Tactical Information Control is central to the successful coordination of vessels in a battle situation, and for a long time this fact was known to StarFleet Command, but never implemented to it's fullest potential. Since the early days of the Federation and it's protective force, the StarFleet, defense and battle had often been a hodgepodge affair with StarFleet Command ordering a sparse fleet of available ships over large interstellar distances in order to engage hostile forces at intercept points. The StarFleet chain of command itself had adapted to this nature of space battle over the years, allowing starship commanders to operate largely autonomously both in deep space as well as in conflict situations.

The Battle of Wolf 359 and the subsequent decimation of the Federation task-force by the Borg proved to StarFleet that change would be necessary. Although the standing order of battle had served adequately through skirmishes with the Klingons in the previous century and with the Romulans in the current century, it proved severely lacking when the Federation found itself faced with a seriously organized large-scale threat.

The disastrous encounter with the Borg not only impressed upon the Federation the need for more serious firepower aboard their starships to protect the very existence of the UFP, but also that the StarFleet, which had been for a long time hailed as the Federation's core of "peace-keepers," "skirmish-solvers," and "explorers" had become lax in their role as defenders since the cessation of open hostilities with the Klingon Empire. StarFleet began to examine and restructure it's internal makeup to compensate, a process which was only accelerated by contact with the Galactic Empire in 2372. One of these primal restructurings was the re-introduction of an old Earth concept, the Combat Information Center, commonly known as a CIC. StarFleet uses the euphemism Tactical Information Control Computer (TICCOMP) to describe systems which fill essentially the same function. TICCOMPs range from small-scale fighter-group coordination computers, which relay information and orders from a ship to it's resident fighter-group, to multi-sector fleet coordination, intelligence and control stations, which help the various ships which comprise the task forces within StarFleet function as units.

Not only do TICCOMPs allow tactical planners to more carefully setup their battle sequences, but they keep each member of the team updated on the status, progress, and location of every other starship within the group through encrypted narrow-band subspace links, prioritizing objectives and keeping each ship commander in sync with the fleet.