Common business system deemed unrealistic.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Military services business mangement - Brief Article

Despite much talk about the need for the military services to buy common information systems to run their business and financial operations, Pentagon officials concede that a single-system scenario is highly doubtful.

"We get into that debate a lot," says Paul A. Brinkley, undersecretary of defense for business transformation.

By his account, there are at least 2,000 systems supporting logistics in the Defense Department. "When we get down to 20, I'll start worrying about the fact that we are buying more than one," Brinkley says. "When we have more than 2,000 systems, worrying about whether we are buying one, two or three, to me, is not a problem...