Who is PIMS?

Management

PIMS Management sets the strategic direction for the program in consultation with stakeholders and to make sure the program meets its objectives on time and on budget. PIMS liaises with US and NATO country desk officers, the PfP Partner representatives, and Event and Exercise Coordinators.

Research and Development

The Research and Development team designs and manages the implementation of collaborative and communication capabilities utilized by Partners to improve interoperability and access information on priority topics.

Technical Branch

Based at the Network Operations Center (NOC), PIMS network technicians maintain the servers and monitor the connectivity. On the ground at each Partner node, a local national technical In Country Coordinator (ICC) maintains the local network and provides help desk support.

Content Management and Development

Starting with stakeholder guidance and the PfP Partner requirements, the Content Team facilitates the development of Communities of Interest on priority topics. This includes identifying potential participants, introducing the collaborative capabilities and tools, seeding the community with new information, and harvesting relevant information from network sites to prevent knowledge stovepipes from forming.

Content In Country Coordinators (ICCs) marry the technology with the cooperative topics in order to moderate communities on priority topics and build partner capacities by training participants on new technologies and how to retrieve information and participate in discussions.

• Contact PIMS about supporting an event or exercise
• Contact PIMS regarding a general inquiry

Stakeholders

US and NATO Stakeholders

Through ongoing consultations with key stakeholders such as Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD), Combatant Commands (COCOMS), Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), PIMS continuously maps its capabilities with documented requirements, including:

• OSD Security Cooperation Guidance;
• European and Central Command Country Campaign Plans;
• Defense Security Cooperation Agency Strategic Plan;
• NATO/PfP Documentation and Summit Agreements:
• Euro-Atlantic Work Program, Cooperative Topics, Partnership Action Plan for Defense Institution Building, Individual Partnership Action Plans and the Istanbul Summit Cooperation Initiatives;
• PfP Partner Objectives.

Requirements

PIMS supports security cooperation requirements that promote interoperability, capacity building and information sharing among the PfP Partners and NATO Allies. Towards these goals, PIMS provides PfP Partners distributed network connectivity, event and exercise support, and works to co-develop content through communities of interest on priority cooperative topics.

Customers

PfP Partners

PIMS considers eleven PfP Partner countries to be important customers. Through connectivity, communications capabilities that enable access to co-developed content of key topics, PIMS serves PfP defense ministries and defense-related institutions.

PIMS supports connectivity requirements of the PfP Partner elements located at the Partnership for Peace Coordination Cell (PCC), SHAPE, Mons, Belgium.

PIMS cooperation with PfP Partners are based on bi-lateral Memorandum of Agreements between the United States and the Partner country.

Event and Exercise Planners, Participants

Under the umbrella of PIMS support to PfP Partners, PIMS is often called upon to deliver IT equipment, technicians, connectivity, and information sharing/knowledge management capabilities for interoperability exercises. Therefore, PIMS aims to satisfy the planners requirements and enable participants to benefit from the conference, event, or exercise. Click on the following links to learn more about PIMS event support capabilities and how to request PIMS support.

NATO / PfP Knowledge Network

Through PIMS Research and Development (R&D) funding, PIMS works with institutions that develop useful information and knowledge for the NATO/PfP audience. PIMS provides groups such as the PfP Consortium of Defense Academies and Strategic Studies Institutes and the PfP Training Centers with collaborative communications technology with the goal of disseminating the resulting lessons, expertise and knowledge to the PfP Partners as effectively as possible.

Communities of Interest Participants

PIMS provides a collaborative environment and tools for individual participants to contribute to discussions on topics critical to NATO/PfP. Typically, a community of interest brings together practitioners, officials, experts from a number of NATO/PfP topics. These groups, hosted at members.pims.org and accessible by personalized logins/password enable for unclassified information sharing on topics that interest the groups' members. Current groups include:

• Defense Policy and Strategy (DPS)
• Democratic Control of Forces (DCF)
• Response to Terrorism (RTT)
• Professional Personnel Structure
• Peacekeeping Operations (PKO)
• Border Security and Control (BSC)
• Language Training (LNG)
• Military Education, Training & Doctrine (TRD)
• Consumer Logistics (LOG)
• Defense Planning and Budgeting and Resource Mgt (DPB)

Interested in joining a group? Register for a PIMS account here.