Troika Solutions, in collaboration with Nexus Life Cycle Management, sent our Joint Enterprise Data Interoperability (JEDI) project team to participate in NATO’s Exercise Steadfast Cobalt-17 Technical Coordination Conference at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium, 30 January to 2 February 2017.
JEDI is a project sponsored by the US Joint Chiefs Staff Directorate for Logistics (J4). The purpose of the project is to develop process and technical solutions that enable and improve data interoperability among US European Command (USEUCOM) components and agencies as well as between USEUCOM and NATO mission partners. The JEDI team has a particular focus on product life cycle support (PLCS) data that is governed by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and NATO Standardization Agreement (STANAG) standards.
The Troika/Nexus JEDI engine exchanges pertinent data, regardless of processes and technologies, between systems providing disparate, stove-piped, legacy, ERP, and other data sources to provide the interoperability of equipment (product) data among information systems. JEDI translates data formats and metadata that identifies the context and meaning of the data so that it can be discovered and re-used outside of its information system. This translation is by provided by mapping of data elements and business rules to the well-defined elements within the PLCS model.
Steadfast Cobalt is an annual NATO exercise that has two purposes. The first is to validate and certify communication and information system networks used to support the NATO Response Force (NRF). The second is to improve data and information interoperability among NATO nations as part of the federated mission network.
For the TCC, the JEDI team met with principal stakeholders to coordinate actions to mature JEDI in parallel with the European Battle Network (EBN) in order to integrate functional services in a multi-national environment. As an example, part of the current effort focuses on the exchange of transactional data involved when a US Marine Corps test or measurement device requires calibration services by a US Army organization as is the current practice in EUCOM.
Because the Marine and Army information systems used to account for or repair the device are not interoperable, the transaction process has information and visibility gaps for both parties as the required calibration service is requested, scheduled, and performed. Additionally, the same data is manually entered and re-entered several times during the transactional process (the swivel chair dilemma) which leads to inefficiencies and inaccuracies in data management.
Incorporating the JEDI engine and its use of the PLCS model into the transactional process provides true data interoperability between Marine Corps and Army systems, eliminates the swivel chair dilemma, provides more timely and accurate accountability of the item, and ensures end to end transactional data is captured for any future purposes associated with product life cycle actions or decisions.
The JEDI team also began coordination of future JEDI capabilities during the TCC. A leading consideration is to use JEDI to provide interoperability between the Joint Operational Planning and Execution System (JOPES) used by US force deployment planners and the Logistics Functional Services (LOGFAS) system used by NATO partners for allied movement and sustainment. In this instance, instead of calibration transactional data achieving interoperability between two US components, data would be exchanged seamlessly between USEUCOM and NATO partners that provide in theater movement and sustainment support to US forces.
If you have questions about the JEDI movement, please contact Troika Solutions by emailing info@troikasol.com.