Next-level command briefings: How SitaWare’s new briefing tool transforms presentations for commanders
New updates to SitaWare Headquarters will transform military briefings for commanders, with presenters now able to deliver interactive briefings for their leaders directly from the Battle Management System (BMS).
Presentations such as the Commander’s Update Brief (CUB) provide leaders with essential information on the common operating picture (COP), intelligence updates and beyond.
Many militaries rely on PowerPoint, using templated graphics and symbology to depict the disposition of friendly and enemy forces and other crucial information and data points.
Previously, users could ‘bookmark’ relevant map layers in SitaWare, before displaying these as static images within PowerPoint: changes to positions, for instance, or enemy capabilities. To see these data points on the live mapping tool, they would need to exit the briefing application and return to SitaWare.
However, commanders have long sought to receive briefings directly from the SitaWare Battle Management System (BMS). They want presentations to be as ‘live’ as possible, delivering the same interactive mapping capability they use in their BMS every day.
Interactive presentations
The new upgrades deliver this capability, allowing users to present directly from SitaWare. While they still have access to annotation and text tools, the new briefing application would enable them to break away from static graphics. This provides commanders to with an interactive view of the map: the presenter can zoom in and spotlight features on the screen just as they appear within SitaWare, offering significant situational awareness benefits for leadership.
Lærke uses the example of a CUB, which provides information on the tactical scenario, intelligence briefings, and other vital data. Multiple contributors would be involved with this, inserting their own input, before the commander receives the briefing.
“They can now do all of this directly from SitaWare,” Lærke explained.
This provides a wide range of practical benefits. For instance, if the presenter is discussing the ORBAT, they could navigate within the map during the presentation to show the location of units or other crucial data points.
Systematic is also developing a ‘meeting’ concept for the briefing tool, Lærke added, which would enable different users within the same local server to observe the presentation, meaning that officers within a divisional headquarters or similar facility will not need to sit in the same room to engage with the briefing.
Best of both worlds
The aim is not to replace the functionality available in PowerPoint, such as the ability to insert complex illustrations. “We're not trying to build those tools into our application,” stressed Lærke.
Indeed, the SitaWare briefing tool will allow users to add images and slides from applications like PowerPoint or Excel that cannot be generated within SitaWare: spreadsheets related to logistics, for instance.
Crucially, however, all of this can now be conducted within SitaWare itself, boosting accessibility for commanders and empowering them with all the functionality of the BMS’s mapping tools and interactive capabilities.
“You're staying inside SitaWare. You're not moving out to an external application, but you can still use the capabilities of other applications,” said Lærke.
The new briefing tool is now available within SitaWare Headquarters.
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