Soldiers hate Army Knowledge Online, according to a survey by the Army Times. The publication says that was clear after it asked soldiers what they think about the Web portal.

The Army Times received more than 70 e-mails from active-duty, civilian and retired users. Almost all of them expressed some dissatisfaction. Many of them said they avoid using it whenever possible.

AKO is the secure website where soldiers can access their e-mail, store files, instant message with people, and use other collaboration tools.

The most common complaints about it were:

• AKO is frustratingly slow.
• It has a cluttered interface.
• Its security features are too cumbersome.
• Its search engine is useless.

A lot of people who use the site say they’d like to see it become more useful and intuitive – something like Microsoft’s SharePoint or Google Docs.

No sweeping changes in AKO are likely to happen soon though.

Gary Winkler, the Army’s top official in charge of AKO, defends the portal being the best product that’s maintained and upgraded with limited resources. He says with more than 350,000 unique logins and 800,000 to 900,000 hits each day, you can’t keep everybody happy.

This story is part of Federal News Radio’s daily DoD Report. For more defense news, click here.

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