How CXOs can close the value-proposition gap

Federal financial managers received some shrewd advice last week. Stop talking like financial managers.

Stop talking about clean opinions. Don’t talk about material weaknesses. You don’t need to mention the CFO Act or the Digital Accountability and Transparency (DATA) Act.

With new leaders coming in across every agency, federal financial managers, instead, should focus on value and mission support.

Adam Goldberg, the executive architect at the Treasury Department’s Financial Innovation and Transformation (FIT), said by focusing on how the CFO’s office furthers the agency’s mission, agency budget and financial management executives can change the conversation about back-office functions.

Richard Haley, the FBI CFO, said his folks have to communicate in the language that agents and leaders use every day. He said they shouldn’t have to work hard to understand financial management initiatives.

Goldberg said it’s about shifting the conversation to talk about what the agency needs to better support agency operations.

The point of the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), for example, aims to close the gap between IT, acquisition and mission areas. It forces the chief information officer into discussions about planning and procuring mission critical technology.

In the human resources world, we’ve heard about chief human capital officers begging and pleading mission area hiring managers to make decisions, review applications and are involved in every step of the process. The Office of Personnel Management issued guidance in November stressing the need to engage and empower hiring managers.

The idea behind all of these efforts is to break down the siloes that have built up over time for probably no real reason, creates layers of inefficiency and leads to the perception of a stilted bureaucracy and inefficiency.

Treasury is trying to help agencies remove these barriers for the financial management folks. The department is developing a maturity model to help agencies think about how their CFO offices are impacting mission beyond just “being the money people.”

-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
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IG: Justice Department shows leadership for DATA Act rollout, but gaps remain

The Justice Department is on schedule to meet the DATA Act implementation deadline — sort of.

DOJ’s Office of Inspector General recently issued a review of the department’s progress toward standardizing its financial spending  reports, and according to the internal watchdog, “nothing came to our attention that caused us to believe that a material modification should be made” to Justice’s plans to meet the May 2017 deadline.

But the IG did note “areas of concern that potentially could impact the department’s ability to most effectively meet all the requirements within the requisite timeframe.”

Those areas of concern range from completing a full inventory, mapping and gap analysis of the department to an incomplete data extraction standard.

The inspector general looked at the first four steps of the eight-step plan recommended by the Treasury Department for DATA Act implementation. Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget are the agencies spearheading the work.

Within the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act is a requirement that agency IGs report on the law’s implementation. The first set of reports was due in November, however, the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) recommended last December that because the spending data would not be available for November 2016, that the first required reports be due November 2017, with additional reports in 2019 and 2020.

According to the review, the Department has three financial systems: the Unified Financial Management System (UFMS); the Financial Management Information System 2 (FMIS2), a legacy financial system; and the Systems, Applications, and Products (SAP) system.

Instead of inventorying these systems, DOJ inventoried the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) procurement information in UFMS and an initial inventory of the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) grant award information in FMIS2 — with the hope that the lessons learned could be applied to the other financial systems.

-Meredith Sommers, FederalNewsRadio.com

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IGs warn of potential threats to all inspectors general

Inspectors general from 47 agencies are backing three fellow auditors from the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Peace Corps over what they say are limits on access to information put on them by agency senior officials.

In a letter to the leaders of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the IGs say auditors from those three agencies recently faced restrictions on their access to certain records.

"In each of these instances, we understand that lawyers in these agencies construed other statutes and law applicable to privilege in a manner that would override the express authorization contained in the IG Act," the IGs wrote. "These restrictive readings of the IG Act represent potentially serious challenges to the authority of every Inspector General and our ability to conduct our work thoroughly, independently, and in a timely manner."

In the letter to the oversight committees, the IGs detail their concerns for each of the three agencies.

The IGs asked for members of Congress to provide a strong reaffirmation of the powers granted them under the IG Act.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) released the letter as part of his long-standing support of IG independence.

Congress has sought to empower IGs even more over the last few years. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is drafting a bill to give small agency auditors more power.

At a hearing January before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, three agency IGs &mash; Justice, Peace Corps and the Small Business Administration — told lawmakers that slashed budgets and dwindling staff sizes are hindering their ability to conduct robust oversight.

Additionally, the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) wants Congress to give IGs more authority to use computer matching programs to root out waste, fraud and abuse.

