Army CIO absorbs business systems modernization office
Army CIO absorbs business systems modernization office
The Army disestablished its Office of Enterprise Management as of April 1 after 15 years of trying to modernize business systems and promote integration.
After nearly 15 years, the Army has shut down the office that had been in charge of improving its business systems and carrying out the goals of the service’s chief management officer.
Federal News Network has learned the Army closed the Office of Enterprise Management (OEM) as of April 1. The service moved most of OEM’s functions to the service’s chief information officer.
The Army stood up the OEM in September 2023 to replace the Office of Business Transformation (OBT). The service established OBT in 2010, when it also named Joseph Westphal as the Army’s first chief management officer (CMO) as required by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2008.
At the same time, Tom Sasala, the deputy director of the Office of Enterprise Management since January 2023, is the new executive director of the Army’s Enterprise Cloud Management Agency (ECMA). He replaces Paul Puckett, the last civilian senior executive to hold the position, who left in late 2022. Col. Leslie Gorman led ECMA for 10 months until August 2023, when she became capability manager for electronic warfare. Col. Heath Giesecke has led the effort since then.
Other military services and the Office of Secretary of Defense have not realigned their similar offices. The Air Force, for example, still has an Office of Administration and Management to assist its undersecretary with management functions. The Navy, likewise, has a deputy undersecretary for management that plays a similar role.
About 30 people transferred
The Army decided to shut down the Office of Enterprise Management as part of its plan to realign functions required under a general order issued on Jan. 20. That memo called for the Army to disestablish the OEM and the Office of Policy and Global Affairs Office.
Lt. Gen. Laura Potter, the director of the Army chief of staff, issued a follow-up memo calling for an implementation plan to shut down OEM no later than Feb. 28. Army leadership accepted the plan in February and began moving offices and people. The Army’s initial goal was to shutdown OEM by Sept. 30, but leaders accelerated the timeline to get it done mostly by April 1.
Roughly 30 people employees from OEM have been reassigned, mostly to the CIO’s office. That includes the chief of business enterprise architecture, the chief of performance and analysis, and the business mission area data officer.
Other officials, including the business operations and planning manager and the division chief for performance assessment, were reassigned to the deputy undersecretary of the Army or the assistant secretary of the Army.
Since 2010, the Army has leaned on OBT — and then OEM — to try to modernize and improve the performance of its business systems.
OBT’s initial mission was to execute the statutory chief management officer functions Congress gave the undersecretary of the Army. The undersecretary used the organization to assist in adjusting a broad transformation agenda, promoting business transformation initiatives and supervising business operations management of the Army.
In 2023, the Army transitioned OBT to OEM with a renewed focus on business management initiatives to include planning, executing and assessing the CMO’s management agenda, developing and implementing an Army Business Management Plan, and leading Army management reform initiatives.
OEM also served as the Army Performance Improvement Officer (PIO), responsible for assessing the performance of Army business processes through CMO priority business metrics.
OEM played a key role in defense business system management, supporting the CIO with annual certifications and integration of the architecture into the IT enterprise.
One of OEM’s major priorities was helping build out the Army of 2030 that includes initiatives around integrated performance improvement, digital literacy and enterprise performance and efficiency.
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