AETC fields new management tool

  • Published
  • By Air Education and Training Command
  • Public Affairs
RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Beginning in September, Air Education and Training Command will field new user-friendly software called the Task Management Tool designed to support the task management process for AETC Headquarters, Air University, 2nd Air Force, 19th Air Force and Wing staff leadership.

"This is the right step forward for AETC, and brings us in line with headquarters Air Force and other major commands," said Gen. Stephen R. Lorenz, AETC commander.

The TMT program provides increased efficiency by allowing users to easily view and track tasks.

"This tool will significantly improve the way we do business today," said Col. Merrily Madero, AETC director of staff. "This new capability will simplify the task management and suspense tracking process for 4,000 senior leaders, executive officers and action officers across the command."

TMT training began in April and continues through the end of August. AETC leaders plan on TMT being fully operational by September.

"The program allows prompt simple task creation, real-time suspense status monitoring, collaboration, standardization and audit trail features while eliminating business process redundancies and saving costly network storage space," said Lt. Col. James Herrick, AETC Communications Directorate chief of operations.

TMT provides the ability to streamline the organizational tasking, suspense tracking, and staffing processes, allowing those senior leaders, executive officers and action officers to spend more time on the mission and less time managing tasks.

The TMT program interfaces with Microsoft Outlook, allowing users some ease adapting to the new application.

Another program feature is a centralized repository for supporting documents and comments related to a task. All action officers upload documents to a single location associated with a particular task where data is saved at one team site allowing for collaboration on documents.

In a recent director's call, Col. Mona Lisa Tucker, AETC Communications director, said a common problem in AETC is the large size of e-mails to numerous recipients that saturate e-mail servers, slow down service and unnecessarily fill personal and organizational inboxes. TMT eliminates this problem through the staffing process.

During program implementation, users will receive in-depth training. Additionally, templates and intuitive training modules are available within the program to ensure standardization and ease of use.

In addition to the training, the AETC Computer Systems Squadron is developing an Enterprise Information Services Help Desk to support TMT fielding, Colonel Herrick said. Users will have a responsive life line to get answers to TMT questions or issues during fielding and sustainment..

In 2007, U.S. Air Forces in Europe was the first major command to implement TMT. Internal studies have shown they achieved a 90 percent reduction in data storage and man-hours per week.

Colonel Tucker expects AETC to experience similar results.

"AETC is joining the ranks of other major commands, combatant commands and headquarters Air Force in using TMT to streamline task management," she said.