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Doing more within existing budgets.
The Marine Corps entered the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) contractual world with a paradigm developed over nearly 20 years of operating computer networks. This old paradigm is leading to noncost-effective decisions in how NMCI is implemented and computers are deployed. This article examines current methodologies and recommends ways of doing more within existing budgets. Specifically, the author recommends eliminating NMCI deployable laptop contract line item numbers (CLINs). The $45 million annual cost savings would fund the $22 million needed annually to maintain suites of non-NMCI tactical computers. The remaining $23 million in savings would be available for management overhead or other procurement needs.
Deploying Garrison Computers
For 20 years Marines deployed garrison computers. There was a degree of efficiency to this process. Computers were relatively expensive at the time. One could justifiably argue that storing such computers in deployment boxes while in garrison was a waste of resources. These computers could easily be employed on the live garrison network.
Fiscal conditions are different now. Management and security costs currently outweigh the costs of computer hardware and software. Examining how garrison computers are deployed today reveals the magnitude of these management and security costs.
Understanding NMCI
Few discussions about computing in today's Marine Corps are complete without an understanding of the NMOI. The NMCI is a comprehensive, enterprise-level program designed to outsource operational, administrative, and financial management of Navy and Marine Corps networks at approximately 300 bases at 501 sites. Electronic Data Systems (EDS) was awarded the NMCI contract on 6 October 2000. This contract specifies a minimum contract value for each program year (PY) from PY 2001 (PY01) through PY07. It also lists optional minimums for PY08 through PY10. This contract was executed without a congressional funding request; advocates argued that NMCI would pay for itself from operation and maintenance cost savings.
The NMCI contract provides commands the opportunity to procure information technology (IT) services using CLINs. These CLINs are identified with numbers and letters. The number part indicates the general type of sen-ice. Examples of numeric categories include: 1 (nondeployable desktop or thin client), 2 (nondeployable laptop), 4 (deployable laptop), 9 (classified network upgrade), 26 (additional moves, adds, changes (MACs)), 36 (outside the continental United States (OCONUS)),...