ITT Systems Employees in Iraq Team Up With U.S. Military to Provide Local Children with School Supplies

For safety reasons, ITT Corporation employees working on the Global Maintenance and Supply Services (GMASS) program at Joint Base Balad, Iraq can’t freely venture outside of the military base where they maintain and upgrade vehicles, but that doesn’t keep them from equipping local Iraqi children to succeed in school.

ITT Systems Division staff at Balad organized a fundraising competition, with a pizza party going to the winning team, as part of an effort to purchase backpacks and school supplies. In just two weeks, they raised $3,700 to purchase colorful school backpacks and partnered with the U.S. Army’s 1-402nd Field Support Brigade and 37th Engineer Battalion to provide paper, pencils, paints, a toy and some candy to fill the backpacks.

Once the materials were purchased, ITT employees, working during their off-duty hours, stuffed the packs with the supplies and turned them over to U.S. Army personnel at Joint Base Balad for distribution to children at a school about 10km from the base. Since the ITT Balad team ended up exceeding their original fundraising goal, they are already working to prepare a second batch of supplies for schoolchildren in another local Iraqi town.

“Hopefully our efforts will help the military build relations in the surrounding area, encourage the local children, and make the area safer for soldiers, civilians and Iraqis in the long run,” said ITT Systems Program Manager Jeff Meo.

Bringing Job Growth to Rural Virginia: CGI’s Southwest Virginia Technology Center of Excellence

When he was campaigning for president, candidate Barack Obama made a stop in Lebanon, Virginia to talk about creating more high technology jobs. He singled out CGI, a global information technology and business process services provider, for bringing over 300 high tech jobs to a rural area of the state.

Encouraged in part by Virginia’s business-friendly orientation and the state’s aggressive effort to build out high-speed broadband technology, CGI decided to locate one of its 13 Centers of Excellence in Lebanon.

The Center expands CGI’s capacity to provide its government and private sector clients with a broad range of IT services at competitive rates. Locating a center in a rural area provided the additional benefit of spurring economic development in a region anxious to attract employers.

CGI, which has operations in 16 countries, has its U.S. headquarters in Fairfax, Va. The company is a leader in IT and business processes that reduce costs, improve efficiency and help clients solve difficult business challenges. In deciding to locate in Russell County, Va, the company recognized the availability of a well educated, skilled workforce and its proximity to leading universities and colleges in the region. “With the Southwest Virginia Center, we were able to address a long-standing economic and social issue across the US—the exodus of jobs as well as young people from smaller, rural communities in favor of larger, metropolitan cities,” says Donna Morea, President, CGI United States.

Recycling, Reusing and Going Green: BAE Systems Helps Government Save Millions

Recycling, Reusing and Going Green: BAE Systems Helps Government Save Millions

With $235,000 in seed money, one man’s plan for recycling and reusing outdated equipment at a munitions plant has turned into a $2.5 million return on investment for the Army.

Built during World War II, the Holston Army Ammunition plant in Kingsport, Tenn., manufactures explosives for the military. Within the plant are outdated pieces of equipment and machinery and hazardous materials that required safe disposal.

Eric Fugate, the plant manager and an employee of BAE Systems, which operates the plant for the Army, had an idea. Knowing the value of the stainless steel, copper and silver that comprise the various pieces of old unused equipment, Fugate developed a plan to use the value of the metals to carry out a self-funded demolition project. The project would ultimately improve business performance, dispose of redundant equipment and remove hazardous materials—all at no net cost to the government.

When Fugate presented his plan to the senior government civilian, Commander’s Representative Bob Ragan, Ragan immediately saw the potential and jumped at the opportunity to get the project briefed to his higher headquarters. “This idea was pure thinking outside-the-box, especially in light of the current funding stream that plants like Holston live with on a daily basis. Truly BAE is looking out for their customer,” said Ragan.

“I just kept the Army’s long-term needs in mind. Sometimes we can help show them a better way to accomplish their mission. Doing what our customers need, and saving money while doing it, is what we should all try to do. After all, I’m a taxpayer too,” Fugate said.

Fugate presented his plan to the Army, which provided $235,000 in initial seed money. This funding was required in part to remove the asbestos from a portion of the plant. The valuable metals contained in the equipment were then removed and sold to generate the money to pay for the demolition work.

Fugate’s out-of-the-box idea is coming to fruition. The disposal of the redundant equipment is on schedule and will be completed over the next 18 to 24 months and will generate more than $2.5 million from the sale of the valuable metals.

From Paper to Paperless: Transforming the Nation’s Financial Aid Process

Each year, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) administers programs that disburse more than $70 billion in financial aid to help students pay for college. Just a decade ago, the 13 million students applying for federal student aid had to use a cumbersome, complicated and sometimes confounding paper-based process. Now, with help from Vangent, a leading global information management company, FSA has a modern, almost paperless system—making life easier for students, cutting costs, streamlining a cumbersome process, and increasing efficiency and accuracy.

When FSA turned to Vangent as a private sector partner, it got results. The online system they designed, built, and continue to operate allows students and parents to apply for federal student aid via a secure, user-friendly web site, thereby nearly eliminating the complex, paper-based form that required considerable time to complete and a costly, labor-intensive data collection system to process.