Photo By Debra Watts | The Organizational Infrastructure Capability Board recently hosted an agencywide...... read more read more
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FORT GREGG-ADAMS, Va. – The Organizational Infrastructure Capability Board hosted an agencywide digital forum in February to inform, update and engage with more than 2,700 participants.
The recorded event offered Defense Contract Management Agency team members an opportunity to “foster open dialogue, collaboration and a sense of community,” while concluding with an open question-and-answer period to gather “insights, ideas and feedback.” Forum participants submitted more than 100 questions during the hour-and-a-half event. While board members were unable to answer all questions immediately, submissions were compiled, documented and answered here.
As DCMA Vision, a comprehensive three-year plan launched in 2023 to evolve its organizational structure from a regional alignment to a systems-support infrastructure, sharpens the agency’s warfighter support mission and redefines its structural support networks, the importance of effective internal communication continues to rise. The OI Board’s ongoing outreach reinforces this effort.
Karen Schultheis, the agency’s Information Technology executive director, chief information officer and OI Board manager, opened the forum by defining the board’s purpose and its three-subgroup structure of Information Technology, Total Force, and Financial and Business Operations.
“The things that we do in our board touch every single employee in DCMA,” she said. “So, from our manuals, our processes and our tools, at one point or another in your career, you interact with OI. This is our second forum. Our first one was in August 2024. I thank all of you who joined that one, participated and gave us your feedback because that really helped us focus on what was important for us to focus on and prioritize for these past six months. We’re going to update you on where we are with some of our manuals, our tools and, of course, some of the goals we’ve been working on in the OI Capability Board.”
Army Lt. Col. LaTia Wickliffe, DCMA Cleveland commander and the OI Board’s military co-lead, opened the presentations by spotlighting the group’s support for automated tools.
E-MRF-C was the first example. It is an electronic manpower request form for civilians that helps users gain efficiencies in performing labor requirement changes and inserts checkpoints for critical steps in the process.
“This tool provides a workflow solution that significantly reduces processing time while providing transparency of all actions,” said Wickliffe. “It replaced the manual process that put requirements that were potentially at risk due to the necessity to route the request through multiple stakeholders. Additionally, the E-MRF-C dashboard provides status views and end-to-end metrics that highlight the processing time for each phase of the process.”
The Onboarding Processing App was also highlighted. The application, which is scheduled to launch in fiscal year 2025, assists civilian, military and contractor users gain efficiencies while performing onboarding tasks and inserts checkpoints for critical tasks.
“We’ve reached our year mark in service for the offboarding application and are currently conducting a post review of its performance,” said Cymele Saunders-King, a Policy Branch human resources specialist with Total Force and the OI Board’s integrated process team lead for the onboarding project. “Working with the (Mission Applications Division) team, we are identifying opportunities within the current functionality of the application to address and develop mitigating plans to address those opportunities to continue to enhance the functionality of the system.”
While her team reviews recommendations and requirements in preparation for the application’s phase two development, Saunders-King, who originally served as the OI Board’s program manager for the Out-Processing and Transfers program and application, highlighted a soon-to-be-launched Power BI dashboard element.
“This will allow you to see in real time the performance from not only a (unit identification code) standpoint but an organizational standpoint into how you’re performing and executing out processing and/or transfer checklists,” she said.
A full list of the discussed electronic tools and their development status can be found within the February forum’s presentation slides.
Every agency tool begins life as an idea. DCMA’s Intake System provides its professional workforce a platform to launch those ideas to inspire positive change and enhance warfighter support. The system, a new centralized repository for providing suggestions, best practices, and new requirements to the capability boards and agency leadership, relies on team member insight and expertise to drive its success.
Amy Mersereau-Cooper, the OI Board’s IT intake team lead and IT Senior Business Relationship manager, provided forum participants with a digital Intake System demonstration and directed interested users to an online video highlighting the system’s improvements.
“If you have a suggestion that can make our tools and processes improve in DCMA, we want to know them,” she said. “Please submit thoughtful suggestions, problems and questions to the intake system. And once you submit an intake, we will ask you to provide timely assistance to the team and capability boards as requested.”
Along with Mersereau-Cooper’s process demo, the OI Board site offers helpful guides for new users. The system can also be an information-sharing resource. If board members know of existing solutions, they respond to submitters directly.
“There may be some ways in which we’ll find innovative ways to come up with a success or help you with the solution,” she said. “And that’s what we do in the capability boards. We help solve problems, define success and bring things to fruition.”
During the forum, Wickliffe emphasized some of the OI Board’s recent successes.
“With respect to our goals over the previous year, we have focused on three goals dedicated to establishing ourselves and developing processes to function efficiently and effectively,” she said. “We ensured all of our requirements owned, influenced, and/or impacted by the board are reviewed, approved, and implemented in a controlled manner while also facilitating and supporting continuous improvement of the board’s performance capabilities.”
The Army officer highlighted the hard work of the entire board in support of this success and championed member dedication to achieve its initiatives and reach projected goals.
“So going forward for this year with goal one, we intend to capitalize on the momentum that we gained in establishing our board and now focus on maturing it,” said Wickliffe. “To do this, we’re going to pay particular attention to enhancing our members’ experiences while also increasing member engagement and participation. It should be noted that being a part of the OI Board does afford our members the opportunity to shape the future of the agency.”
For those employees interested in helping shape DCMA’s future, all seven of the agency’s capability boards are seeking additional members. Those interested should visit the Business Capability Framework volunteer page here.
“Bottom line is we need you,” said Marlean Jones, a headquarters OI Board co-lead and IT senior project manager. “We need your expertise to expand our capabilities. Every additional team member strengthens our ability to deliver actionable insight and innovation and enhance mission success. You can contribute to initiatives where accomplishments are recognized and shared with your leadership to support career growth and performance evaluations. Our engagement is ongoing, and we want to hear from you. Please share any insights or reflections you have from the OI Forum on our feedback site.”
Those interested in discovering more about the board’s past, present and future efforts can visit the Business Capability Framework-Organizational Infrastructure homepage. Agency team members can email questions to the board at dcma.gregg-adams.hq.mbx.oi-board@mail.mil.
| Date Taken: | 03.20.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.21.2025 16:01 |
| Story ID: | 493475 |
| Location: | FORT GREGG-ADAMS, VIRGINIA, US |
| Hometown: | FORT GREGG-ADAMS, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 27 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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