IGs as a group last received a boost in 2008 when Congress passed and then- President George W. Bush signed into law the Inspectors General Reform Act.

-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
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Financial system shared services still lacks governance model

Establishing a governance model for the latest Office of Management and Budget attempt to move federal financial managed systems onto a shared systems model remains an unfinished priority, officials said during a Sept. 25 panel.

OMB released in March a memo (.pdf) requiring agencies to use "with limited exceptions" a shared services solution when modernizing core accounting or mixed financial systems, with preference given to federal agencies designated as a shared service provider. The idea is that shared infrastructure for processes that can be standardized within and across agencies will reduce spending on financial systems, which currently consumes about $8.4 billion annually, said Elizabeth Angerman, director of the Office of Financial Innovation and Transformation within the Treasury Department. She spoke at an AFCEA-Bethesda morning event in Rockville, Md.

The concept is similar to the George W. Bush-era OMB's financial management line of business initiative, which also faced difficult governance questions that were never fully resolved; the FMLoB effort fell further behind when in its first term, the Obama administration de-emphasized Bush-era OMB policies.

"We don't have the governance structure set up, and that is a concern for our politicals--that they don't have a say, that it'll be some other secretary, and that secretary is five, six levels removed," said Myrian Myer, Labor Department associate deputy chief financial officer.

If the expectation is that agencies are (again) going to contract with each other for financial system services, "what are the rules, who gets a say, how is that going to work?" Myer said. "All those things need to be figured out, and they can be--but they haven't yet."

-David Perera, FierceGovernmentIT.com

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OMB cuts back financial management programs

The Office of Management and Budget canceled two federal financial management programs and significantly reduced the scope of five others following a broad review that was launched over the summer.


According to Jeffrey Zients, federal chief performance officer, the OMB canceled systems under development for the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Small Business Administration, saving more than $500 million.

Three financial management programs at the Department of Health and Human Services as well as one at the Department of Homeland Security and one at the Justice Department will proceed with a narrowed scope. The government said the changes will save $680 million.

This summer, the OMB halted new spending on selected federal agencies' financial management systems, requiring reviews before the projects could continue. The agency cited the typical sluggishness and high cost of the projects.

With the review now complete, Zients said about half of the 20 identified programs are on track.

Besides the two cancellations and five scaled-down projects, the OMB has accelerated the most useful parts of the programs of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency, according to Zients.

Additionally, the OMB said it has made another $200 million in budget reductions in various agencies.


-Marjorie Censer, WashingtonPost.com
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ATF IMPLEMENTS JUSTICE FINANCIAL SYSTEM

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice announced that another of its components, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), implemented the Unified Financial Management System (UFMS), a core centralized accounting system that improves internal controls and standardizes data.


ATF is the second department law enforcement organization to convert to UFMS as the financial system of record. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) implemented UFMS in January 2009, following a pilot deployment to the Justice Management Division’s (JMD) Asset Forfeiture Management Staff. UFMS now serves more than 2,500 Department of Justice users worldwide.

The ATF implementation was completed on schedule and on budget, employing a two-phased approach to minimize risk and capitalize on lessons learned from earlier implementations. More than 95 percent of ATF’s requirements were met by the standard processes, interfaces and reports already designed and available in the department’s foundation build of UFMS. As a result, the initial design and development was done on time, and deployed to many users.

The department shares the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)’s goal to reduce the risks and costs of implementing federal financial management systems. The most critical department business need for core accounting functionality is delivered by UFMS, implemented in phases across components with defined milestones, the department said.

The implementation of UFMS, based on CGI Federal’s Momentum 6.3, is a collaborative effort by JMD and ATF with the systems integrator, IBM.

For more information on the department’s UFMS program, visit: www.justice.gov/jmd/ufms/overview.htm
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Today's GAO Publication

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today released the following report:

Reissued Product
1. Recovery Act: Department of Justice Could Better Assess Justice Assistance Grant Program Impact. GAO-11-87, October 15.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-87

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d1187high.pdf

OMB approves 26 large IT projects for further funding - FederalTimes.com

Federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra announced today that 26 IT projects that have been halted for review will be considered as "high risk" and require more robust management plans and additional review before moving forward.

The projects span 15 federal agencies and exceed $30 billion in lifecycle costs, Kundra said in a call with reporters.

One of the projects listed by OMB as high risk is a $7.6 billion effort to overhaul the IT infrastructure at the Interior Department, the most costly of the projects. Already, $500 million has been spent on the project alone this fiscal year.

