DEAMS begins pre-deployment activities at 4 AMC bases

by Cathy Segal
SAF/FMPS

7/10/2013 - WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio  -- Senior Air Force leadership has approved the start of pre-deployment activities in preparation for implementing the Defense Enterprise Accounting and Management System at four Air Mobility Command bases.

A final decision from DOD's Milestone Decision Authority to deploy the system Oct. 1 at Dover AFB, Del.; Grand Forks AFB, N.D.; Little Rock AFB, Ark.; and Pope Army Airfield, Fort Bragg, N.C.; is expected later this summer. The addition of these bases would bring the total number of installations using DEAMS to six and the number of financial users to almost 2,000.

Eric Fanning, the Under Secretary of the Air Force, expressed his support for initiating DEAMS pre-deployment activities June 11 during a meeting with the Air Force comptroller and others from the Secretary of the Air Force's Financial Management and Comptroller directorate.

Preparations for the next system rollouts come after the DEAMS program met specified criteria following previous deployments at Scott AFB, Ill., and McConnell AFB, Kan. The program will need to meet addition criteria before approval is granted to further deploy. Combatant commands and other tenant units that use Air Force finance offices to process their funds, as well as the Defense Finance and Accounting Service centers that support them, also will use DEAMS.

DEAMS is the Air Force's Enterprise Resource Planning system supporting DOD's Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness Plan. DEAMS, which uses Oracle Federal Financials software, will help resolve material weaknesses, improve the timeliness and accuracy of financial management information, support consistent financial reporting to DOD, and enable Business Process Reengineering. It uses standardized business rules and processes, and complies with existing laws, regulations and policies to achieve audit readiness by 2017 as required by the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act.

The system was implemented at Scott AFB as a two-phased technology demonstration, fully deploying there in May 2010. It deployed at McConnell in October 2012 as a proof of concept. The U.S. Transportation Command headquarters staff at Scott AFB and the DFAS center at Limestone, Maine, which supports both installations, also are using DEAMS. When the system deploys throughout the rest of the Air Force it will use an incremental strategy that generally follows major command lines, although unique requirements may group similar bases together regardless of the parent MAJCOM.

"We are excited to continue fielding a system to help the Air Force resolve existing financial management issues and provide accurate, reliable and timely financial information to support decision making at all levels of DOD," said Shirley Reed, Air Force Functional Manager for DEAMS. "Although the legacy systems we are replacing performed well in their time, they are outdated, have weak internal controls and, for the most part, aren't integrated. We are using 1960's technology to manage Air Force funds when we should be taking advantage of today's technology. DEAMS will resolve all of those issues," she continued.

The DEAMS program has been heavily scrutinized with audits, assessments and inspections to ensure that it meets a variety of standards, including operational effectiveness, suitability, mission capability, and readiness.

"Air Force and DOD officials want to be sure the system works as promised, and we plan to deliver," Reed stated. "The DEAMS Functional Management Office staff, along with the Program Management Office, DFAS, developers, the system integrator, and even users, has been implementing improvements and validating progress made since a May 2012 operational assessment by the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center. We are ready to deploy DEAMS."

An operational assessment is expected late this fiscal year to validate progress made on the 2012 findings, but the pre-deployment activities are not contingent on those results. Legacy systems will be left in place pending the results of the operational assessment, Reed explained.

Preparations have already begun for each of the next four bases, including a site profile to determine who the potential users are. A DEAMS Site Activation Task Force will guide each base through the deployment process, including forming a Change Management Advisory Board. Unit POCs will help with individual data collection, registering for and selecting appropriate DEAMS permissions (called "responsibilities"), meeting just-in-time training requirements, and implementing DEAMS.