U.S. Marine Corps Improves Urgent Request Process with SharePoint Solution

The U.S. Marine Corps has a process for submitting urgent requests for new capabilities to support troops in the war effort. Until recently, the process for submitting a request, called an Urgent Universal Needs Statement or U-UNS, was not automated, nor was it visible to the requestor and those in the approval chain. There was no easy way to communicate the status of these requests to those in charge. The reporting requirements involved many person hours of research and analysis, and taxed already-limited staff resources.

Process Automation

The Marine Corps (USMC) implemented an online, fully automated solution in its SharePoint-based Virtual Work Environment (VWE) to improve the security, efficiency, traceability, and effectiveness of the request process.

The Marine client who conceived the idea to automate the U-UNS process, was introduced to the SharePoint VWE at Quantico. A demonstration showed its power and ease of use. He had no prior experience with SharePoint or with the VWE.

The concept of automating the U-UNS process resonated with our client because he knew their Directorate was under-staffed for what they had to accomplish. The demands of the war in Iraq were growing faster than the available staff resources. He reasoned that he could significantly improve the U-UNS process by using SharePoint to allow a U-UNS request to be input from anywhere and pushed and tracked electronically. As a result, urgently needed supplies would reach troops faster, improving their capabilities and saving lives.

A key objective of the online U-UNS was to make the process transparent to all those involved, so that at any time, the stakeholders would know the stage, location, and pertinent details of any request. Additionally, this system needed to aggregate the U-UNS requests so stakeholders could fully comprehend the pipeline situation, improve control of staffing resources, avoid duplication of requests, and pinpoint bottlenecks. The system had to be simple to use and provide information transparency in a nonthreatening fashion. Roles and security had to be clearly identified and enforced without compromise.

Rapid Prototyping

A prototype of the U-UNS system had to be ready in a week, with executive dashboards available in six weeks. This called for an agile development process. AKG was called on to craft the solution. AKG rose to the challenge, delivering the prototype on time by building exclusively on commercial, off-the-shelf software (COTS) solutions, SharePoint and CorasWorks.

Process Transparency, Reporting, and Dashboards

With the solution presented by AKG, the U-UNS requestor accesses a Web part in the Marines’ VWE to initiate a request. This request is submitted by direct entry onto a Web page that sends automatic notification to the next person in the approval process. As the approver acts on the request in the VWE, it moves along the processing chain. At any time, those responsible can see the number and location of requests in the pipeline. Should the request stall, it can be followed up on immediately. Those responsible for creating reports for the generals now have their own dashboards and can push the necessary information to the generals' summary dashboards without hours of research. The approving generals have the most current data to use as a basis for fulfilling requests. At any point the generals can easily access desired information at the click of a button.

U-UNS allows those responsible for creating reports to locate information in one place, eliminating multiple contacts and excessive emails. Now the information is funneled directly to the stakeholders, who are then are able to perform assessments and all other necessary functions to publish status reports. This saves many hours and helps ensure that requests get processed quickly. This solution also can pinpoint trends and spot duplicate requests or other issues, so that officials at all locations have a comprehensive, real-time picture of actual needs. Resource planning is also improved, because the pipeline’s visibility shows when request fulfillments will reach each affected area, enabling better employee work scheduling.

Improved Productivity

Productivity improvements are substantial. Time formerly spent researching can be devoted to other essential tasks. Staff members who previously had very little time for preplanning are moving from a reactive state to a proactive one. Streamlining the U-UNS process allows a request to be available quickly to all necessary parties. Requests are viewed in an appropriate format based on viewer level and security access. Changing the culture so that the information is appropriately shared gives users the ability to locate information they need quickly and reliably. Needed equipment can get to the troops in Iraq sooner, potentially saving the lives of Marines.

The most significant challenges include continuing to balance the maturing of the four major elements of this effort–People, Process, Learning, and Technology–and ensuring that the impetus for change remains a user-based role and not a traditional top-down role, as is the military norm.

Change Must Be Guided

Despite the success of the U-UNS project, the early adopters learned that organizational culture is a vital step in creating a working business solution. Left to their own devices, people will lapse into learned behaviors. Change does not happen in a meaningful way without guidance and help. “Build it and they will come” may have worked in the movie Field of Dreams, but for collaborative technology tools to take root and make improvements across an organization, it takes a sound user adoption plan and the experience to turn that plan into action.