As the Pentagon official charged with reengineering the business operations of the Defense Department, the deputy chief management officer is driving the pursuit of some new business goals for DoD. And those goals are accompanied by a new level of accountability for meeting the seven objectives over the next couple years.
The Pentagon's Strategic Management Plan is an annual document designed to align DoD's business practices with the overarching goals laid out in the Quadrennial Defense Review, the Pentagon's regular study on military strategy. The current version, however covers both fiscal years 2012 and 2013. Some of the areas are updates to goals in previous years' plans, but there are also some new priorities on this year's list, said Dave Wennergren, DoD's assistant deputy chief management officer.
Also new on the list is the goal of rebuilding and using end-to-end business processes, a topic the office of the Deputy Chief Management Officer has been championing.
-Jared Serbu, FederalNewsRadio.com
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Showing posts with label Standard Business Processes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Standard Business Processes. Show all posts
Thursday, December 01, 2011
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Congress turns up heat on DoD business systems
It's been five years since Congress fired its first salvo at the Defense Department's problematic business systems. Now the Pentagon is getting ready to deal with the second shot across the bow to try to address the continued poorly performing business systems modernization programs.
Lawmakers in the fiscal 2010 Defense Authorization bill are requiring DoD's chief management officer to certify that any business system the department will spend more than $100 million over the life of the application has gone through business process reengineering and meets the business system enterprise architecture.
"Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the appropriate chief management officer for each defense business system modernization approved by the Defense Business Systems Management Committee before the date of the enactment of this Act that will have a total cost in excess of $100 million shall review such defense business system modernization to determine whether or not appropriate business process reengineering efforts have been undertaken to ensure that the business process to be supported by such defense business system modernization will be as streamlined and efficient as practicable; and the need to tailor commercial-off-the-shelf systems to meet unique requirements or incorporate unique interfaces has been eliminated or reduced to the maximum extent practicable," Public Law 111-84 states.
If the chief management officer finds that the programs do not align with the EA or have not done business process reengineering, the CMO must require a new project plan, and they could
restructure or end the program all together.
"Congress is serious," says Beth McGrath, DoD acting deputy chief management officer.
"Someone needs to sign on a piece of paper that says 'yes system X did adequate, sufficient business changing business process engineering.' Because if we don't, we will end up with IT systems that aren't interoperable, don't have data standardization or a robust architecture behind them. We will end up with an IT system that people don't like and will not use because it doesn't deliver the outcomes they are looking for."
McGrath, who spoke at a recent lunch sponsored by the Northern Virginia chapter of AFCEA, says DoD must do business process reengineering because otherwise they are just putting money toward an IT system that doesn't meet its mission needs.
This is the latest attempt by Congress to get DoD to improve how they manage and implement their business systems. In November 2004, lawmakers passed a provision in the Defense authorization bill that said that the DoD comptroller would be fined $5,000 and face jail time of up to two-years for any program that doesn't comply with the business systems architecture. Congress tied DoD progress to the Antideficiency Act, which makes it illegal for agencies to spend money on projects outside of the purposes the funding was intended for.
McGrath says DoD's history is not good with large scale business systems. The Defense Integrated Human Management Resources System (DIMHRS) is a perfect example of DoD's shortfalls.
The Pentagon has spent more than $1 billion over the last decade and only in the last year decided not to implement a one-size fits all pay and personnel system.
McGrath says each of the services will be expected to implement the standards or core functions within their own systems.
In the 2010 DoD authorization bill, Congress required DoD to create a DIMHRS transition council to oversee the implementation of the system standards at the services.
Doug Webster, the DoD Business Transformation Agency's deputy director, says DoD does not yet know how many business systems will be affected by the new congressional mandate. BTA's mission is to oversee business transformation systems and deliver enterprisewide capabilities.
"It remains to be seen yet how it's implemented in terms of governance process through investment review board and ultimately the Defense Business Systems Management Committee," he says. "But I think the words in the law are there to make this a very rigorous process."
Webster speaking at an event sponsored by IAC yesterday, says the other thing the provision will do is force DoD to stop trying to change vendor software to meet their neeeds.
"We see folks coming for request for funding with a count of reports, interfaces and various customizations of software in the order of a 1,000 or more," he says. "That is clear evidence that there has not been a very significant degree of business process engineering. My belief is based on the statute that we will see some changes to that."
Another way the military is trying to overcome these long-standing challenges is by standardizing 15 specific business functions.
Webster said these include functions such as "procure-to-pay," "hire-to-retire" and "budget-to-report."
