Despite billions invested in DoD ERP systems, few financial managers see reduction in workload

The Defense Department has spent well over a decade and tens of billions of dollars to buy enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems with the hope that they would help the military adopt modern, automated business processes and pave the way to financial auditability. But a strikingly small number of DoD financial managers think the systems have done anything to make their jobs easier.

The finding is part of an annual survey and report by the American Society of Military Comptrollers and Grant Thornton. Only 20 percent of the Defense financial workforce said the ERPs had reduced their workload. Another 20 percent said they had made no difference, and 15 percent said they’d actually made their lives more complicated than working with the decades-old legacy systems the ERPS are replacing.

This year’s report represents the ninth year in a row in which researchers have surveyed hundreds of rank-and-file and senior executive members of the Pentagon’s financial management community. Aside from IT modernization, it found at least three other common themes that repeated themselves year-after-year.

Among the most obvious: comptrollers have become fed up with budget uncertainty after having to navigate through eight consecutive years of continuing resolutions, government shutdowns and limitations imposed by the Budget Control Act. As one anonymous respondent put it: “We’re great at building a budget and manpower models based on forecast costs and requirements,” but budgets have had to be “modified continually in response to lower than expected levels of actual receipt of funds.”

- FederalNewsRadio.com
https://shar.es/1O4IMB via @fednewsradio

ASMC PDI is Back!

PDI 2014 - Achieving New Heights | Managing Change
May 28-30, 2014 - Seattle, WA

PDI 2014, the premier training event hosted by the American Society of Military Comptrollers, will be held at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle on May 28–30.

The National Professional Development Institute (PDI) is the premier training event of the American Society of Military Comptrollers. Resource managers in the Department of Defense and US Coast Guard converge for a three day event whose objective is to enhance the skills and abilities that personnel in the financial and resource management community must possess to meet the challenges of today's defense financial manager.

​In addition to the more than 21 CPE credits available to attendees, the PDI provides a forum for attendees to network with leadership, peers, vendors and clients. This event is also the showcase for those individuals and teams who have been recognized for excellence by ASMC.

​ASMC home

Sequestration, budget cuts taking their toll on DoD financial managers

Unprecedented chaos in the federal budget, impending civilian furloughs and an increasing workload are all contributors to a sharp, sudden decline in the morale of the staff that manages and executes the Defense Department's budget, according to an annual workforce survey released Wednesday.

The study, prepared by the American Society of Military Comptrollers and Grant Thornton, found that out of more than 1,000 financial management professionals surveyed, senior government executives were most likely to report a decline in morale. Within that group, 86 percent of respondents said they enjoyed their jobs "a lot" in last year's survey. By this year, the figure had plummeted to 53 percent. Lower-level financial managers reported a similar, though smaller decline in morale: 20 percent reported high job satisfaction compared to 24 percent in 2012.

With respect to budget uncertainty, the survey reflects deep dissatisfaction with the inflexibility of the across-the-board budget cuts under sequestration, the fact that the government seems to be in a perpetual state of continuing resolutions rather than full-year appropriations, and the ongoing indecision in the political arena about whether sequestration is here to stay.

Among the most senior members of the financial management workforce, the survey also revealed deep pessimism about DoD's ability to meet its Congressional mandates to assemble its financial statements so that they can be scrutinized by independent auditors. The survey found 23 percent of senior executives admitted they have zero confidence that their respective organizations will be audit-ready by the 2014 deadline for DoD to undergo a partial audit. Only three percent said they were "highly confident" that their organization would be prepared.

-Jared Serbu, FederalNewsRadio.com

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Defense financial managers cite human capital issues as top concern

Workforce issues again dominate the concerns of Defense Department accounting and finance personnel, according to the 2008 American Society of Military Comptrollers survey.

The annual study, conducted with accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP, surveyed 575 members of the Defense financial workforce, including 61 executives from within the department and its component services. As in 2007, human capital issues "dominate the list of risks that keep executives and workforce alike awake at night."

Specifically, respondents named proper recognition and pay for individual performance, quality of work life, training, career management and succession planning, as areas of concern. The most frequently mentioned human capital risk, however, was the implementation of the department's National Security Personnel System. The rollout of NSPS, the system designed to manage more than 700,000 civilian Defense employees, has been not been smooth, and the ASMC survey showed it has mixed support. While executives overall were positive, the general workforce was far less so, but both groups acknowledged executing NSPS was a major challenge.

The survey also addressed the Planning, Programming, Budget and Execution System, another key program. The system, a revamped version of its similarly named predecessor, was rolled out in 2002 and was designed to reinforce the links among budgets, execution and performance. If implemented, proponents say it would allow the Defense secretary to assess the allocation of resources and to determine whether departments and programs were aligned with budget estimates.

Respondents expressed almost universal agreement that PPBES was the best method to achieve performance-based budgeting, and they felt strongly that the system would be effective and should be implemented.

All respondents agreed on the other primary areas of focus: departmentwide business enterprise architecture, enterprise resource planning systems development, and program efficiency and effectiveness.

This year's report highlighted the Defense financial community concerns about the upcoming budgetary realities and restrictions. An end to conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan could lead to a sizable reduction in funding just as all agencies now feel the squeeze of massive federal deficit and debt.

In this fiscal transition, financial leaders will be expected to assess the effectiveness of their programs and target necessities and potential cuts.

-Elizabeth Newell, GovExec.com

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FedCFO.com Milestone - 1000 Posts

FedCFO.com achieved an impressive milestone today in posting the 1000th article associated with Federal financial management and the concerns of the Federal CFO community.

Since its inception in January 2005, FedCFO.com has become an important aggregator of information from the public domain pertaining to Federal financial management from sources such as: Government Accountability Office (GAO), Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Financial Systems Integration Office (FSIO), U.S. Chief Financial Officer's Council (CFOC), U.S. Treasury, Association of Government Accountants (AGA), American Society of Military Comptrollers (ASMC), Federal Financial Managers Council (FFMC), Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB), Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), American Association for Budget and Program Analysis (AABPA), Federal Computer Week, Federal News Radio, Government Computer News, Federal Times, Government Executive, Washington Technology, CFO Magazine, Washington Post, and many more.

In addition, FedCFO.com provides a custom Google search engine for Federal financial management topics to help its users find specific topical information while excluding the extraneous data that is included with standard web searches.

Personnel issues top concern for DOD financial execs

Workload pressures, aging workforce pose major challenges

Personnel issues represent the dominant concern among Defense Department financial executives, a new study found.

DOD financial executives listed workload pressures from the global war on terror and an aging workforce as overarching challenges, according to a survey released June 1 by the American Society of Military Comptrollers and Grant Thornton LLP.

Executives also said that the Defense financial community lacks clear road maps to guide professional development — despite an abundance of training programs.

Of far less concern for executives in the study were adjusting to new financial information systems and audits. On the whole, executives reported success in implementing new systems.

The survey results are based on in-person interviews with 41 executives and online interviews with 606 ASMC members. Fifty-seven percent represented the four uniformed services, 24 percent worked for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service and 19 percent were from other DOD organizations.

The survey is anticipated to be published on the Grant Thornton website on June 4th on the Global Public Sector Publications page.

-Richard Walker, FCW.com

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