U.S. Army Upgrades Army Knowledge Online - AKO - Portal to Appian Enterprise V.3
$1.2 Million Investment Adds Advanced Group-Based Access Control Capabilities to AKO to Better Serve the War Fighter
VIENNA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2004--
Appian Corporation, the leading provider of business process management solutions to the government, today announced that the U.S. Army has purchased additional software licenses, as well as maintenance and professional services, for the Army Knowledge Online (AKO) portal. Additionally, AKO will be upgraded to Appian Enterprise v.3, the latest version of Appian's award-winning portal solution for government.
With more than 1.6 million registered users, AKO is widely regarded as one of the most successful enterprise portal implementations in the world. In April, 770,000 different people used AKO 12.5 million times. Overall, 72 percent of the active force uses AKO regularly. Considered the virtual nerve center of Army operations, AKO provides single sign-on access to as many as 300 of the Army's mission-critical applications and services.
"The global war on terror has created new demands for collaboration and information sharing," said Gary Winkler, Director of Enterprise Integration, Chief Information Officer/G6. "The rapid and wide-spread acceptance of AKO as the Army operations portal and virtual workspace makes it the obvious and most appropriate vehicle for bringing groups of people with shared interests together."
An award-winning commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) solution suite, Appian Enterprise v.3 is the industry's first open, standards-based business process management suite to offer process, knowledge and analytics capabilities in an integrated development framework. Appian Enterprise v.3 will allow the Army to take advantage of advanced personalization capabilities for deploying content to an unlimited number of targeted communities based on the profiles and preferences of groups and users. As well, the Army will be able to leverage the framework's highly granular security model and intelligent rules engine to safeguard information.
"To date, users have uploaded over one million documents into AKO, and over 12 million documents have been downloaded and discussed online in AKO's Knowledge Collaboration Centers," said Colonel Timothy Fong, Director, U.S. Army Chief Technology Office, CIO/G6. "With Appian Enterprise v.3, users at all levels will be able to use AKO to collaborate on knowledge in private and secure virtual communities, that they can create themselves, on demand."
The upgrade to Appian Enterprise v.3 may be used to support the Army's Battle Command Knowledge System (BCKS), one of the key initiatives under the Army's Business Initiative Council (Army BIC) approved by the Secretary of the Army last February. By upgrading AKO to Appian Enterprise v.3, the Army will be able to establish nested networks of structured communities of practice (CoPs) across all operations, training, leader and doctrine domains within the Army. As the key enabling technology that connects these domains with virtual command/leader teams, AKO will allow the Army to develop, institutionalize and apply best practices in real-time, improving mission decision-making and performance in combat.
The CIO/G6, the Headquarters Department of the Army (HQDA) element that provides management and oversight over AKO, selected Appian's portal solution for government in October 2001. To date, over six million seats of Appian's enterprise portal solution have been licensed to agencies in the federal government.
About Appian Corporation
Appian Corporation is the first business process management company to combine process, knowledge, and analytics capabilities in an integrated software suite for deploying business solutions that enhance enterprise agility and performance. Appian's customers include many of the Fortune 500, major government agencies, and non-government organizations. For more information, visit www.appiancorp.com, send e-mail to info@appiancorp.com, or call 703-442-4612.
Contacts
Appian Corporation
Kathleen O'Neil, 703-442-4612
oneil@appiancorp.com
or
Boscobel Marketing Communications
Paul Silder, 301-588-2900
Psilder@boscobel.com
or
Michael Rudd, 301-588-2900
Mrudd@boscobel.com
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