USTRANSCOM, established in 1987, is one of nine U.S. unified commands. As the manager of America's global defense transportation system (DTS), USTRANSCOM coordinates people and transportation assets to project and sustain forces, whenever, wherever, and for as long as they are needed. Composed of three Transportation Component Commands (TCCs): The Air Force's Air Mobility Command (AMC), the Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) and the Army's Military Traffic Management Command (MTMC), USTRANSCOM coordinates missions worldwide using both military and commercial transportation resources.

In late 2001, EWSolutions was tasked to evaluate USTRANSCOM’s current meta data management environment and to recommend the direction for meta data management architecture and processes. The primary objective of this initial effort was to determine requirements, strategy and scope for effective meta data management across USTRANSCOM HQ and the TCCs. To date, USTRANSCOM has undertaken various meta data management initiatives that provide a foundation for the command, but are deficient in several key areas: lack of interoperability, manual meta data entry, poor access, and insufficient business policies. The TCCs have also been working on meta data repository initiatives that represent a good beginning for the collection of meta data. These repositories, however, were built as disjointed efforts and, while they may serve the purpose they were designed for, suffer many of the same flaws as USTRANSCOM’s meta data initiatives.

A key deliverable produced from this effort was a Strategy and Scope Definition for an automated, enterprise meta data repository for USTRANSCOM. The Transportation Meta Data Repository (TMR) is designed as a critical step in meeting the ultimate goal of centralized meta data management for a decentralized defense transportation system (DTS). After completion of this strategy and requirements effort, which included selection of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technology to support the TMR, EWSolutions began work on the design and implementation of TMR Release 1.0. The implementation plan for USTRANSCOM and the TCCs spans the next five years.

In May 2003, EWSolutions kicked off a separate engagement with the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), Logistics Systems Management (LSM) organization to design and implement a meta data repository architecture to support the entire Department of Defense (DOD) Logistics Community at an enterprise level, including USTRANSCOM and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). This repository will leverage COTS technology and utilize a decentralized architecture to manage both technical and business meta data. An initial focus of this effort is to analyze system interfaces at strategic points in the DOD distribution chain to facilitate systems interoperability and improve efficiencies between the organizations that comprise the Defense Logistics Community. Another key component of this project is the identification, design and construction of meta data standards, procedures and processes for the Logistics Community