U.S Army National Guard and Reserves Ready for Action with RCAS

The Client

The U.S. Army National Guard (ARNG) and U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) include more than 10,500 Guard and Reserve units at over 4,000 sites. Locations include all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. The Reserve Component Automation System (RCAS) supports the office automation, unit administration, and mobilization requirements of ARNG and USAR.

The Challenge

In 1995, the RCAS development project was well over budget. At that point, RCAS also had a systems architecture that was not flexible enough to meet ever-changing user requirements. The chief of the National Guard Bureau sought out BearingPoint to recommend, implement, and support changes related to a major restructuring of the RCAS project.

The Solution

BearingPoint responded to the challenge by recommending changes that reduced project costs by approximately $1 billion and led to the development of a systems architecture based on a secure, scalable, common operating environment. Our team leveraged its knowledge and experience in commercial industries and accomplished the following target objectives:

• Support contract renegotiations with the prime contractor, Boeing Information Services.
• Support the restructure of the RCAS Project Management Office (PMO).
• Identify a completely new systems architecture.
• Implement an integrated approach to project management, including the application of earned value management, metrics, and risk management concepts and techniques.

Working directly for RCAS PMO, we continue to support the programmatic aspects of RCAS. Services include RCAS acquisition and life cycle management, quality assurance, software and systems testing, and integrated logistics support.

The Benefits

With our help, RCAS became an asset to ARNG and USAR. Functionally, RCAS now handles human resources, logistics, safety, aviation, resource management, and information management. The project cost savings of a billion dollars were truly significant. In addition to the RCAS restructure and cost savings, BearingPoint continues to assure the future of RCAS with programmatic support.
View/Download the U.S. Army National Guard case study (26 KB)