Defense moves to integrate pay systems
An initiative to integrate 79 military pay and personnel systems into one system moved forward Monday when Pentagon officials announced that Northrop Grumman would take the project into its implementation phase.
Once completed, the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System, or DIMHRS, will be a single, fully consolidated personnel system for all the military services, according to Norma St. Claire, director of the Joint Requirements and Integration Office at Defense. DIMHRS will cover 3.1 million military personnel including reserve and National Guard forces, creating a record of service for each service member.
"Military personnel management is far more complex and far-reaching than personnel management in the private sector," St. Claire said. "We have the responsibility of following our service members from the moment they enter the military, essentially for the rest of their lives. Things that happen to them in the military very often result in benefits that they're entitled to after they've left the military."
The new system will "ensure accurate and timely access to information for all authorized users, including the service members themselves," St. Claire said.
The DIMHRS project is being handled in phases and is expected to be rolled out completely by 2006. Over the next few months, Northrop Grumman will hone software developed by California-based PeopleSoft Inc. to help the military branches migrate to the new system.
"It provides an opportunity for the department to provide everyone, most especially the combatant commanders, with much better visibility over what is ultimately the most important resource they have, and that is their people," said David Chu, undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness.
Also, because the final product will be Web-based, military commanders will be able to easily find service members with specific skill sets and be able to access needed information from anywhere.
"It's big step forward," said Capt. Valerie Carpenter, the DIMHRS program manager. "Combat commanders now will have near real-time accurate information on their task force. Every soldier, sailor, airman and Marine will be serviced by DIHMRS."
The Army is expected to begin using the system in a limited fashion by late 2005.
"We will be taking the data from the legacy systems and bringing it in and cleansing it," Carpenter said. "The services will be doing what we call a data cleansing; they'll bring in the data that they currently have, making sure it's accurate and that it's one piece of information for each soldier, sailor, airman and Marine, and it will go onto the common database of DIMHRS."
COMMENTS
- Stan's comments are absolutely correct! There should be a military of one with all the services folded into one force coordinated by one leader and with one set of management. That should reduce costs significantly and lead to better overall military actions. Of course the military doesn't want this because there would be fewer offices and they cannot allow that to happen. That would take my money out of their pockets! GovExec.com reader Posted October 3, 2003 6:55 AM
- According to many sources, this pay system is way behind schedule and way over budget, but the money just keeps getting pumped into it. It has been years in the making and can't even process retro pay. The new system is made to sound terrific, but the reality is more problems, (and more money). The new name they've given the DIMHRS project is 'Forward Compatiblity Pay' - FCP. GovExec.com reader Posted October 1, 2003 4:45 PM
- First the pay and personnel systems, then the separate military branches. Instead of being an "Army of One" it will be a "Military of One." Eventually all the services will be wearing the identical uniforms, have the same ranking and ratings and will be integrated. No more Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, etc. No more Seals, Rangers, Green Berets, etc., they'll be Special Forces. What a great way to save money on buying millions of different types of uniforms and to finally stop all the bickering between the services for the defense dollars. One Military school. One Secretary of Defense, period! No secretary of the Navy, Army, Air Force. Less upper management equates to more benefits for the ranked and rated and more money for better weapon systems. Great idea, when's it going to start?! Stan Posted October 1, 2003 8:17 AM
