Barry Tanner, deputy chief information officer at the Department of the Navy, said DON’s Cattle Drive initiative is currently focused on the business mission area with plans to eliminate 55 to 60 legacy business systems over the next year, Federal News Network reported Friday.
Operation Cattle Drive
Launched in 2020, Operation Cattle Drive seeks to help the Navy modernize its IT systems by eliminating redundant applications and platforms and reinvesting the achieved cost savings into modern IT capabilities.
“There a lot of legacy systems that are being consolidated into larger platforms, and so we continue to partner very closely with the financial management and controller team on making sure that the enterprise resourcing planning (ERP) and some of these other larger platforms are bringing more capabilities and functions into those so we can sunset the old ones,” Tanner said during an interview on FNN’s Ask the CIO.
“Those systems support a lot of things that we care about, not just turning off the old thing, but also eliminating vulnerabilities,” he added.
Ongoing Communication With PEOs
To remove barriers to IT modernization, Tanner stressed the importance of promoting communication with program executive officers as a key part of cultural change.
“The new thing that we’re doing, what is it replacing? What is this intended to replace? How have you engaged with the people who are your customers to help them understand how their life will change when you do this?” the deputy CIO said.
“There are plenty of examples of that across the board, but if we don’t get after that part, then this idea of Cattle Drive and this idea of divest to invest and all this other stuff like that gets 10 times harder,” he added.
Catch Tanner at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Digital Transformation Summit and hear his insights on how edge technologies and other innovations are transforming military operations. Register now!
