Case Studies

Client Problem

The United States protects its national security not just through its capabilities, but also through strengthening relationships, and the military capabilities of partners and allies around the world. This method, known as security cooperation, is a vital component to achieving the country’s strategic interests. Our client serves as the lead agency for security cooperation within the Department of Defense.

Working closely with foreign governments and U.S. Government agencies, such as the State Department, our client manages a variety of programs that provide training, materials and funding to partner nations. These programs are used by a variety of government agencies, such as the Army, Navy and Air Force, and involve very detailed and deliberate processes. Because of the complexity, breadth and depth, and regulatory requirements of these programs, it is important that the processes are well documented and that knowledge is available to those who work with them across the government.

Our client realized there was a growing lack of awareness throughout its network of stakeholders as to the range of security cooperation programs and how each program functioned from a financial perspective to meet specific needs. The scope of the programs stretched from the highest levels of the U.S. Government to field units located inside foreign embassies. Moreover, the programs accessed U.S. and foreign industry to acquire goods and services which compounded the sensitive nature of their business. Exacerbating the problem, our client began experiencing high turnover rates of retirement eligible senior employees. Since few of the processes were documented, much of the imbedded knowledge and experience was lost when personnel departed government service. They needed a way to capture these processes, as well as teach them to individuals in the Security Cooperation community.

Our client reached out to Wedgewood Group to document and disseminate this information. While documentation was the most obvious solution, the means to clearly translate strategies to tasks was at the heart of their problem so they could effectively and holistically manage their programs. They needed tools whereby they could understand their systems, identify inefficiencies, educate their enterprise, and improve their processes.

Our Solution

Wedgewood Group’s Business Process Management team facilitated working sessions, led collaboration efforts, and partnered with security cooperation experts to map out the 20+ security cooperation funding programs from inception of funds to the time of expenditure. While collecting information, our team discovered that subject matter experts only knew a segment of a much larger process. To better serve the client, we needed to dig deeper into each process and engage other functional area experts in budgeting, strategy, and operations. We collected all relevant and important steps of every program’s process, and after a few months of additional research and development, every program’s process map was comprehensive and complete.

Outcome

For the first time ever, the agency has many of its security cooperation funding programs mapped and documented, enabling them to retain valuable knowledge regardless of turnover and the pace of retirements. These process maps provide an unprecedented management tool whereby they can measure, identify bottlenecks, and improve accountability and performance. Additionally, the process maps will serve as training materials for new employees.

Not only did our project team’s efforts capture critical information to ensure continuity, the process maps served as the foundation for the first-ever training course on the subject, which Wedgewood Group developed and delivered on behalf of the agency. The course provides employees throughout the Department of Defense valuable insight into the programs, their purpose, and how they are executed.