Building strategic partnerships: an open letter from IT's new commander Published July 17, 2008 By Col. Mary M. Gillam Information Technology Director TINKER AIR FORCE BASE -- First of all, I want to publicly thank Maj. Gen. Loren Reno, commander of the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, for giving me the opportunity to serve as the director of Information Technology and deputy chief information officer for the center. Although I am the director, success of the IT Directorate is a team effort. As architects of the center's IT enterprise, we play a pivotal role in how IT is implemented and deployed across the center. Since I just arrived, I would like to take this opportunity to share a little about my background. I began my career in communications-electronics maintenance. Over the last 26 years, the career field has changed tremendously to now include information systems technology. I have held a variety of jobs in this specialty to include many real-world deployments and special duty at the embassy in Turkey. I recently served on the staff of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks, and Information Integration at the Pentagon. The ASD/NII is also the DoD/CIO, working directly for the Secretary of Defense with a focus on net-centric warfare, portfolio management, communications/IT, space, and information assurance related programs, spectrum issues, the enterprise, the IT budget and compliance with congressional mandates. In 1995, Michael J. Earl and David Feeny published an article entitled Is Your CIO Adding Value? This article has always resonated with me because value remains the critical element distinguishing whether a staff office is considered vital to the success of the organization's mission. For example, is the IT Directorate adding the kind of value that makes our job essential to the success of the center? Is the directorate introducing processes and improvements, facilitating change and producing strategic benefits for our customers? I firmly believe we play a major role at the center and we must continue to maintain a successful IT partnership with the community we serve. Although many would postulate IT is a strategic enabler and a change-agent, I assert this is true when the value of IT is recognized and its transformational properties are successfully implemented across the organization. My vision for the IT Directorate is to be the "best IT Directorate in the Air Force." However, no vision is successful without development of a proper strategy to achieve the vision, goals, and objectives of the organization. By ensuring our IT strategy aligns with the business and war fighting strategy of the center, we will continue to build and cultivate the strategic partnerships necessary for effective teamwork. Throughout this entire process, we will continue to adhere to our Air Force core values: integrity, service-before-self, and excellence in all we do.