Government Executive Magazine - 9/7/00 DoD readies civilian personnel database

Sometime next year Defense Department civilian personnel specialists and managers will be able to perform employee actions, gather information and assemble reports with the click of a mouse.

The mouse will access the new Defense Civilian Personnel Data System, "the largest human resource data system in the world," according to Diane M. Disney, deputy assistant secretary of defense for civilian personnel policy. DCPDS, she said, is the result of five years of collaboration by DoD, the components and civilian contractors.

"It will be the first fully integrated data system that works in real time," she said. "In other words, you could find out right-this-minute anything you want to know about your personnel record or about the records of the people you're managing."

DoD's old civilian personnel data system consisted of 10 separate systems that couldn't talk to each other, Disney said. Over the past few years, the old 10 were integrated into one database she called the "legacy system," "because that is our inheritance from the past." She said that information is being used to create the DCPDS, which should be implemented within a year.

"From a departmental perspective, we will be able to tell exactly where we are in terms of all kinds of personnel variables, today, with total accuracy. The improvement is extraordinary," she said.

Managers, too, will benefit from DCPDS, Disney said. The vast DoD-wide database is designed to support more than 800,000 employee records and is capable of processing 1.75 million different pay and benefit combinations for each employee.

"Managers and supervisors will be able to create reports-the range of awards they've given, for example-and almost any other factor they want to look at that they were unable to get in the past," she said.

DCPDS test sites have been operating since October 1999 at Fort Richardson, Alaska; Naval Submarine Base Bangor, Wash.; and San Antonio.

The harnessing of DCPDS technology and consolidation of the services' 10 separate data systems is half of ongoing modernization, Disney said. The other half is the regionalization of the services' various personnel offices-at the end, about 300 customer support units stateside and overseas will support 22 regional personnel support centers, she added.

"The combination of activities should result in substantial savings," Disney said. "We estimate DoD will save $223 million a year. It is an enormous efficiency."