Analysis Essay 2
Overview of the Server-Side and Client-side Hardware and Software Requirements of the Defense Travel system
The Department of Defense has many systems that enable it to streamline the delivery of its mandate. One of the systems is the Defense Travel System. This is a system that was developed to help the Department of Defense streamline and provide automation to its travel processes, offer support in meeting the travel requirements, and also as a cost cutting measure. The automation provided by the Defense Travel System allows the officers in the Department of Defense to perform most of the administrative tasks without the need of personnel support. This aspect contributes to the reduction in the cost that is associated with travel for the Department of Defense. The development of the Defense Travel System is a continuing process; usually in response to the changing needs of the Department of Defense (Global Security, 2007).
The reservation systems for commercial travel are integrated into the Defense Travel systems together with the disbursing and accounting systems. The original design of the system comprised of two blocks through which continual development of software was done. Block 1was exclusively designed for Temporary Duty travel while Block 2 was exclusively designed for services dealing with the Permanent Change of station Travel. All these changes are meant to help the system meet its mission which is to allow the travelers in the Department of Defense to process their travel requirements through a single interface and without the need for personnel support (Global Security, 2007).
Through the system, the travelers in the Department of Defense can not only process their authorization documents, but also the vouchers, the approval of the travel documents, and process reimbursements upon the completion of their travel (Global Security, 2007). To enable the seamless delivery of these services, various hardware and software requirements on both the server and client side are a prerequisite. This paper explores these requirements and their contribution to the working of the Defense Travel System. In addition, the paper will discuss the competitive advantage that the Defense Travel system offers the Department of Defense as well as make recommendations for the improvement of the system.
The nature of the operations of the Department of Defense limits access to most of the information on the systems. However, general information on the hardware requirements for server applications can be used to explore some of the possibilities. Firstly, the processors in the computer systems of the server should have a quad-core minimum and at last 2 central processing unit sockets to increase the processing speed (RMG Enterprise Solutions, 2014). Additionally, server class processors with a minimum speed of 1.8 GHz. The random access memory of the computer systems should be at a minimum of 8 gigabytes. The system drives should have at least 20 gigabytes of free space and the install drives with at least 80 gigabytes of free space (RMG Enterprise Solutions, 2014). Storage servers are necessary because of the need to store information relating to the transactions and the processes of the Defense Travel System. In addition to the storage servers, dedicated computers and other appliances are required to host the Hypertext Transfer Protocol to serve web pages in response to any requests that the officers at the Department of Defense make through their interface (RMG Enterprise Solutions, 2014).
Server-Side Software Requirements
The software requirements relate to the programs that are required to enable the sharing of pages with the client interface among others. In this respect, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol program is required on the web servers as an intermediary between the users and the server. The network configuration requirements include the IPv4 and the IP (RMG Enterprise Solutions, 2014). Other additional software that is required includes the .NET Framework with the minimum requirement being version 3.5. For the security of the servers, the SSL Certificate is necessary from trusted Certificate Authorities (RMG Enterprise Solutions, 2014).
As highlighted previously, the Defense Travel System is used in various sites of the Department of Defense globally. Various hardware requirements on the client’s side are necessary to access the system. One of the hardware requirements for the access to the system is a desktop computer. This entails the components of the computer system such as the processor, the monitor, and the keyboard. The keyboard is important for the data entry part of the process (Danberry, 2016). The monitor is necessary for the display if the interface through which the Department of Defense officer communicates with the Defense Travel System. Other alternatives to the desktop computer such as laptops and hand-held computer devices such as I-Pads, tablets, and smartphones can also be used. A Common Access Card is also needed to access the Defense Travel System (Danberry, 2016).
The Common Access Card is necessary for the identification of the uniformed service personnel on active duty, the civilian employees of the Department of Defense, Selected Reserve and the eligible contractor personnel. In addition, the Common Access Card also provides access to the computer systems and networks operated by the Department of Defense. Common Access Card readers and routers for internet connectivity are also part of the hardware requirements on the client-side (Danberry, 2016).
The users require certain software to access the Defense Travel System. For the clients using Microsoft Windows, the system is compatible with Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and Windows 10 (Danberry, 2016).The users using iPads and iPhones require the Mac OS X 10.9.x or any other newer versions. The users of Apple Computers require Mac 10.7.x and 10.8.x (Danberry, 2016). The browser requirement for the users of Microsoft Windows operating system is the Internet Explorer 11 (Danberry, 2016). The users of the Apple operating system will need the Safari 6.1 or newer versions. The users also need Java installed on their computers (Danberry, 2016).
Competitive Analysis of the System
The Department of Defense has many operations. All these operations require personnel, who further come with budget implications. In order to focus on the core activities, the Department of Defense needs to build a lean system that is not resources intensive. This is order to ensure that a significant proportion of its resources are committed to the core activities of the department. The competitive advantage that the Defense Travel System offers the Department of Defense is best analyzed in the light of the efficiencies that the system delivers to the department as was intimated in the introduction (Gallaugher, 2012).
