Comprehensive Program Management
Supporting Leadership Through a Merger and Reorganization
In summer 2010, the Department of Defense’s Military Health System (MHS) engaged TeAM to provide comprehensive program management support for the Tri-Service Infrastructure Management Program Office (TIMPO). TIMPO delivers and manages the computer network infrastructure for the entire MHS.
Shortly after TeAM began providing program management support, TIMPO merged with the MHS Network Operations Division. As part of the merger, they formed the MHS Cyberinfrastructure Services (MCiS) directorate. The reorganized and expanded MCiS supports 133,000 health care providers in 59 hospitals and 364 health clinics worldwide. Those providers care for 9.6 million beneficiaries.
TeAM’s program management support begins at the top. We assist the MCiS leadership with acquisition planning, management oversight, and performance monitoring and reporting. We support multiple vendors who oversee the operations and maintenance of the MHS communications and computing infrastructure.
Driving Change: Establishing a Business Driven Project Management Office
Integrating two major organizations, each with its own procedures and culture, was no small task. The integration resulted in a bigger, better, more efficient organization.
As part of the integration, we have helped establish a business-driven project management office (BDPMO). The BDPMO helps to (1) manage the increased workload and changing mission that resulted from the merger and reorganization; and (2) improve processes to achieve MCiS business goals.
The BDPMO will provide structure, management, and monitoring of the organization’s process assets to bring consistent results across the spectrum of its projects. Perhaps as important as seeing “things done right” is getting “the right things done.”
TeAM helps to manage the MHS information technology life cycle though master implementation of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices. By providing defined and repeatable best practices across the organization, the ITIL framework pairs well with the BDPMO. The ITIL-based practices focus on delivering services – not systems – to customers. Those services improve productivity and support the overall healthcare mission.
The teaming of the BDPMO and ITIL means that the right projects are selected and managed to improve or add services. The organization can manage IT costs and quality while remaining flexible to adapt to changing business or regulatory challenges. They can also take advantage of new opportunities.
Enhancing Health Care Through the IT Life Cycle
Our staff supports the MCiS leadership in managing MHS projects through the entire IT life cycle.
Customer Relationship Management: TeAM’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) staff serve as the single point of entry for all new requirements for MCiS-provided services. The CRM staff works with the technical management support contractors and the TeAM lifecycle cost modelers to develop business case analyses. Those analyses provide the basis for accepting new requirements for execution by MCiS.
Operations and Maintenance: TeAM staff support the design, development, deployment, and sustainment teams. Those teams manage every aspect of the computing network that underpins military health care delivery and MHS business systems.
Operational support includes:
- Telecommunications maintenance;
- Network/hardware support;
- Circuit provisioning and management; and
- Local area network installations and upgrades.
TeAM coordinates the activities of 70 network engineers and specialists deployed to provide on-site maintenance at multiple locations worldwide. In addition, TeAM staff oversees the operation of the MHS Service Desk, which provides 24×7 customer support for more than 20 MHS health care delivery and business systems. The total call volume exceeds 30,000 calls per month.
Information Assurance: TeAM provides security certification and accreditation support for all MCiS projects. Our cyber security staff are responsible for planning and overseeing all activities under the DoD Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process. The process is required to maintain the Authority to Operate, obtain an Interim Authority to Operate, and perform annual reviews or conduct risk assessments.
TeAM staff are also responsible for monitoring, controlling, and validating Information Assurance Vulnerability Management and Vulnerability Management System compliance reporting. The reporting covers more than 1,500 MCiS-owned computing assets.
Quality Improvement/Risk Management: TeAM provides risk identification, analysis/assessment, mitigation planning, and tracking in accordance with PMBoK® best practices, TeAM uses the Risk Radar automated tool for data capture and reporting. The QI/RM staff works with all MCiS life cycle Integrated Product Teams to identify risks and monitor the execution of mitigation strategies. The staff are also responsible for continual service improvement activities within MCiS.
Even as MCiS has grown, TeAM has provided all program management support to MCiS at a savings of millions of dollars over the previous contractor. By helping the leadership create a more efficient organization and better allocate resources, MCiS can do much more with less during this era of budget-cutting and belt-tightening in the Department of Defense. The impact on the bottom line helps not only MCiS, but also the warfighters and their families, who are the ultimate beneficiaries of an enhanced cyberinfrastructure.