Business and Operations Opportunity at DeCA

By Mark Wisinger, Market Intelligence Analyst

The Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA), which operates a chain of grocery stores for military personnel and their families, is quietly scaling its IT organization and footprint, creating an opportunity for vendors in the business and operations market.

The Enterprise Business Solution (EBS), DeCA’s new point-of-sale system, is receiving a funding bump in FY17 for customer relationship management (CRM) and financial information management solutions as the program expands. DeCA’s industry partner is NCR Government, which is the prime contract holder until 2020.

What’s Required

CRM and financial information management solutions aren’t the only IT needs at DeCA. In the next phase of the EBS project for 2017-2019, the organization has requirements around e-commerce, mobility, mobile security, reporting and analytics, and enterprise financial management. While NCR Government does have a portfolio of point-of-sale and retail-oriented software, it’s worth exploring how another solution could fill a gap or enhance functionality in the overall EBS system.

The Guy in Charge

The EBS program is housed in DeCA’s new program management office, which is run by Bob Comer out of DeCA’s headquarters in Fort Lee, Va. He’s an Army veteran who’s worked at DeCA for more than a decade and is charged with an unusual amount of responsibility. He’s also very familiar with other relevant IT personnel at DeCA. It’s worth a conversation with him regarding how a certain solution fits EBS to drive demand from the end-customer.

Messaging

Keep in mind that DeCA is a smaller IT organization that doesn’t receive as much industry attention. It has a Linux and Unix server environment with end users on Windows desktops. DeCA is also looking to scale to cloud environments so tech companies will want to discuss how their solution fits within that framework.

Looking for more guidance on navigating IT requirements at DeCA and other federal agencies? Reach out to immixGroup’s Market Intelligence team.