System integrates military pay, personnel

  • Published
  • By Jim Garamone
  • American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  A new Web-based system will integrate all of the services' military personnel and pay systems, Department of Defense officials announced Sept. 29.

The Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System will provide "one-stop shopping" for servicemembers when it is fully implemented, officials said.

The new system will be more accurate and make it easier for active-duty and reserve component servicemembers to check on their records, officials said. It will use commercial, off-the-shelf technology.

"This is a big deal," said David Chu, defense undersecretary for personnel and readiness. "I'm told this is the largest application of (the software) in the world. We're pioneers here. Its functionality is very important to the department's long-term success."

Chu said that although the drive for the system preceded the current administration, it is very much in the spirit of transformation promulgated by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. The system will absorb the 79 "legacy" systems into one Web-based system accessible to all who need to view those records, including the servicemembers themselves.

The system will provide better, more accurate and more timely information for servicemembers and warfighters, officials said. It will allow combatant commanders "to have much better visibility over what is ultimately the most important resource they have: their people," Chu said.

Accurate, timely information also is important to servicemembers.

"There have been press stories in the past about servicemen and women who get lost in the system, who don't receive timely and accurate pay and benefits. (They could not) document where they were in military operations, so they (could not) get benefits for service-related medical conditions," Norma St. Claire said. "(The new system) will truly transform military personnel and pay management for the department." St. Claire is the director of DOD's joint requirements and integration office.

Military personnel management is far more complex and far-reaching than personnel management in the private sector, she said.

"We have the responsibility of following our servicemembers from the moment they enter the military essentially for the rest of their lives," St. Claire said.

What complicates military records is that servicemembers transfer between the active and reserve components, and, today, that also often means reserve mobilization with concurrent duty overseas.

The system will create a single record of service that will follow each servicemember. The records also will be used by the Department of Veterans Affairs after the servicemember leaves the military, officials said.

It should simplify life for military members. One example St. Claire used was a servicemember's promotion. Today, a personnel specialist puts that record into the personnel system, and then a pay specialist has to put the pertinent information into the pay system. With the new system, information is only entered once.

"Servicemembers today very often spend a lot of their time baby-sitting their records," St. Claire said. "The ones who know enough about how personnel systems work, know enough to keep their own personal copies of everything. Then, they have to go around to make sure the systems reflect what they've got in it."

The records will be online and will have security protection. Servicemembers will be able to access their records online, and if they see errors, report those immediately.

The new system will make it much easier for servicemembers to see what is in -- or not in -- their records, said Navy Capt. Valerie E. Carpenter, the joint program manager for the system.

"They won't have to request a microfiche or a hard copy," she said.

The Army will be the first user, with an initial operations capability set for November 2005.

"The services will be doing what we call data-cleansing: They will bring in the data they currently have, and it will go into the common database," Carpenter said.

The system is the result of a recommendation the Defense Science Board made in the mid-1990s. Most companies had integrated their pay and personnel systems, and the board felt the military should also. Officials said they expect some savings from eliminating duplicative systems.