"We are looking at all of those, but seeking to prioritize the amount of depth we go into in those in terms of those that will provide the greatest payback in terms of investment, time in building out standards and building out content related to those processes in the business processes architecture," he says. "I think it's clear to say 'hire-to-retire' and 'procure-to-pay' are two very important ones that we will be putting near term attention to."
Webster says the end goal is improve the data interoperability and communication of these 15 functions across all of DoD.
-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
READ MORE or LISTEN HERE...
Lawmakers in the fiscal 2010 Defense Authorization bill are requiring DoD's chief management officer to certify that any business system the department will spend more than $100 million over the life of the application has gone through business process reengineering and meets the business system enterprise architecture.
"Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the appropriate chief management officer for each defense business system modernization approved by the Defense Business Systems Management Committee before the date of the enactment of this Act that will have a total cost in excess of $100 million shall review such defense business system modernization to determine whether or not appropriate business process reengineering efforts have been undertaken to ensure that the business process to be supported by such defense business system modernization will be as streamlined and efficient as practicable; and the need to tailor commercial-off-the-shelf systems to meet unique requirements or incorporate unique interfaces has been eliminated or reduced to the maximum extent practicable," Public Law 111-84 states.
If the chief management officer finds that the programs do not align with the EA or have not done business process reengineering, the CMO must require a new project plan, and they could
restructure or end the program all together.
"Congress is serious," says Beth McGrath, DoD acting deputy chief management officer.
"Someone needs to sign on a piece of paper that says 'yes system X did adequate, sufficient business changing business process engineering.' Because if we don't, we will end up with IT systems that aren't interoperable, don't have data standardization or a robust architecture behind them. We will end up with an IT system that people don't like and will not use because it doesn't deliver the outcomes they are looking for."
McGrath, who spoke at a recent lunch sponsored by the Northern Virginia chapter of AFCEA, says DoD must do business process reengineering because otherwise they are just putting money toward an IT system that doesn't meet its mission needs.
This is the latest attempt by Congress to get DoD to improve how they manage and implement their business systems. In November 2004, lawmakers passed a provision in the Defense authorization bill that said that the DoD comptroller would be fined $5,000 and face jail time of up to two-years for any program that doesn't comply with the business systems architecture. Congress tied DoD progress to the Antideficiency Act, which makes it illegal for agencies to spend money on projects outside of the purposes the funding was intended for.
McGrath says DoD's history is not good with large scale business systems. The Defense Integrated Human Management Resources System (DIMHRS) is a perfect example of DoD's shortfalls.
The Pentagon has spent more than $1 billion over the last decade and only in the last year decided not to implement a one-size fits all pay and personnel system.
McGrath says each of the services will be expected to implement the standards or core functions within their own systems.
In the 2010 DoD authorization bill, Congress required DoD to create a DIMHRS transition council to oversee the implementation of the system standards at the services.
Doug Webster, the DoD Business Transformation Agency's deputy director, says DoD does not yet know how many business systems will be affected by the new congressional mandate. BTA's mission is to oversee business transformation systems and deliver enterprisewide capabilities.
"It remains to be seen yet how it's implemented in terms of governance process through investment review board and ultimately the Defense Business Systems Management Committee," he says. "But I think the words in the law are there to make this a very rigorous process."
Webster speaking at an event sponsored by IAC yesterday, says the other thing the provision will do is force DoD to stop trying to change vendor software to meet their neeeds.
"We see folks coming for request for funding with a count of reports, interfaces and various customizations of software in the order of a 1,000 or more," he says. "That is clear evidence that there has not been a very significant degree of business process engineering. My belief is based on the statute that we will see some changes to that."
Another way the military is trying to overcome these long-standing challenges is by standardizing 15 specific business functions.
Webster said these include functions such as "procure-to-pay," "hire-to-retire" and "budget-to-report."
"We are looking at all of those, but seeking to prioritize the amount of depth we go into in those in terms of those that will provide the greatest payback in terms of investment, time in building out standards and building out content related to those processes in the business processes architecture," he says. "I think it's clear to say 'hire-to-retire' and 'procure-to-pay' are two very important ones that we will be putting near term attention to."
Webster says the end goal is improve the data interoperability and communication of these 15 functions across all of DoD.
-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
READ MORE or LISTEN HERE...
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
OMB wants better, faster, cheaper financial data
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The Obama administration has said little publicly about the assorted back office Lines of Business initiatives started under the Bush administration. Agencies and industry alike were left wondering what the plan was going forward, especially if consolidations with federal shared service providers still would be required.
At least for the financial management line of business, the Office of Management and Budget is offering some clarity.
