By NAVAIR's Office of the CIO

Anyone who's paid a bill online or ordered a book through the Internet knows something about eBusiness. At the Naval Air Systems Command, Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO) Kathy Steele is leading the charge to move the command into the eBusiness realm.

Steele heads NAVAIR's eBusiness working group, which is pursuing new ways of procuring services, generating revenue and serving customers. In addition, the working group is now managing a number of eBusiness pilot projects funded by the Department of the Navy's eBusiness Office.

"The Web offers an incredible opportunity to rethink the way we do business," said Steele. "The progress we're making with eBusiness will reduce cycle time, get our products to the Fleet faster, enable 24-7 customer service and expand our marketplace."

eBusiness is the use of Web-enabled technology to improve business processes through electronic exchange of information. eBusiness complements the enterprise resource planning (ERP) effort, supports business process reengineering (BPR) and complies with procurement mandates. eBusiness will also be facilitated by the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI), which provides a robust infrastructure and bolsters security when dealing with external customers.

The eBusiness working group is heavily involved in the process of submitting eBusiness pilot projects to the DON, which expects to allocate $20 million for eBusiness pilots in 2002. To date, the DON has funded six NAVAIR pilot projects for 2002. In addition, NAVAIR has funded three more eBusiness pilots.

"eBusiness Web sites generally contain multiple interfaces to other business systems and perform a variety of complex functions, including scheduling, billing and receiving," said Jean Hansell, planning officer, AD Comptroller. In other words, special planning is required to address the complexity of these projects.

"By managing eBusiness projects as a portfolio of investments, NAVAIR is able to prioritize and optimize its eBusiness investments, divest itself of unproductive projects and use its knowledge base for future development," continued Hansell.

The eBusiness working group, which comprises personnel from all NAVAIR sites, has also produced an eBusiness strategic plan, an eBusiness toolbox and a portfolio of eBusiness projects. More information may be found at NAVAIR's Office of the CIO Web site (htttps://cio.navair.navy.mil).

Any NAVAIR activity that would like to submit an eBusiness project for possible funding as a DON pilot may contact Sherry Brown of the eBusiness working group at 301-342-4811 or [email protected].