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The United States Air Force and IBM: Tra...

Landel, Robert D.,...

Case

The United States Air Force and IBM: Transformation Through Partnership

Landel, Robert D.; Walsh, Bridget

OM-1447 | Published October 5, 2011 | 17 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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A partner in the public sector operations strategy practice of International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) must prepare for a briefing for United States Air Force (USAF) senior leadership proposing ways for the USAF to recognize significant cost savings and continuous process improvements in its Financial Services offices (FSO). Presently, each of the approximately 100 USAF bases around the world has its own local FSO that provides pay and travel processing and customer support. Similar processes are performed at each location. Staffing and quality assurance are managed locally, and legacy systems have been modified over time in response to local preferences. The IBM team has collected a vast amount of base-level process data and conducted focus groups with USAF financial management leadership, FSO personnel, and FSO customers; the partner’s team must analyze the Current State and deliver a comprehensive set of cost savings’ recommendations to maintain the current level of services proficiency.