Adam Goldberg, OMB's chief of the financial analysis and systems branch, says the LOB still is underway as it has been since 2003.
But OMB also has seen some additional potential improvements thanks to the Recovery Act.
"We have started to look at other opportunities where we could deliver financial management reforms probably a little earlier than we would be able to move all the agencies onto a consolidated financial system," says Goldberg at the 19th annual Executive Leadership Conference sponsored by IAC/ACT. "The direction we are going now is to continue with standardization and consolidation efforts and start to look at other solutions to deliver benefits to meet emerging needs like data and transparency reporting."
OMB believes the Recovery Act has shown that obtaining better and more accurate data more quickly is just the beginning.
"We want to look at other technology solutions to reduce the cost of transactions," he says. "We have to find ways to automate data from the time we get money from Congress until the time we spend it."
Goldberg adds that the Recovery Act has expanded who needs access to financial data.
"One of the things we are trying to do is understand how can we accelerate the capture and reporting of information and with Recovery Act and it's not just federal agencies that need to have access to the information to met reporting requirements, but we need to provide it out to state and localities and companies who are receiving monies under the Recovery Act to make sure they are able to fulfill the reporting requirements and make sure the numbers and reporting elements are in alignment with one another," he says.
Goldberg adds that OMB earlier in October issued the final set of standards so now agencies and industry have a complete set of financial management business process standards.
Along with these standards, agencies also received a common governmentwide accounting classification structure in 2008 to complete the updating of the federal financial management standards.
Goldberg says OMB now is leading an effort to make sure the common account classification structure and the business process standards align.
Goldberg adds that over the next six months OMB will finalize all the financial management information to ensure everything is aligned.
Vendor financial management system software providers eventually will have to meet the new standards.
As for the FM LOB, Goldberg says between 12 and 14 agencies have migrated to a shared service provider, including the Office of Personnel Management most recently.
-Jason Miller, WFED
READ MORE and LISTEN HERE
At least for the financial management line of business, the Office of Management and Budget is offering some clarity.
Adam Goldberg, OMB's chief of the financial analysis and systems branch, says the LOB still is underway as it has been since 2003.
But OMB also has seen some additional potential improvements thanks to the Recovery Act.
"We have started to look at other opportunities where we could deliver financial management reforms probably a little earlier than we would be able to move all the agencies onto a consolidated financial system," says Goldberg at the 19th annual Executive Leadership Conference sponsored by IAC/ACT. "The direction we are going now is to continue with standardization and consolidation efforts and start to look at other solutions to deliver benefits to meet emerging needs like data and transparency reporting."
OMB believes the Recovery Act has shown that obtaining better and more accurate data more quickly is just the beginning.
"We want to look at other technology solutions to reduce the cost of transactions," he says. "We have to find ways to automate data from the time we get money from Congress until the time we spend it."
Goldberg adds that the Recovery Act has expanded who needs access to financial data.
"One of the things we are trying to do is understand how can we accelerate the capture and reporting of information and with Recovery Act and it's not just federal agencies that need to have access to the information to met reporting requirements, but we need to provide it out to state and localities and companies who are receiving monies under the Recovery Act to make sure they are able to fulfill the reporting requirements and make sure the numbers and reporting elements are in alignment with one another," he says.
Goldberg adds that OMB earlier in October issued the final set of standards so now agencies and industry have a complete set of financial management business process standards.
Along with these standards, agencies also received a common governmentwide accounting classification structure in 2008 to complete the updating of the federal financial management standards.
Goldberg says OMB now is leading an effort to make sure the common account classification structure and the business process standards align.
Goldberg adds that over the next six months OMB will finalize all the financial management information to ensure everything is aligned.
Vendor financial management system software providers eventually will have to meet the new standards.
As for the FM LOB, Goldberg says between 12 and 14 agencies have migrated to a shared service provider, including the Office of Personnel Management most recently.
-Jason Miller, WFED
READ MORE and LISTEN HERE
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
FSIO - Standard Business Processes Document - Reimbursables Exposure Draft
The reimbursable management standard business process chapter is the fifth chapter of the standard business process document. This chapter puts forth best practice business processes for administering and managing interagency buy/sell transactions. These processes are focused on buy/sell reimbursable activity between Federal agency trading partners, and do not include fiduciary and non-expenditure transfer transactions.
The Reimbursable Management standard process spans the full lifecycle of an Interagency Agreement (IA) from establishing an agreement between a Buyer (requesting agency) and Seller (providing agency) where there is a bona fide need for an exchange of goods and/or services to close out of the IA. The review period for this exposure draft will end on May 1, 2009. Please submit your comments and questions in writing by close of business on May 1st to fsio@gsa.gov, using the comment template provided.
