Army Tuition Assistance Requests. EIS’ ArmyIgnitED product office has been helping improve the portal by migrating it to technology that has proven its reliability over years of use in U.S. Air Force education. Between initial go-live on Aug. 29 and the end of December, ArmyIgnitED added over 116,000 new students and had over 660,000 system log-ins. ArmyIgnitED has been employing Agile techniques to complete phase two in early 2023, which will enable Army cadets to request Reserve Officers’ Training Corps scholarship funding and Soldiers to apply for funding for credentialing assistance. Phase three, which will allow Army civilians to request professional development funds, is expected in the third quarter of FY23.

5)    ALTESS migration of AMC applications to cARMY cloud: In May 2022, EIS’ Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Enterprise Systems and Services (ALTESS) product office teamed with several other Army organizations and successfully completed the migration of 45 Army Materiel Command (AMC) applications from the Defense Information System Agency’s (DISA) milCloud® 2.0 to the Enterprise Cloud Management Agency’s (ECMA) cARMY cloud. AMC had approached ALTESS, a full life cycle management service provider, in early 2022 about migrating its applications in a compressed time frame due to DISA’s decision to shut down milCloud on May 20. ALTESS, which previously had helped migrate more than 40 Headquarters, Department of the Army applications to the cloud, was a natural choice for the application migration project and began working closely with four AMC subcommands and ECMA in mid-February 2022 to get the job done. The go-live took place on-time and prior to the May 20 deadline.

6)    WESS modernization of Earth stations: On Oct. 27, 2022, members of the Wideband Enterprise Satellite Systems (WESS) product office and the Integrated Enterprise Network project management office participated in the Fort Detrick Earth Station Modernization Ribbon Cutting Ceremony hosted by the 21st Signal Brigade, with participation by senior leaders from the 7th Signal Command, State Department and DISA. On the 60th Anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was the catalyst for establishing the Detrick Earth Station’s secure, real-time communications capabilities between the United States and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the celebration recognized the completion of the $17 million, 4-year project to replace two 20+-year-old, 50-foot antenna groups with modern and more reliable 30-foot antenna groups. Despite numerous setbacks in schedule due to COVID-19, supply chain and spectrum sales, the WESS team overcame these challenges and delivered this critical capability.