At the Justice Department, $557 million will go toward its Sentinel case-management system. Two of the project's four phases have been completed, but not without cost and scheduling delays, said Vance Hitch, the Justice Department's CIO.

In addition, the Office of Personnel Management's project to automate its paper-based retirement processing system was also deemed high risk.

Data from the Office of Management and Budget's IT Dashboard — a website that tracks the performance of federal information technology projects — was used to help determine the fate of the projects.

One of the projects halted in June was cancelled: an estimated $400 million financial management modernization project at the Veterans Affairs Department called Financial and Logistics Integrated Technology Enterprise.

-NICOLE BLAKE JOHNSON , FederalTimes.com
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http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20100823/IT04/8230301/

An investigation’s cost

Today’s FBI is a threat-based, intelligence-driven, technologically supported agency of more than 30,000 employees working in 56 field offices in the U.S. and 61 Legal Attaché offices overseas. These employees combat threats as diverse as terrorism, corporate fraud, cybercrime, human trafficking, violent crime and money laundering.

Making optimum use of the FBI’s large and geographically dispersed work force, as well as its $7 billion budget, takes on enhanced importance — and difficulty — when viewed against the backdrop of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, and the resulting transformation of the FBI to an agency that fuses intelligence into its national security and law enforcement functions.

The FBI’s chief financial officer, through the Finance Division, is a key partner in achieving the FBI’s mission. While the Finance Division’s contributions can take many forms, two of the most important are providing accurate and useful financial information for decision-making and being a change agent for improved operations and efficient use of resources.

The CFO’s office has been a driving force to bring about, through the budget process, more integrated thinking and comprehensive analysis of FBI programs. As part of this effort, the FBI has adopted a multiyear budgeting cycle, enabling better business planning and the analysis of the out-year impact of current budget decisions, particularly the impact on information technology, space and other infrastructure requirements. This approach also makes the FBI planning cycle consistent with that of the U.S. intelligence community, improving its ability to coordinate with the Director of National Intelligence and the other intelligence agencies.

To be fully successful, both the planning process and daily operations need timely, accurate and useful information. While not the complete answer, information derived from audited financial statements is certainly part of this equation. In recent years, the FBI has made steady progress in improving the quality of its financial statements; its fiscal 2007 statement received an “unqualified” opinion with no financial material weaknesses or significant deficiencies. This accomplishment is significant because it was achieved using an antiquated financial system scheduled for replacement.

Beyond financial statement data, the CFO’s office strives to provide information needed to plan and execute FBI responsibilities in the most effective and efficient manner. An example of such information is a current effort to determine the cost of an investigation. Costs will be calculated based on the type of investigation, size of field office and other variables. By analyzing and comparing this data, program managers at FBI headquarters and special agents in charge of field offices will be able to identify best practices, problem areas, and other insights of how to best utilize bureau resources. The CFO’s goal is to be both proactive in identifying areas where better financial data would improve decision-making, as well as to serve as a ready resource to program managers needing assistance in developing and analyzing financial data.

In addition to budget and accounting, the Finance Division is also responsible for the FBI’s acquisition function. The FBI procures nearly $3 billion of goods and services annually, much of which is for information technology and other sophisticated equipment. The structure allows for better coordination among budget, procurement and accounting personnel, thus enabling the FBI to integrate budget formulation, multiyear acquisition requirements, and accountability of its resources.

With the expansion of its size and responsibilities, the FBI is, in many ways, like a large corporation with multiple business lines. Taking a page from the private sector, the Finance Division is hiring personnel with business backgrounds to focus on business process re-engineering to realize cost savings and improved operations. Through this and its other efforts, the CFO’s office can — and must — be a key contributor to the FBI’s mission as it embarks on its next 100 years.

-Rich Haley on FederalTimes.com
Rich Haley is the FBI Finance Division assistant director and chief financial officer.
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Today's GAO Publication

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today released the following correspondence:

Financial Management: FBI Has Designed and Implemented Stronger Internal Controls over Sentinel Contractor Invoice Review and Equipment Purchases, but Additional Actions Are Needed.
GAO-08-716R, July 15.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-716R

FBI Wiretaps Dropped Due to Unpaid Bills

WASHINGTON (AP) - Telephone companies cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time, according to a Justice Department audit released Thursday.

