Civilian Consultants Redo Navy Systems From Outside In

The biggest test yet of the Pacific Fleet’s computer upgrade and culture shift will come in January, when nine ships of the John C. Stennis battle group and three ships of the Bonhomme Richard amphibious ready group deploy to the Persian Gulf.

All 12 ships have new hardware and software meant to speed the flow of information crucial to doing battle and to morale. The goal is to create an intranet system linking ships at sea, land-based commands and the Pentagon.

But the deployment of the aircraft carrier Stennis and the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard will be unusual for another reason: Fourteen civilian information managers/systems analysts from New York-based PricewaterhouseCoopers will be aboard.

Under a $15-million contract to assist with the Information Technology-21 upgrade program, consultants from the accounting firm, best known for tabulating the Academy Award ballots and keeping the results secret, have been attached for nearly two years to the Pearl Harbor headquarters of the Pacific Fleet.

In recent years, the firm has retooled its operations to include consulting work with dozens of governmental agencies and companies on how to avoid information overload and how to master the new technology.

The strength of the group is that it is not steeped in the Navy’s way of doing things.

“We’re looking from outside the box,” said Rob Ashworth, who heads the group.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers analysts have authority from the admirals in San Diego and Pearl Harbor to poke into how the fleet assembles and disseminates its daily tidal wave of information about manpower, equipment, the maintenance needs of 71 high-performance aircraft, the military and political shifts of U.S. allies and adversaries around the globe and much more.

“We’re trying not to just re-host old programs onto new hardware,” said Cmdr. Bruce Acton. “Adm. [Archie] Clemins [who spearheaded the IT-21 program] knew that if we were to truly change, it would take people from the outside of the system to take a look. Change is very hard for most people inside an organization because it’s outside their comfort zone.”

At Pearl Harbor, the PricewaterhouseCoopers consultants found that admirals were getting hundreds of e-mails daily, causing an information logjam. (The Atlantic Fleet has its own IT-21 program with its own schedule and consulting program.)

Part of the IT-21 push has been the acquisition of 42,000 Dell computers, plus dozens of printers, numerous routers and servers, and miles of fiber cable.

Then there is the cultural shift from a “need to know” environment to one where information is more accessible. “It can be very hard to get people to let loose of information,” said Cmdr. Mike Plunkett, supply officer for the Stennis.

On the ships’ intranet, information is now being posted on Web pages available to officers with the security clearance.

“Our goal has been to show the Navy that there is a lot of real power in the Web,” said David Kapusta, a principal consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Lured by a professional challenge and the promise of a $5,000 bonus, 80 PricewaterhouseCoopers employees sought the coveted 14 spots to make the six-month deployment.

They’ve been warned: Life at sea is no picnic. A carrier is a 24-hour operation, living space is cramped and the daily pace is intense, with 50,000-pound warplanes landing and launching at all hours. The consultants will be taken to the other ships by helicopter.

“We spend a lot of time with clients at their sites,” said Ron Barry, one of the 14 analysts. “This is the most unique client site I’ve ever encountered.”

In the past, the Navy has had consultants aboard from aerospace companies to hear feedback from pilots and navigators on the performance of their aircraft. The presence of the “knowledge enablers,” officials said, is proof of the newfound respect for information as a weapon of war.

“The stereotype of the boss sitting in his office with a computer he won’t use is gone,” said Cmdr. Rich Hajek, the battle group’s IT-21 specialist. “This is a new generation of sailors.”