Document - [Word] - March 2009
FSIO Transmittal Letter - [Word] - March 2009
Comment Template - [Excel] - March 2009
The Reimbursable Management standard process spans the full lifecycle of an Interagency Agreement (IA) from establishing an agreement between a Buyer (requesting agency) and Seller (providing agency) where there is a bona fide need for an exchange of goods and/or services to close out of the IA. The review period for this exposure draft will end on May 1, 2009. Please submit your comments and questions in writing by close of business on May 1st to fsio@gsa.gov, using the comment template provided.
Document - [Word] - March 2009
FSIO Transmittal Letter - [Word] - March 2009
Comment Template - [Excel] - March 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Draft standard could improve financial reports
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Financial Systems Integration Office (FSIO) have published a draft version of a standard business process that agencies will use to produce required reports that are given OMB and the Treasury Department.
The processes are among several core standards that agencies are to adopt to improve financial management when they move to modernized financial systems, said a FSIO news release of Feb. 23. FSIO is an office in the General Services Administration. Implementing standard business processes is a component of OMB’s Financial Management Line of Business (FM LOB) consolidation effort.
Agencies would use the standard report management process to generate financial data and statements including for balance sheets and statement of budgetary resources, according to the draft document. Other standard business processes are for management of payments, funds control, accounts receivables or billing customers, and reimbursables or payments for goods and services.
FSIO said it plans to incorporate the business standards into the core financial system requirements after a comment period that ends March 25. Agencies must implement the standards by moving to systems that incorporate the business standards when they update their current financial systems, OMB has said. Agencies must move to these systems by using government or commercial shared-services providers that meet criteria under the FM LOB, OMB has said. Those providers are equipped to offer financial management systems and services to many agencies.
By standardizing processes, data and interfaces, agencies can provide more reliable financial data more quickly at lower cost for senior officials to use to make management decisions, Dianne Copeland, FSIO’s director, has said. Under the FM LOB effort, agencies are also beginning to use governmentwide accounting standards.
In another report about financial management, federal and industry executives said the FM LOB had already made significant progress, but the Obama administration needs a comprehensive strategy, improved governance and processes for interagency collaboration to advance the effort, according to a transition study group of the Industry Advisory Council.
The administration should increase the focus on financial management and its integration with key management support functions, including planning, acquisition, programming and budget management, said the report released Feb. 11.
Agencies need to modernize their financial management systems so they can produce reliable and timely financial and performance information throughout the year and at the fiscal year end, the IAC said. Current and accurate financial data will also be required for the administration’s transparency efforts, such as www.recovery.gov, to monitor how agencies spend money from the economic stimulus law, the report said.
In addition to a comprehensive plan and more effective governance, IAC recommended that the administration:
READ MORE...
The processes are among several core standards that agencies are to adopt to improve financial management when they move to modernized financial systems, said a FSIO news release of Feb. 23. FSIO is an office in the General Services Administration. Implementing standard business processes is a component of OMB’s Financial Management Line of Business (FM LOB) consolidation effort.
Agencies would use the standard report management process to generate financial data and statements including for balance sheets and statement of budgetary resources, according to the draft document. Other standard business processes are for management of payments, funds control, accounts receivables or billing customers, and reimbursables or payments for goods and services.
FSIO said it plans to incorporate the business standards into the core financial system requirements after a comment period that ends March 25. Agencies must implement the standards by moving to systems that incorporate the business standards when they update their current financial systems, OMB has said. Agencies must move to these systems by using government or commercial shared-services providers that meet criteria under the FM LOB, OMB has said. Those providers are equipped to offer financial management systems and services to many agencies.
By standardizing processes, data and interfaces, agencies can provide more reliable financial data more quickly at lower cost for senior officials to use to make management decisions, Dianne Copeland, FSIO’s director, has said. Under the FM LOB effort, agencies are also beginning to use governmentwide accounting standards.
In another report about financial management, federal and industry executives said the FM LOB had already made significant progress, but the Obama administration needs a comprehensive strategy, improved governance and processes for interagency collaboration to advance the effort, according to a transition study group of the Industry Advisory Council.
The administration should increase the focus on financial management and its integration with key management support functions, including planning, acquisition, programming and budget management, said the report released Feb. 11.
Agencies need to modernize their financial management systems so they can produce reliable and timely financial and performance information throughout the year and at the fiscal year end, the IAC said. Current and accurate financial data will also be required for the administration’s transparency efforts, such as www.recovery.gov, to monitor how agencies spend money from the economic stimulus law, the report said.