The faulty bookkeeping is part of what the audit, by the Justice Department's inspector general, described as the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. Poor supervision of the program also allowed one agent to steal $25,000, the audit said.

More than half of 990 bills to pay for telecommunication surveillance in five unidentified FBI field offices were not paid on time, the report shows. In one office alone, unpaid costs for wiretaps from one phone company totaled $66,000.

-Laura Lakes Jordon, Associated Press (FederalNewsRadio.com)

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Agencies continue to make strides in financial management

All major agencies met financial reporting deadlines for the third year in a row, completing the audit process within 45 days of Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year, the Office of Management and Budget reported Monday. The audit results show continued improvement in financial management and accounting, OMB officials said.

The deadline for submitting complete financial reports was shortened to 45 days from 150 days in 2001. Clay Johnson, deputy director for management at OMB, said Monday that revising the deadline forced agencies to improve their financial management year-round.

In addition, agencies are gradually improving their overall financial management. Nineteen of the 24 major federal agencies received clean audits for fiscal year 2007, one more than last year. And the number of governmentwide material weaknesses dropped to 39 from 41 last year, for a 35 percent decrease in material weaknesses since 2001.

Material weaknesses are management or accounting deficiencies deemed by auditors to be significant enough to note in the final report. Danny Werfel, acting controller for OMB's Office of Federal Financial Management, said the decline in material weaknesses was particularly noteworthy in light of recent changes to government audit guidelines.

Thirteen agencies received clean audits with no material weaknesses noted. Five of them -- the Justice, Interior, and Energy departments, the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Agency for International Development -- did not meet that mark last year.

Werfel said agencies also are working hard to report on and eliminate improper payments, which can mean anything from an incorrect amount or recipient to a payment for an unallowable service to insufficient documentation to prove a payment was proper. This year, 13 more programs took part in improper payment reporting; almost 86 percent of high-risk programs reported on improper payments this year, up from 81 percent last year. Werfel said publication of improper payments not only identifies problem areas but motivates agencies to address themquickly.

The government's largest spender by far, the Defense Department, continued to come up short in the area of financial management. Johnson said the department did not receive a clean audit, and likely won't for years to come, because it has chosen to make thorough reform a higher priority than a clean audit.

-Elizabeth Newell, GovExec.com

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FederalNewsRadio - Ask the CFO - Ed Dolan (USMS)

US Marshals Service

Ed Dolan - Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer

When Ed Dolan started at the Justice Department his first assignment involved a yellow pad and an adding machine with tape rolling down to the floor. Now, those same processes can be done in a blink of an eye. But finding ways to keep up with technology, from a financial point of view, was not easy. Dolan says there was an understanding early on that the Marshals Service could not go it alone. And he says despite being able to work within the Justice Department framework, the task is not going to get any easier, putting a premium on resource management. He also talks about how the Marshals Service was able to take on and overcome personnel management issues that threatened the agency's financial footing when he first came to the job.

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IGs defend working relationships with agency leaders

Inspectors general today defended their need to have good working relationships with agency heads, even if it creates the appearance of partiality.

“To be an effective inspector general, it is important to develop a professional working relationship with agency leadership,” Glenn Fine, Justice Department IG, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “Our role is to be independent, to objectively identify any problems and provide effective recommendations to correct deficiencies and not to worry about our popularity.”

Committee Chairman Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., said he is concerned the relationship between IGs and agency heads is too close.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., a former Missouri state auditor, said there is a fine line between maintaining a good working relationship with leadership and keeping sufficient distance.

But IGs disagree. They must have good relationships with leaders in order to effectively oversee the agency, they say.

-Amy Doolittle, FederalTimes.com

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FederalNewsRadio - Ask the CFO - Lee Loftus (DOJ)

Department of Justice

Lee Lofthus - Assistant Attorney General for Administration and CFO

Investigators going after the bad guys have long been told to follow the money trail. Making sure those bad guys get locked up means money also has to be following to the good guys. Assistant Attorney General for Administration and CFO Lee Loftus says at the Justice Department that means juggling a whole range of responsibilities, from strategic planning to procurement, not to mention coordinating with partner agencies. Loftus says one way to make sure all priorities get the necessary funding has been to emphasis financial accountability. He also weighs in on the Integrated Wireless Network and pay-for-performance.

An Audio link can be found here.

