Strong Foundation For ChangeStrong Foundation For Change

Construction company Fluor Corp. is putting in a new IT foundation to better support its business objectives and increase security, CIO Ray Barnard says.

With the help of Lockheed Martin Systems Integration, Fluor says it now has an integrated road map. The services provider last week launched a consulting program to help customers integrate their architecture and processes. And Lockheed says it will give customers what they don't often get from consulting arrangements: hard return-on-investment numbers that show how much they'll save by implementing the recommendations.

Lockheed's ARQuest blueprint program gives executives specific implementation projects and architecture and process-change recommendations to align the IT infrastructure with business goals. The effort is supported by software tools that managers can later use to generate ROI reports, benchmark IT costs, and analyze the expandability of the infrastructure. ARQuest generates reports using Popkin Software's System Architect application.

Lockheed Martin wants to appeal to cost-conscious businesses that have become increasingly dubious about big consulting engagements. It will work with a customer for a specified period and produce agreed-upon deliverables. "This isn't another open-ended consulting contract," says Kathryne Hasse, Lockheed's director of commercial and transportation services.

Fluor's Barnard says he also likes the fact that Lockheed doesn't have its own hardware or software to push. "They don't have an agenda," he says. Fluor has used ARQuest to analyze, and in some cases eliminate, hundreds of applications, which Barnard says has helped him cut $22 million this year and $23 million next year from the company's $400 million IT budget.

Barnard also uses ARQuest to analyze the security of his infrastructure, a key issue given that Fluor, among other things, builds nuclear power plants and has a number of projects under way in the Middle East. Barnard says the fact that Lockheed helped develop secure infrastructures for military organizations such as the U.S. Air Force helped convince him it was qualified to assess his IT security needs.