One of the efficiencies that amount to a competitive advantage for the Department of Defense is the near elimination of field offices that deal with the issues of the travel for the officers in the department. The Defense Travel Systems has operation in over 9,500 sites globally (Department of Defense, 2016). This enables the streamlining of the services under its mission to these sites. This injects efficiency into the operations of the Department of Defense. On the one hand, it reduces the personnel who are required to perform the administrative duties related to the travel of officers. This is because the automated system allows the officers to perform these tasks themselves. This contributes significantly to the reduction of the operational costs of the department.
The use of the Defense Travel Systems also reduces the occurrence of errors in the processing of documents and the recording of transactions that are related to the travel of officers. As intimated earlier, the Defense Travel System performs among other functions, the preparation and approval of travel authorizations and vouchers as well as the reimbursements of the officers in the Department of Defense following the completion of their travel duties. The Department of Defense estimates that over 25,000 transactions are processed every day by the Defense Travel System (Department of Defense, 2016). Considering that the processing of these transactions is performed through the algorithms that are programmed on the server-side, the occurrence of errors is reduced significantly compared to what would be if the transactions were processed using human labor.
The other competitive advantage that the use of the Defense Travel System offers the Department of Defense is the speed in the processing of the various requests. The automated system can synchronize various processes so that they occur simultaneously. Additionally, they processing power in the server-end is high to ensure that the requests given by the officers are done within a fraction of the time compared to the time required if similar requests were being processed by human personnel. The increased processing speed means that more users can access the system and get the requests they require processed (Department of Defense, 2016). This argument is validated by the reports by the Department of Defense that in addition to the 25,000 transactions that are performed on the system every day, the system is also accessed by over 100,00 unique users every day (Department of Defense, 2016).
In addition to the improvement of accuracy in the processing of transactions as discussed earlier, the use of the Defense Travel System offers other competitive advantages in the form of accountability, financial management and record keeping (Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 2005). This is an important aspect given the number of temporary duty travel orders issued to officers in the Department of Defense, the tickets that need to be processed, and the processing of the 5.6 million vouchers annually for the Reserve Officers, Active Officers, Guard Officers, and the other civilian members who work for the Department of Defense (Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 2005).
The Defense Travel System prepares the travel orders, makes authorizations for the travel, generates the reservations for the travelling officer, generates obligations and commitment of the travelling funds in the financial systems of the Department of Defense, receives and processes the claim for reimbursement by the travelling officer, receives the authorization approval by the travelling officer, and processes the disbursement of the claims for travel that have been approved (Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 2005). Following these processes, the Defense Travel System then commits all the records since the creation of the travel orders to the disbursement of the funds into the systems archive. Among the elements committed to record include the digital signatures of the authorizing staff (Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 2005).
Recommendations for Improving the System
The analysis of the Defense Travel System leads to some recommendations through which the system can be improved. One of the recommendations is the reconfiguration of the system to allow for group travel. In line with the aim of increasing efficiency in the operations, a provision for group travel for officers who have been deployed on duty together will allow the faster processing of travel orders. This is especially important with the increased activity of the American military in missions away from their base. This requires the reconfiguration of the system to allow the expeditionary leader to process the travel authorizations of this team in one instance, thereby saving time.
The second recommendation for the improvement of the system is the reconfiguration of the system to include the processing of information for officers and personnel who are travelling because of a permanent change of their stations. At present, the system is configured to process information for those travelling on temporary duties. The implementation of this recommendation will enhance the record-keeping of all the officers in the Department of Defense irrespective of whether they leave their stations on a temporary assignment or on a permanent change of station.
Conclusion
The Department of Defense is funded by the taxpayer. It is prudent that the taxpayer dollars are utilized efficiently. The development, implementation and maintenance of the Defense Travel System were expensive undertakings. However, the rationale behind the approach is to create a lean system where resource utilization is done efficiently. Additionally, the integration of various processes under one system helps reduce wastage of resources and fraud. The recommendations made only serve to improve a system that shows promise in delivering the much needed efficiency in military operations for decades to come.
References
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. (2005). The Defense Travel System: Boon or Boondoggle. U.S. Government Printing Office. Washington D.C
Danberry, M. (2016). Information on DTS (Defense Travel System). Retrieved from https://militarycac.com/dts.htm
Gallaugher, J. (2012). Information systems: A manager’s guide to harnessing technology (ver. 1.3). Irvington, NY: Flat World Knowledge
Global Security. (2007). Defense Travel System (DTS). Retrieved from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/budget/fy2007/dot-e/dod/2007dts.pdf
RMG Enterprise Solutions. (2014). Hardware and Software Requirements for Server Applications. Retrieved from http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/205582/file-1257454924- pdf/Agreements_Page_Docs/HW_and_SW_Requirements_Simplified_Server_11- 3_06242014.pdf?t=1449270208683