How financial reforms add up to better decisions

Housing and Urban Development Department officials distributing post-Sept. 11 recovery funds were the department’s first employees to receive e-mails containing real-time financial information on their program.

Other HUD officials are developing measures to evaluate the per-unit cost of different approaches for delivering housing.

Those initiatives may not seem extraordinary, but they are: They were made possible only by years of effort to automate and streamline accounting practices at department offices around the country. And HUD’s deputy chief financial officer, Jim Martin, said the department is still finding ways to translate its improved financial management into improved program management.

“We see opportunities to make these kinds of decisions throughout the department,” Martin said.

Across government, agencies have spent years overhauling their financial management practices. They are standardizing accounting practices, automating data collection, consolidating financial systems and struggling to obtain clean audits.

A key goal of the effort is giving managers accurate and current financial data with which to make decisions.

Senior financial officials at some agencies say that is starting to occur. And officials say they are closing in on the ability to give managers access to real-time and program-specific financial data on their desktops.

But good news is hardly the rule when it comes to federal finances. Viewed broadly, federal financial management is poor. For 10 straight years, the Government Accountability Office has declined to offer an opinion on the government’s overall finances due to inadequate accounting for cross-agency balances, problems preparing financial statements and other issues.

The finances of two of the largest agencies, the Defense and Homeland Security departments, are routinely described as tangled, opaque and years from being auditable. Last year, the financial management systems of 17 of the 24 agencies failed to comply with the 1996 Federal Financial Management Improvement Act. That number has barely budged since the act passed. And auditors cite ongoing problems including lack of accurate and timely data, poor procedures for reconciling funds and noncompliance with accounting standards.

The most frequently cited problem, however, is nonintegrated financial systems. For most of their histories, agencies and individual bureaus have used unique systems and standards to keep their books, developing cultures around their own procedures. With accounts effectively in different languages, financial managers must translate to share data. That process is slow, expensive and mistake-prone.

Progress on addressing that problem varies. Agencies such as the Social Security Administration, the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Labor, State and Commerce departments get good marks from OMB.

But bigger, decentralized agencies struggle.

But the books are improving. Agencies have been chipping away at accounting problems since the 1990 passage of the Chief Financial Officers Act, which created the CFO position and mandated annual financial reports. Under the president’s management agenda, launched in 2001, the Office of Management and Budget has pushed agencies to achieve clean audits, fix material weaknesses in financial controls and meet reporting deadlines, among other initiatives.

The pace of change accelerated recently. Under OMB’s Circular A-123, the government’s version of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, agencies in fiscal 2006 began implementing new internal accounting controls. For the last two years, OMB has required CFOs to issue audited financial statements within 45 days of the fiscal year’s close, rather than the nearly five months it sometimes previously took.

In 2006, OMB also required all agencies upgrading their financial systems to consolidate their accounting, payments and recording systems with those of other agencies, either by using shared service providers under the so-called lines of business initiative or by becoming shared service providers themselves. To opt out, an agency must show it can operate its own system for less money and with less risk than it could through sharing services.

In connection with the financial management line of business, OMB is developing a common governmentwide accounting code, set to be issued next month. The agency is also issuing guidance for agencies to standardize processes for funds control, accounts payable, accounts receivable and financial reporting to the Treasury Department.

But OMB officials warn against making compliance an end in itself, noting that to achieve top ratings on the initiatives that make up the financial management portion of the president’s management agenda, agencies must show that they are using financial information to guide decisions.

Good accounting is no longer just the financial managers’ job. Success requires help from all managers with budget oversight, CFOs stress.

“If they are running their own program, we want them implementing [financial management guidelines],” said Justice Department Assistant Attorney General for Administration Lee Lofthus.

Most agencies in recent years have made financial management, along with other PMA-related goals, a part of the performance plans of senior executives. But financial managers at many agencies say the shift is broader.

The Education Department is “driving down from the secretary’s office” the message that internal controls are not just the Office of the Chief Financial Officer’s responsibility, said Danny Harris, deputy CFO at Education. “It is program managers and contract officers. That is a big change.”

Managers are increasingly required to document financial procedures, ensure that internal controls are in place, and integrate budget and performance goals.

- Daniel Friedman, FederalTimes.com

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Attorney General Gonzales Announces Appointment of Lee Lofthus as Assistant Attorney General for Administration

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales today announced the appointment of Lee Lofthus as Assistant Attorney General for Administration. Lofthus has served in an acting capacity since June 1, 2006, following the resignation of former Assistant Attorney General for Administration, Dr. Paul Corts.

