Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Croom, who became commander of the Defense Information Systems Agency in July, has already started to change the way the agency works with its military service customers by adopting a spirit of collaboration.

Embracing a more easygoing style than his predecessors, Croom has also made his mark on the agency's culture, which affects 7,000 DISA employees.

Croom said DISA does not need to be in the software development business or put its stamp on every project it manages. He said collaboration can deliver better results than working alone.

That's why he decided to adopt the Army Knowledge Online system as a departmentwide Web portal for DISA's No. 1 project, Net-Centric Enterprise Services (NCES). Croom said he does not care which agency or service hosts the portal as long as it does the job. Because he opted to use AKO, Croom tapped a best-of-breed system and saved millions of dollars in development costs.

Croom said he plans to use the same collaborative approach for another major DISA project, the Joint Command and Control (JC2) system, which will replace the aging Global Command and Control System (GCCS).

DISA will ask the military services to provide software modules for JC2, Croom said. For example, the agency might ask the Army to provide JC2 software for ammunition status or artillery fires because the Army knows more about those issues than DISA or defense contractors.

"We want to see what is available from the services that we can adopt" for JC2, Croom said. In addition to the Army's help with battle fire management or ammunition software, Croom wants the Air Force to provide air tasking order modules for JC2, he said.

Croom likes to use commercial analogies to describe what he wants to do at DISA, and he said Travelocity's Web site is a good model for JC2. He said visitors to Travelocity can use the portal to arrange everything they need for a trip, including flight, hotel and car reservations. He wants JC2 to offer the same quality of service for warfighters.