Like MyPay and LeaveWeb before, the Air Force is bringing even more military personnel flight actions online.

The process, called personnel services delivery transformation, takes effect March 31, and will encompass even more options than those of the Virtual MPF site already on the Internet.

“We’re making it easier and more efficient for people to conduct their personnel business without having to worry about scheduling appointments or waiting in lines at their local MPF,” said Tim Beyland, the Air Force manpower and personnel director of plans and integration.

“People already do their banking online and pay their bills online, we’re just taking the next step by conducting Air Force business online,” he said.

The transformation is a four-phase program, beginning this month and continuing through 2011. The first phase begins with the active-duty force and is further broken up into seven segments called spirals.

Spiral 1, which goes into effect at the end of March, will move several personnel transactions Airmen usually visit their MPF for to the Web and contact center at the Air Force Personnel Center. Additional spirals will make processes available to the remaining total force, Mr. Beyland said.

Among the initial actions transferred online are forms for evaluation appeals, retirements, retraining, and duty history corrections. To access the new online MPF actions, Airmen just need to log into the Air Force Portal, and from there head to Virtual MPF, he said.

The goal is to move 85 percent of MPF actions online. Once the transformation begins, however, it doesn’t mean Airmen still can’t get personal customer service.

“There’s a contact center Airmen can call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to get help when they need it,” Mr. Beyland said. “PSD also doesn’t mean the Air Force is doing away with MPFs -- Airmen can still get help there too. But it saves the Air Force and its people time and money when MPF actions are accessible online.”

To make the transition easier, personnelists and mission support squadron commanders have been sent training programs so they can better explain the transformation initiatives to their customers, which include guardsmen, reservists and civilians.

“This is a smarter way of doing business and will result in improved consistency and accuracy of information, fewer errors in people’s records and expanded customer service hours,” Mr. Beyland said.

“Web and contact center technologies have proven (themselves) and PSD will make life easier for the warfighter so they can concentrate more on their mission and less on paperwork," he said. "That’s as simple as it gets.”