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In the beginning, there was TASC. And then there was the new TASC.
That journey began last December, when the advanced engineering and advisory services firm decoupled from defense giant, Northrop Grumman on the heels of organizational conflict of interest requirements outlined in the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009. Ever since, the newly independent $1.6 billion company has been proving an industry trailblazer, just as federal requirements on the OCI front continue to transform the defense sector. The past few months have seen other companies announce their intent to decouple: Lockheed Martin and CSC are both selling their engineering support divisions.
Helping TASC build its own identity, from the ground up, is Barbie Bigelow. In May, this long-time industry veteran, who served as CIO of the Lockheed Martin Electronic Systems Business Area, joined TASC to lead its information strategy. No small feat , especially when a monumental deadline looms: This coming December, on the one-year anniversary of its sale, TASC must complete all divestiture activity. For Bigelow, that means not only building an independent information infrastructure, but also making the systems operational in just a few months. All brand new. All TASC.
For Bigelow “” for any CIO “” it“™s a once in a lifetime opportunity.
“It“™s rare to be able to design a new infrastructure, basically on a clean sheet of paper, not just building on top of a legacy system,“ says TASC CIO Barbie Bigelow. “It“™s not a cobble approach, it“™s a blank canvas.“
All of which makes TASC“™s Bigelow someone to watch among CIOs who“™ll be helping stand up independent companies of their own in an OCI-free environment.
New infrastructure
These days, Bigelow has her eye on one thing: transformation. “My focus is the new infrastructure and how to align it with our vision and transformation as a new, independent company,“ she says.
That transformation touches on every aspect of the corporate infrastructure: connectivity, information security, back-office applications and a broad range of knowledge-sharing and collaboration tools. For example, TASC partnered with Deltek for a suite of applications to support time collection, accounting, and human resources. Combined with self-service reporting, TASC will put even greater focus on program transparency and employee recruiting and onboarding.
“We“™ve used a rigorous engineering process in selecting our vendor partners,“ says Bigelow. From requirements traceability to cost and schedule, TASC works closely with its partners to meet the aggressive implementation timeline.
Throughout, a close alignment with TASC“™s business areas is key. “The dynamic here is I can be fairly focused, tactically, on the infrastructure, while the business unit leaders are focused on customer missions,“ says Bigelow. “There has to be a high level of trust to make this work.“
New technology
Moving forward, Bigelow“™s vision is on a nimble, agile organization. “We“™re looking at technologies and capabilities that we weren“™t able to field at the pace we would have liked before,“ says Bigelow, of initiatives still in the planning stages. “We“™re going to be able to pilot things, do things in a prototype way, and then field them quickly for the benefit of our customers.“
Among the areas of focus is social media. “There are great opportunities for knowledge sharing to support customer missions, that I“™m excited about,“ says Bigelow. In assessing this and other technologies, Bigelow sees a golden opportunity ahead.
“We can take advantage of some great technologies to enhance our workflow,“ says Bigelow. “We get to take a fresh look at them and say, “˜As the new TASC, is this the most efficient and effective way for us to do things?“™“
Managing expanding portfolio
Leveraging new technology takes a deft approach. Especially when you“™re managing an expanding application portfolio within an organization with 5,000 employees spread across 17 states. “It“™s such an application-rich world,“ says Bigelow. “The challenge for all CIOs,“ she adds, “is to set up an architecture and governance framework that allows the leadership team to quickly see the business value of added functionality.“
For Bigelow, meeting that challenge takes discipline. “If you don“™t have the right level of focus, you“™ll wake up one day and have 6,000 applications,“ says Bigelow. “It takes discipline to match the criteria with the business and maximize the functionality of existing apps.“
Backed by that discipline, Bigelow is focused on the road ahead. “Our objective is to provide the people of TASC ““ whether they“™re at a customer facility, in a classified environment, or on the Chantilly campus ““ with an enterprise platform that propels the growth of the new TASC and creates an environment that inspires them to do their best work.“
