Mission Need

The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force faced fractured, installation-by-installation IT services, processes, and systems—driving higher costs, operational inefficiencies, and uneven user experiences. Leaders sought a standardized, consumer‑style model that would modernize the end‑user environment and free airmen and guardians to focus on the mission. Beginning in 2019, an enterprise IT as a service (EITaaS) risk‑reduction effort across nine installations established technical, operational, security, and organizational requirements for adopting a managed services framework.

Solution

As the prime industry partner for EITaaS end‑user services, SAIC instituted a unified, user‑centric operating model grounded in an enterprise IT service management framework. Rather than listing capabilities separately, SAIC embedded them directly into day‑to‑day service delivery to raise experience, convenience, and efficiency at scale:

• Always‑on support: An enterprise‑wide 24/7 service desk plus on‑site field services at each base for device repair, deployments, and local support.
• Human‑centered walk‑up care: Tech Cafes and Cyber Hangars—modeled after modern retail bars—provided face‑to‑face assistance, achieving a 98% CSAT rating.
• AI‑enabled self‑service: Integrated chatbots triage requests and deflect tickets; a service center portal delivers an automated catalog, software center, robust knowledge base, real‑time ticketing, and live‑agent chat.
• Standardized operations across installations: A consistent approach to service and asset management, informed by CX KPIs, digital experience monitoring, and service‑level data.
• Executive visibility and governance: Centralized dashboards for leaders to track performance by base, allocate funding, and drive continuous improvement.
• Security and reliability posture: Assured compliance assessment solution vulnerability scanning to discover unmanaged endpoints earlier and remediate risk faster.

SAIC operated this enterprise solution across nine pilot installations—Spangdahlem AB (Germany), Joint Base Elmendorf‑Richardson (AK), Buckley SFB (CO), Offutt AFB (NE), Cannon AFB (NM), Hurlburt Field (FL), Maxwell AFB (AL), Gunter Annex (AL), and Pope Field (NC).

Mission Impact

More than 60,000 airmen and guardians now have round‑the‑clock access to modernized tech support and self‑service, improving readiness and reducing time spent on IT issues. SAIC’s end‑user services outpaced industry benchmarks on satisfaction and speed while lowering cost and staffing requirements. Centralized visibility enabled data‑driven improvements and helped leaders optimize investments and outcomes.

Critically, the managed services model enabled greater personnel productivity : an estimated 86 mission defense team airmen and guardians refocused on detecting, protecting, and responding to cyber threats. By shifting the operational burden of IT to SAIC, the departments realized commercial‑quality experiences aligned to warfighter needs.

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