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United States Army Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Assessment

Introduction
Two of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in development for the United States Army, GFEBS and GCSS-Army, are encountering significant challenges. If not addressed, the Armys ability to deliver a ready and sustainable force will be adversely impacted. The Armys ERP systems must be properly aligned to assure the right people, equipment and resources are in the right place at the right time to meet Army objectives. The current Army ERP programs are improperly scoped and do not take advantage of inherent SAP logistic-financial functional integration. As a result, the Army is on the road to sub-optimizing the enterprise solution and increasing the risk of not achieving the primary objective: assuring the right people, equipment and resources are in the right place at the right time to meet Army objectives. Fortunately, the GCSS-Army and GFEBS programs are at stages which allow for a rather straightforward realignment that will correct the programs functional scope and exploit SAPs logistic-financial integration functionality, significantly reducing the number of complex, high volume interfaces and dramatically increasing the clarity of the enterprise audit trail.

GCSS-Army GFEBS Realignment


It is clear that any system implemented within the Department of Defense (DoD) will require numerous interfaces in order to interact with the legacy systems that exist in this environment. However, the GCSS-Army and GFEBS implementations are planning unnecessary complex, high traffic interfaces as direct result of defining the ERP scope in terms of the legacy systems footprint and failing to exploit the ERPs logistic-financial integration functionality: GFEBS will require information from each and every General Fund related purchase order (PO) issued or changed in the GCSS-Army (F/T) system in order to provide the required real-time funds check. GFEBS will require information from each and every General Fund related goods receipt (GR) created in the GCSS-Army (F/T) system in order to perform the required three-way match (PO-GR-Invoice Receipt) for payment processing. GFEBS will require information from GCSS-Army (F/T) equipment maintenance work orders and/or changes to the GCSS-Army (F/T) equipment master records in order to maintain the corresponding financial asset master in GFEBS.

This situation is depicted in the diagram on the following page:

United States Army Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Assessment

The current design requires each PO, each goods receipt, each funds check, every change to an original PO and the majority of the tactical equipment work orders to be transmitted via interface to the GFEBS system. These complex, high volume and mission critical interfaces can be eliminated if the two programs are functionally aligned in such a way as to exploit the inherent internal integration of the ERP systems. This can be accomplished with minimal disruption to both the GFEBS and GCSS-Army programs. All proprietary and budgetary financial transactions, stemming from logistical events should be executed and recorded within the ERP where the originating logistic transaction is recorded. Specifically: 1. End-to-end funds management processes should be enabled and configured in the GCSSArmy (F/T) R/3 instance. Budgetary ledger balances related to the tactical Army should be consolidated, in aggregate, in GFEBS for reporting purposes. The detailed budgetary transactions should reside in the GCSS-Army (F/T) system. This will eliminate the requirement to build interfaces to transfer each PO, each goods receipt, and each change to the original PO from GCSS-Army (F/T) to GFEBS. In addition, it will enable the instantaneous funds check available within SAP R/3 standard functionality.

United States Army Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Assessment

2. Asset management should be enabled and configured in the GCSS-Army (F/T) R/3 instance. Asset acquisition values, accumulated depreciation and depreciation expense should be consolidated, in aggregate, in GFEBS for reporting purposes. The detailed financial asset subsidiary ledger should reside in the GCSS-Army (F/T) system. This will eliminate the requirement to build an interface to transfer information on tactical equipment maintenance work orders from GCSS-Army (F/T) to GFEBS. In addition, it will exploit the asset master-equipment master synchronization available within SAP R/3 standard functionality.

Summary
The U.S. Armys ERP systems must be properly aligned to assure the right people, equipment and resources are in the right place at the right time to meet Army objectives. In order to achieve this goal, the ERP must be fully and properly utilized. Segregating the ERPs functionality based upon Army organizational boundaries sub-optimizes the solution and should be avoided. As a general rule, all proprietary and budgetary financial transactions, stemming from logistical events should be executed and recorded within the ERP where the originating logistic transaction is recorded. Deviation from this principle generally results in the requirement for high volume interfaces which adds complexity to the enterprise, increases reconciliation requirements, reduces the clarity of audit trails and adds additional risk to the attainment of the ultimate goal of supporting the Warfighter.

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