JTIEC’s Role An Important One for Team Orlando Success

“JTIEC is all about connecting government to government, and serving as the Team Orlando action office,” said Kent Gritton, JTIEC director. “In the early years, we focused on the joint training enterprising network and building trust and relationships. Now, Team Orlando is able to fully capitalize and benefit from the reality that JTIEC has become.”

As the liaison serving Team Orlando, JTIEC was established to help accomplish the strategic vision of this ‘community of the willing.’ “Collaboration is key and keeping it alive is essential,” said Gritton. “With joint program management as a key mission, and projects supporting OSD and the Joint Staff front and center, JTIEC, now more than ever, is helping the joint community work together, leverage each other’s accomplishments, and make better use of taxpayer dollars — all for the benefit of the warfighter.”

Among the focus areas, the JTIEC facilitates collaboration and helps to identify opportunities of the military Services’ M&S and training system capabilities. Dan Torgler, Deputy Program Manager for Training Systems, Marine Corps Systems Command, is an original charter member of Team Orlando. He remembers a time before JTIEC existed and the effort his group placed in keeping the different projects organized.

“We (PM TRASYS) used to keep a matrix of what every Service was working on, so we knew who was working with whom on each project and what they were doing,” he said. “Now the JTIEC acts as a clearinghouse to help manage all of our projects, and because everyone has grown considerably over the last 10 years, their existence and involvement makes good business sense.”

“In 2001 we were stood up, had a $20m budget and less than five employees,” added Torgler. “There’s no way we could have met all our needs with so little funding, so we had to leverage and use Team Orlando as a business.” Torgler smiled, “We used the C.A.S.E. method, Copy And Steal Everything! That was our business model.”

Robert Rohlfing, Deputy Director, Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation (AFAMS), credits the JTIEC as the glue providing Team Orlando integrated solutions for the warfighter. “When non-Service customers come to Team Orlando for an integrated LVC (Live, Virtual and Constructive) solution, the entry point is JTIEC,” explains Rohlfing. “JTIEC then analyzes the capabilities within Team Orlando and recommends the best solution, whether that solution identifies a specific Service Program Manager or a combination of Service Program Managers.”

Rohlfing also noted the individual growth his own organization has made through the partnership. “AFAMS continues to benefit from the JTIEC vision, most recently with a standardized scenario generation capability,” he said. “We look forward to continued Joint successes orchestrated by the JTIEC.”

As they move forward, and are faced with the upcoming lean years, the Team Orlando business model remains the same and with guidance from JTIEC they will continue to combine and operate across the different services, still meeting their individual Services’ needs, but with the support and knowledge of the others.

“We are being asked to do the same or more with less dollars, and therefore it’s prudent for us to actually do more together,” said Torgler. “We’re all busy and all focused on our own functions,” he said, “but even though our budgets are shrinking, the requirements still exist, and our top priority will be to continue working together to stretch our dollars and getting more for less.”

Team Orlando, with the leadership and commitment of JTIEC, has done an admirable job to stay on task and accomplish their goals, and the group is often visited and questioned by others who are looking to mirror the successes they have had in their short existence.

Pete Marion, Assistant Program Executive Officer for Customer Support for the Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, currently serves as a TO board member and is also a charter member. “The JTIEC has helped establish Team Orlando as the nexus for Modeling and Simulation expertise, not only within the US military, but around the world,” said Marion.

“Serving as the gateway to all the M&S expertise of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, UCF-ICT and via NCS to 160 industry stakeholders, there is no other organization like the JTIEC in the world today,” he added.