Small Office Bytes Off Huge Savings

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Small Office Bytes Off Huge Savings
Military.com | Jim Katzaman | January 23, 2008

MARINE CORPS SYSTEMS COMMAND, QUANTICO, VA. - They might be just a handful of people, yet each year their Marine Corps Systems Command office saves the entire Corps tens of millions of dollars. Under Product Group 10 Information Systems and Infrastructure, their enterprise-wide reach has sped computer support to the front lines to keep the latest software at warfighters' fingertips.

In place since 2001, the Marine Corps Software Enterprise License Management System, or MCSELMS, program is still a relatively new concept to the Marine Corps. Yet, it packs the clout of almost 300,000 individual computer licenses to provide and maintain cut-rate, up-to-date online service for military and civilian keyboarders alike.

Enterprise licensing is "a relatively simple approach, but it works," said Teresa Hardisty, MCSELMS Team Lead. She smiled when she compared MCSELMS' success to "buying at Costco prices instead of 7-11. People understand that buying in bulk you get a discount."

Quite a sizeable discount at that, dating from the program's birth in 2001. Before then, when Marines needed computer software, their work sites bought the programs in "one-sies and two-sies," as Hardisty described the acquisitions at that time, such as they were. New to her office in Product Group 10 back then, having come from a logistics background, she received a request for a software purchase and thought others in the command might have similar requests. She sent out a command-wide message, and the response was overwhelming.

By the time the order was placed, there were 283,000 identified licenses throughout the Marine Corps for just this one set of products. Buying in bulk rather than just one or two at a time, the Corps has realized $50 million in cost avoidance, and as new software products are added the total continues to rise. Soon after MCSELMS' inception, Hardisty was no longer a one-person office serving only MCSC customers. Today she leads a team of four contractors that acquires computer software and maintenance across the Corps.


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