BTA sets standards for transformation

Defense agency says it must move quickly to prove its value to DOD business operations

One year after its formation, the Defense Department’s Business Transformation Agency (BTA) is eager to prove that it can produce results. DOD created the agency in October 2005 to coordinate departmentwide business system modernization efforts.

Demonstrating results will be easier in 2007 as BTA integrates common data standards into its activities, said Paul Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of Defense for business transformation. For example, the agency expects to speed its adoption of industry data standards for supply chain transactions, which will give DOD greater control of its materiel management activities, he said.

The goal is to create a business culture that resembles the private sector’s, Brinkley said.

The agency achieved more than 80 percent of the milestones in its 2005 enterprise transition plan, said Thomas Modly, deputy undersecretary of Defense for financial management. BTA officials want to build on those results and add projects and responsibilities in fiscal 2007, Modly said during a recent briefing on the agency’s new business enterprise architecture and enterprise transition plans for DOD.

Those plans describe the department’s approach to business transformation and define the priorities that DOD will use to manage major information systems and transform human resources, materiel supply, property management, weapons system development and financial management programs.

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