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The Naval Enterprise Service Desk, or NESD, has accomplished a milestone by being named an enterprise IT service for help desk capabilities and support.
What Is the NESD?
The NESD is a centralized support hub that helps naval personnel with technical issues seven days per week, 24 hours per day. Its core capabilities include a self-service portal, AI and machine learning, and various avenues for users to submit help requests.
“With NESD, we are delivering a service desk solution that not only meets current needs, but is also built to adapt and grow,” Louis Koplin, U.S. Navy program executive officer for digital and enterprise services, or PEO Digital, told CHIPS magazine. “This enterprise service is efficient, reliable and user-focused, ensuring naval personnel can access the IT support they need anytime, anywhere.”
Louis Koplin is one of the federal government speakers at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Digital Transformation Summit on April 24. This GovCon-focused conference is a fantastic chance to learn what Koplin has in store for the U.S. Navy’s digital transformation. Sign up now!
Being designated the enterprise IT service should bring the NESD a number of benefits, including potential financial savings through the consolidation of legacy systems. It should also improve the user experience through automation and a single point of entry. It could help the NESD leverage advanced data analytics for continual improvement.
The NESD receives over 1.5 million help desk calls per year, according to the service’s fiscal year 2025 budget request. The U.S. Navy requested $40.8 million for the NESD in FY 2025.
The NESD being designated as an enterprise IT service is a milestone in the U.S. Navy’s digital transformation effort. The service wants to consolidate its spread-out Tier 1 IT help desks, systems and programs to enhance technological systems.
Flank Speed and Hyperion are other important parts of the U.S. Navy’s digital transformation efforts as they serve as the Microsoft 365 cloud computing platforms for the sea service and the U.S. Marine Corps, respectively. The U.S. Navy announced on March 18 that Flank Speed and Hyperion were also designated as enterprise IT services for collaboration and messaging.
How Will the Navy & Marine Corps Use Flank Speed & Hyperion?
U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps IT systems have traditionally been managed independently. This new designation should improve communication and collaboration across the U.S. Navy. It also promotes Flank Speed and Hyperion as enterprise-wide options for productivity and messaging services.
Zero trust is another critical component of the U.S. Navy’s digital transformation strategy. The service’s progress with zero trust has inspired it to expand its target for bring your own devices, or BYOD, a practice allowing people to use their personal mobile devices for work purposes. PEO Digital is targeting around 150,000 users for BYOD by the end of 2025, Federal News Network reported on Feb. 4. This is up from 15,000 users.
What Is Zero Trust?
Zero trust is important to protecting U.S. Navy operations, assets and data in a challenging and contentious cyber landscape. Zero trust suggests that threats can exist both inside and outside an IT system, requiring regular verification of every operator and device trying to access computing resources. Zero trust implies that no inherent trust is provided to assets or operators based only on network location or asset ownership.
Koplin said he continues to work with the Department of Defense’s chief information officer to ensure the service is properly scaling its BYOD initiative.
“As long as we continue on this path, we’ve gone from about 1,000 to 5,000 to 15,000 and Army and Air Force are there with us,” Koplin said. “It’s really all DOD sharing that information.”
Who Is Louis Koplin?
Koplin, as PEO Digital, coordinates and oversees the efforts of over 1,300 personnel across a $2 billion portfolio that spans cybersecurity, the digital workplace, and IT lifecycle, platforms and infrastructure. He most recently served as the deputy CTO in the navy’s CIO office, where he was responsible for overseeing modernization and technology efforts across U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps IT.
Koplin is just one among a star-studded lineup of DOD leaders and IT experts at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Digital Transformation Summit on April 24. This will be a productive day of discussion for GovCon executives. Don’t miss out!