In addition to a comprehensive plan and more effective governance, IAC recommended that the administration:
- Communicate the value to Congress of the FM LOB.
- Support centralized services through a service-oriented architecture and an enterprise services bus to drive budgeting, reporting and influence business case decisions for information technology spending.
- Direct agency executives to establish and fund best practices and approaches in IT, such as centralizing business processes and IT infrastructure.
READ MORE...
FSIO Releases Reports Management Standard Business Process Exposure Draft
Reports Management Standard Business Process Exposure Draft - February 2009
FMLOB Reporting Management - Reporting Management is the fourth chapter in a series of Federal Financial Management Standard Business Processes that establish the framework for consolidating and optimizing, financial accounting practices in the Federal Government to improve cost, quality, and performance government-wide.
Identifying the standard reporting capabilities that must be present in all Core Financial Systems ensures that Agencies will have the tools necessary to monitor the input, output, and operation of the Core Financial System, as well as produce basic data for use by both the Agency and regulatory reporting entities, such as OMB and Treasury. The following reporting categories are included in this release of the Reports Management standard business process:
Cover Letter- [Word]- February 2009
Reports Management Exposure Draft- [Word] [PDF]- February 2009
Comment Template- [Excel]- February 2009
FMLOB Reporting Management - Reporting Management is the fourth chapter in a series of Federal Financial Management Standard Business Processes that establish the framework for consolidating and optimizing, financial accounting practices in the Federal Government to improve cost, quality, and performance government-wide.
Identifying the standard reporting capabilities that must be present in all Core Financial Systems ensures that Agencies will have the tools necessary to monitor the input, output, and operation of the Core Financial System, as well as produce basic data for use by both the Agency and regulatory reporting entities, such as OMB and Treasury. The following reporting categories are included in this release of the Reports Management standard business process:
- Financial Statements
- General Ledger
- Payment Management
- Receivable Management
- Reimbursable Management
- System Management and
- Treasury Reporting
Cover Letter- [Word]- February 2009
Reports Management Exposure Draft- [Word] [PDF]- February 2009
Comment Template- [Excel]- February 2009
Monday, December 22, 2008
OMB: Standards will boost financial performance
The Office of Management and Budget released more guidelines in November to help agencies consolidate and improve their financial accounting practices, according to a Dec. 18 press release.
The latest financial management standards encourage agencies to adopt a single approach to handling accounts receivable. Many agencies have different business processes, which complicates oversight for agencies and auditors charged with reconciling financial information and measuring performance, OMB said.
Establishing common accounting processes is a goal of OMB’s Financial Management Line of Business, which the General Service Administration’s Financial Systems Integration Office (FSIO) manages.
The guidance includes steps for managing accounts due from the public and an agency’s billing and collection divisions, she said. The steps describe internal controls and the best ways to take advantage of electronic tools, such as processing, information routing, review and approval, she added.
OMB previously published standard business processes for contract payments and funds control and distribution, said Danny Werfel, OMB’s deputy controller, in a memo to agency chief financial officers released Dec. 19.
FSIO will update the core requirements for financial management systems to incorporate the new business standards, and it will test vendor software during the qualification and certification process, Werfel said. Agencies must implement the business standards by moving to government or commercial shared-services providers when they are ready to upgrade their financial systems, he added. Those providers are equipped to offer financial management systems and services to many agencies.
- Mary Mosquera, FCW.com
READ MORE...
The latest financial management standards encourage agencies to adopt a single approach to handling accounts receivable. Many agencies have different business processes, which complicates oversight for agencies and auditors charged with reconciling financial information and measuring performance, OMB said.
Establishing common accounting processes is a goal of OMB’s Financial Management Line of Business, which the General Service Administration’s Financial Systems Integration Office (FSIO) manages.
The guidance includes steps for managing accounts due from the public and an agency’s billing and collection divisions, she said. The steps describe internal controls and the best ways to take advantage of electronic tools, such as processing, information routing, review and approval, she added.
OMB previously published standard business processes for contract payments and funds control and distribution, said Danny Werfel, OMB’s deputy controller, in a memo to agency chief financial officers released Dec. 19.
FSIO will update the core requirements for financial management systems to incorporate the new business standards, and it will test vendor software during the qualification and certification process, Werfel said. Agencies must implement the business standards by moving to government or commercial shared-services providers when they are ready to upgrade their financial systems, he added. Those providers are equipped to offer financial management systems and services to many agencies.
- Mary Mosquera, FCW.com
READ MORE...
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