The Defense Department is running workshops to educate its workforce on a new common business language that eventually will be used to track, process and report thousands of business transactions.
Officials are teaching employees the business language, called the Standard Financial Information Structure, ahead of DOD’s implementation of a new financial management program—the Defense Enterprise Accounting and Management System (DEAMS).
SFIS provides “a road map for the configuration of general ledgers in target accounting systems,” said an SFIS official who requested anonymity. “Financial transactions processed within DEAMS will utilize SFIS information in support of general-ledger posting logic, financial report generation, and as a common basis for financial analysis across the department.”
The official said having a common basis for financial analysis across the entire department is important because of “numerous examples of language inconsistencies.”
The services will feed the SFIS information into DEAMS to create a standard financial system.
New accountability
DEAMS, announced in 2003, is a co-production of the Air Force, Transportation Command and Defense Finance and Accounting Service.
The system “will provide general ledger and reporting functionality for the Air Force,” said a DOD official, who requested anonymity. “DEAMS will serve as an Air Force subsidiary ledger to the overall DOD corporate general ledger. SFIS is supplemented by the [federal] Standard General Ledger Transaction Library, which uses SFIS information to delineate specific transaction postings to Treasury’s mandated USSGL accounts.”
Both DEAMS and SFIS are part of DOD’s Business Management Modernization Program, which has been folded into the Business Transformation Agency. DOD established BTA last year to centrally manage 18 of the largest enterprisewide business programs, including the Defense Travel System, the Standard Procurement System and the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System.
John Senn, DEAMS functional manager, said the program aims to “replace outdated processes and systems.”
DOD took the first step in this process in July, buying Oracle Corp.’s Joint Financial Improvement software for $22.7 million.
Senn said the software will let DOD “introduce modern and efficient business practices based on industry leading practices” through DEAMS.
The second step will come early this year when DOD awards a contract for systems integration. Officials are reviewing proposals but would not give a timeline for implementation or award. Federal Sources Inc., a market research firm in McLean, Va., estimated the contract to be worth about $27.8 million over five years.
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