By Jeff Erlichman

Product leaders spend countless hours negotiating better solutions, solving problems and doing their best to make sure Army missions are delivered on time and within budget.

In the world of contracting, as in everything else, the only constant is change.

If you looked inside the CHESS program headquarters you would find product leaders conducting market research, keeping abreast of governmentwide policies and investigating industry trends. You may find them working on a new contract or blanket purchase agreement (BPA).

They might be talking with customers around the world trying to project what their future requirements are, as well as tending to their immediate needs. They spend countless hours negotiating better solutions, solving problems and doing their best to make sure Army missions are delivered on time and within budget.

They also ensure that COTS products adhere to the required DOD open systems plans and policies, as well as all other required Army standards. Here is a small sample of what they have achieved. Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC), Vista and EPEAT

The security configuration established by the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) has been incorporated within the Army Golden Master (AGM).

According to CHESS leaders, all desktops and notebooks are loaded with a FDCC compliant version of the AGM. In preparation for the Army’s migration to the Vista operating system, all CB configurations comply or exceed the Microsoft’s requirements for “Windows Vista Premium Ready.” These mandatory hardware requirements include a minimum of 1 GB of system memory, DirectX 9 class graphical processing unit that supports WDDM driver, pixel shader, and 128MB of graphics memory.  All desktops and notebooks also are required to be equipped with a trusted platform module (version 1.2) so that users will be able to leverage the BitLocker encryption feature within Vista. 

On the green computing front, CHESS has required compliance with EPA Energy Star standards.  Further, when the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) became mandatory, all CHESS vendors submitted platforms during the spring CB that were EPEAT compliant. New Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) Agreements

As the Army’s Software Product Manager, CHESS participates with other DOD service counterparts in establishing and monitoring new agreements.  According to CHESS, recent product awards include the following products: Belmange, BMC Remedy, Big Fix, BDNA, Opsware, VMware, Websense, Thursby CAC Middleware for Apple computers and Microsoft Premier Support contract. 

Spotlighting a few of the product awardees, the Thursby software will provide access to the Army’s network for Apple computers purchased from the CHESS CB or for customers who currently own Apple computers. CHESS has also consolidated the Army’s requirements for Symantec backup software for both maintenance and new products and for Minitab Lean Six Sigma software.  

CHESS engages in constant collaboration with every major COTS IT equipment manufacturer and their vendors.

The ESI agreements also include software products that are in the Army’s inventory or are included in the software exchange status.  If a customer has a requirement for a software product that the Army already has in inventory, they must purchase the software from them before purchasing from any other source.  Software products that are currently in inventory include: Citrix, Sybase,
and Computer Associates licenses. 

For more information, visit CHESS at https://chess.army.mil.