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| Challenge: | To provide the U.S. Army's staff in Project Manager for Light Tactical Vehicles with an online, secure location for collaborating and sharing information. |
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| Solution: | CRGT designed, developed, and implemented a web-based Knowledge Center - a controlled access knowledge management solution. CRGT built on its success in support of the U.S. Army's "Army Knowledge Online" program, which features Knowledge Centers as one of the key components of the U.S Army's award-winning portal. |
| Features: | Lotus Domino R5 application server and a custom-developed suite of templates. |
| Benefits: | Information is more readily accessible and easily disseminated, allowing PM-LTV staff members to collaborate more effectively with work partners within and outside the organization. |
Project Manager for Light Tactical Vehicles (PM-LTV) is a U.S. Army organization that develops, acquires, produces, fields, and sustains safe, reliable, effective, and supportable light tactical vehicles for the joint war fighting community. PM-LTV manages approximately 70% of the Army's tactical vehicle fleet.
CRGT had supported the Army's Chief Technology Office in establishing and maintaining web-based "Knowledge Centers" for Army Knowledge Online (AKO), a highly successful Army portal with more than a million users. So when PM-LTV decided to establish a Knowledge Center - to enable the organization to work collaboratively, in real-time, sharing critical knowledge with authorized users - it, too, turned to CherryRoad.
A Knowledge Center is a web-based workspace where members of an organization can collaborate, communicate, and share information. The Knowledge Center allows users to track progress, stay in the loop, make informed decisions, and bring new staff members up-to-date quickly. Based on CRGT's prior Knowledge Center experience and on PM-LTV's needs, it was determined that the PM-LTV system needed to provide:
CRGT designed the Knowledge Center as a suite of templates using Lotus Domino, the leading platform for collaborative Web applications. Based on these templates, PM-LTV defined customizations needed by their organization, which CRGT developed and incorporated back into the templates. The templates and tools provide a high level of end-user flexibility in managing content and growing the site as needed.
The ability to control access to information and documents is a key requirement for PM LTV. The "public" area of the Knowledge Center provides information targeted for the entire AKO community; however, the core work areas of the Knowledge Center are controlled areas, targeted specifically and exclusively for the PM LTV organization. Depending on the programs they are associated with, some users are able to post information and documents, while others are restricted to reading published content.
CRGT designed the Knowledge Center architecture to meet this critical security requirement, with plenty of flexibility to accommodate varying levels of access. CRGT incorporated Lotus Domino's robust security features into the Knowledge Center templates. Each area has its own access control list.
After working with PM-LTV to define many of these functions and how the Knowledge Center administrator would use them, CRGT developed a comprehensive user registration process and suite of user management tools that enable the Knowledge Center administrator to:
With these tools, PM-LTV can manage their Knowledge Center's user base effectively and efficiently, ensuring that the right people have access to the documents and information they need, when they need it.
Interestingly, this project was done completely remotely, from the server housed at the Army's Ft. Belvoir. By continuously interacting over the Internet, CRGT's consultants at Ft. Belvoir and the PM LTV team in Michigan remained in constant contact, and had real-time access to project information and status. From the client's perspective, CRGT's technical experts were never more than a phone call away … literally.