Still, private businesses can learn a lot from the Navy, particularly about navigating around resistance from higher-ups, Bertsch says. "When obstacles get in the way and when somebody refuses to change, or they are dragging their feet and are hurting the organization, then you must move them out of the way," he says.
But his biggest lesson is to put up something, anything, that will produce early returns and make an impact quickly. Don't insist on making it perfect. "It's ready, aim, fire. Not ready, aim, aim, aim," Bertsch says.
On the Horizon
Looking forward, the NKO team faces challenges. They'll have to fight what Bertsch calls a "guerrilla war" to secure permanent funding and attain legitimacy among the Navy's senior ranks. (Morris assures that next year's NKO budget will be significantly higher than this year's, though he wouldn't say by how much because of pending negotiations with Appian.)
Usability also is an issue. Some users call for better categorization and grouping of content. They say it's hard to find your way through NKO's mostly text navigation system. Also, the Enterprise Collaboration Center, where documents are uploaded and shared and whose interface resembles Windows Explorer's files and folders, doesn't integrate well enough with the channels that sailors use to customize the look of their pages, Preissler says. And links to documents that relate to topical channels have to be entered manually.
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