"Lee has demonstrated that he is an exceptional manager, advisor and leader," said Attorney General Gonzales. "We are extremely fortunate that, with his breadth of experience and commitment to the Department of Justice, he will continue to serve in this important role."

Under the leadership of the Assistant Attorney General for Administration, the Justice Management Division (JMD) serves as the management arm of the Department of Justice, advising the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General on various issues related to the operation of the Department. The Assistant Attorney General for Administration serves as the Department's Chief Financial Officer, and his responsibilities include Department-wide financial reporting, budget formulation and execution, accounting operations, asset forfeiture fund operational support, procurement and debt management support.

Lofthus also oversees facilities management, human resources, business services and planning. He is a key executive liaison with the congressional Appropriations Subcommittees on appropriations matters. Lofthus is also responsible for key financial initiatives in the President's Management Agenda, and the issuance of the Department's public financial statements.

Lofthus has served in several financial management positions with the Department of Justice for more than 20 years. He joined the Department in 1982 and since that time, has held senior management positions overseeing financial operations, financial policy, reporting and systems. Prior to his appointment as Acting Assistant Attorney General, Lofthus served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General/Controller of JMD. He also served as the Department's Deputy Chief Financial Officer. Prior to becoming Controller, he was the Director of the Finance Staff. Earlier in his career, he served as the Chief of the Finance Branch for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Lofthus received his M.B.A. in 1982 from The American University in Washington, D.C., with a concentration in financial management.

Getting a Grip on Business Processes - -

"Any government agency that hasn't yet seriously considered business-process management (BPM) must step up those efforts now, or fall dangerously behind, as the industry and it's solutions undergo drastic changes and make astonishing advances in the coming year and beyond.

The integration of systems and workflow solutions, the merging of suppliers and the addition of business intelligence and collaboration applications are reshaping BPM's potential and simultaneously generating considerable challenges for government agencies.

BPM has been defined as the automation and coordination of the assets and tasks that comprise an organization's business processes. According to Forrester Research, a market research firm in Cambridge, Mass., BPM can be incorporated by agencies in any of the following forms: application integration; enterprise business applications; pure-play BPM solutions; enterprise content management software; and application platforms.

Though many federal organizations are just getting started with BPM, there are a number of projects afoot -- and more expected -- with some agencies automating administrative processes to comply with an alphabet soup of regulations, while others look to streamline and improve financial or citizen-facing processes.

For instance, the Justice Department has committed to the Unified Financial Management System, for $200 million, and is evaluating Momentum Financials, an enterprise resource planning application from CGI-AMS, part of Montreal-based CGI Group Inc. The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, has embarked on Electronically Managing Enterprise Resources for Government Effectiveness and Efficiency, the Emerge2 project, which takes aim at melding financial operations for the department's 22 agencies over two-and-a-half years, at a cost of nearly $50 million.

InformationWeek | Enterprise Software | Streamlined DOJ Financial Management On Tap | January 19, 2006

"IBM plans to integrate financial management and procurement systems for the agency based on off-the- shelf, commercial software tailored for government use.

Big Blue is taking on the Department of Justice's financial management system.

IBM, CGI Federal, BEA Systems, BearingPoint, COMSO, Delta Solutions, Nortel PEC, Unisys, Codesoft and Collins Consulting will streamline and modernize the DOJ's financial system under a one-year contract, with six additional one-year periods. The department can issue task orders throughout the term of the agreement, which is valued up to $150 million.

IBM plans to integrate financial management and procurement systems based on CGI-AMS's Momentum software, an off-the shelf, commercial product tailored for government use. The company will install Core Accounting/General Ledger, Financial Management Reporting, Payment Management, Receivables Management, Funds Management, Cost Management and Procurement modules of Momentum. "

IBM nabs Justice, Defense deals

"Under the Justice BPA, IBM will install components of CGI-AMS' Momentum software. Those components include core accounting/general ledger, financial management reporting, payment management, receivables management, funds management, cost management, and procurement. IBM is teaming with the following companies on the BPA: BEA Systems, BearingPoint, CGI Federal, COMSO, Delta Solutions, Nortel PEC, Unisys, Codesoft and Collins Consulting."