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Fielding the Global Combat Support System - Army posed formidable training challenges. The product management office opted for a slow-and-steady approach that introduces users to the new logistics software over 150 days.
The Global Combat Support System - Army (GCSS-Army), an Acquisition Category I major automated information system program and the largest logistics software implementation in military history, is well on its way to completion.
GCSS-Army is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that facilitates near-real-time management of all the Army's sustainment missions. It replaces current tactical logistics management information systems, including the Standard Army Retail Supply System, Property Book Unit Supply Enhanced and Standard Army Maintenance System - Enhanced.
It also replaces tactical financial management information systems, such as the Single Stock Fund Middleware and the Funds Control Module. These systems performed their missions well, but GCSS-Army integrates all of their functions into a single database that provides accurate, near-real-time tactical logistics and financial information for all stakeholders.
The fielding of GCSS-Army has been so huge that the effort had to be split into two waves. Wave 1 fielding began in November 2012 and was completed in November 2015. Wave 2 began in January 2015 and is projected to complete full deployment by the end of this year.
When GCSS-Army is fully in place, the number of users will amount to a workforce that would make GCSS-Army the 45th largest employer in the U.S., just below Boeing Co., UnitedHealth Group Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and The Walt Disney Co., but ahead of Costco Wholesale Corp., Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., Xerox Corp., Comcast Corp., General Electric, Coca-Cola Co., Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp.
This effort has not been without its challenges, however. Along the complicated road to implementing an Armywide overhaul of its logistics automation infrastructure, GCSS-Army program management had to confront various hurdles, including:
* The complex demands of fielding an ERP solution across multiple business areas and levels of materiel management. The business areas of supply support, property book, ground maintenance, unit supply, finance and materiel management will now exist within a single database and operate in nearreal time.
* The dynamic and varying requirements flowing in from its major components (active Army, National Guard and Army Reserve). With each component varying...