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In an effort to streamline internal processes and help employees focus more on their primary missions, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport recently expanded its KeyportOne Employee Service Center, a dynamic online portal for service delivery and employee engagement.
The revamped KeyportOne serves as a “digital front door” and provides a single entry point for more than 150 services offered by the command’s Corporate Operations Department, ranging from conference room reservations to public release requests to award nominations. Previously, employees had to visit numerous websites to access these services, and many were unaware of the full range of support available to them from the department.
“Our goal is that KeyportOne will be the single destination for a wide range of services that the Corporate Operations Department provides,” said Nichol Williams, head of the department. “This is about providing the workforce with faster, more reliable, and more transparent support.”
One way the new platform provides this transparency is through metrics such as average resolution times for service requests. These metrics allow leadership to monitor the system’s performance in real time, identify bottlenecks, and make data-driven process improvements, according to Williams.
For employees, this means being able to see how long a request is likely to take rather than feeling like their request “fell into a black hole,” said Williams.
Another key benefit of the new KeyportOne is its ability to increase the visibility of work and information that was previously siloed in email inboxes, spreadsheets or institutional knowledge.
“Once requests, approvals, and queues became visible, bottlenecks were obvious, priorities were easier to agree on and fewer ‘can you give me a status’ emails went out to the workforce,” said James Wenke, the command’s deputy division head for Information Technology. “[The new platform] really changed how we work together within the division.”
Users can also, for the first time, receive instant IT support through a live chat feature that connects them directly with the IT Assistance Center.
The new process for non-rating-based awards is another impactful change. What was once a cumbersome, paper-based system involving PDFs, manual spreadsheets and emails is now a fully automated workflow within KeyportOne that also enables peer-to-peer award submissions. The new awards nomination service is currently available to the Corporate Operations and Comptroller departments, and the KeyportOne team is working to roll it out to other departments.
“We’ve opened the aperture on the awards process, so it’s not just supervisors anymore,” said Williams. “We are really encouraging the workforce to recognize each other. There are no more manual spreadsheets or emails.”
The new KeyportOne is built on an industry-leading, cloud-based enterprise service management solution securely hosted in a Navy-accredited, Impact Level 4-approved, Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program-approved cloud environment.
An in-house team developed the platform using an agile scrum methodology designed to enable developers to quickly incorporate user feedback and operational changes. This homegrown approach has delivered clear benefits, according to NUWC Division, Keyport IT Specialist Alex Amante, the lead architect for KeyportOne.
"Using a homegrown team allows a lot more flexibility," said Amante. "It also allows a consistent development approach."
This user-focused approach is also reflected in how the team gathers feedback. The system is programmed to send users brief surveys after their tickets are closed to gather feedback on their user experience. Employees can also submit feedback through direct links on the KeyportOne landing page.
According to NUWC Division, Keyport Project Manager Lacy Dove, who manages the new platform, the development team learned that managing the human element of this digital transition was just as important as the technology itself.
“We spent time explaining why things were changing, not just what was changing,” said Dove. “We listened. We adjusted. Sometimes we slowed down.”
Wenke added that the IT Division found the platform to be most effective when viewed not simply as an IT product, but as a comprehensive tool for managing work within the organization.
“The biggest change for us wasn’t technical,” said Wenke. “The adoption of the platform was much more of a mental challenge than a technical one.The toughest part is helping people change how they work and to truly think about the processes they execute in support of their end users every day.”
Looking ahead, one of Williams' goals is to fully automate the employee onboarding process in KeyportOne.
“As soon as an employee has an onboard date, KeyportOne will automatically start initiating Building Access Requests, a Network Access Request, anything that is needed to expedite the employee being able to come on board and contribute to the mission faster,” said Williams.
The KeyportOne team plans to integrate generative artificial intelligence into the platform starting in May. Initially, AI will help developers build workflows and services more quickly. Later, it will be used to automate routine tasks, summarize service tickets and provide users with real-time answers to common questions.
“The more we can automate, the more we can free up our workforce to focus on other priorities,” said Dove.
Eventually, the team plans to upgrade the platform to a higher impact level. This upgrade will allow it to be integrated with Flank Speed, enabling users to interact with KeyportOne directly through Microsoft Teams.
NUWC Division, Keyport employees can access KeyportOne from the direct link on the command SharePoint homepage. -KPT- Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport is headquartered in the state of Washington on the Puget Sound, about 10 miles west of Seattle. To provide ready support to Fleet operational forces at all major Navy homeports in the Pacific, NUWC Division, Keyport maintains detachments in San Diego, California and Honolulu, Hawaii, and remote operating sites in Guam; Japan; Hawthorne, Nevada; and Portsmouth, Virginia. At NUWC Division, Keyport, our diverse and highly skilled team of engineers, scientists, technicians, administrative professionals and industrial craftsmen work tirelessly to develop, maintain and sustain undersea warfare superiority for the United States.
| Date Taken: | 03.03.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 03.03.2026 15:24 |
| Story ID: | 559313 |
| Location: | KEYPORT, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 15 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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