Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
We've figured out a way that we don't need a separate database for divisions and the
headquarters. It will all be one database. From the division commander's staff viewpoint, it's
his. From our headquarters viewpoint, it's ours.
We're getting to the point where we should be able to get where a person in the district can
manage all of this data, for whatever his purposes are, and it's up to us to specify the details
that we want. Then, when he plugs in the completion date of a particular project and the
project name for his management purposes, or changes and updates, by his putting it in the
system should update the corporate database used by the divisions and the headquarters with
just those two entries at that one point.
Information is now available for the project manager of the Savannah District and to the
project management division at Headquarters, USACE, and other people who want to see
that same piece of data. He's only inputted it once, but it's available to all three.
The decision has been made. Now we've got to go execute all that, and most of the work's in
the software. What we've done is we've boiled down the hardware requirements into
something that is more palatable and makes more sense. Also, you can say, if you're the
district guy and not wanting to pay for all of this, that now you're saving 4,000 a year. If
you're a Page, who said, "It costs way too much," we brought those numbers way down. It
provides for what's needed now and it has growth potential.
If we find out we need more, we've set up the system that provides for an economic analysis
to show and tell why it makes sense to do more. If we can show and tell and we save money,
then we ought to be able to get the right decision to proceed. If it doesn't make money, we're
not going to proceed. We're rewriting the discipline things for the whole Corps to say, "If
you've got a bright idea, before you go around and spend money on your bright idea, you're
going to have to check it off against our system. Does the solution already exist? If so, use it;
don't develop a new one."
If you've got such a great new idea that the current system doesn't do it for you, then you do
your economic analysis and show how what you want to do will be compatible, that it's
exportable to the rest of the Corps, and that it's going to make money going off in your
direction.
So, we've really put in a system of not only feasibility, but also economic feasibility. All in a
year.
Q:
A real accomplishment.
A:
Well, we had a bunch of good people. I was the driver, and so you take it back to what we
talked about earlier about the substantive role: How can I help the headquarters? Well, I
drove the process to meet the requirements put on us by Bob Page.
Q:
Okay.
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