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IPT Workshops Move the SFIS Ball

Fairview Heights, Ill (USTCNS) --– The Air Force's new Standard Financial Information Structure Integrated Process Team took an important step toward its goal during ten days of intense meetings at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, Ala., Feb. 7-16. The workshops were held to develop a strategy, policy and process for standardizing key legacy data elements that are essential to successful conversion to SFIS and the Defense Enterprise Accounting and Management System. Participants included representatives from the Air Staff, Air Force Major Commands, Air Force Communications Agency, Defense Information Systems Agency, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, U.S. Northern Command, and the DEAMS functional management office.

The Air Force SFIS IPT was established in December by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Operations James Short, after Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne formally endorsed the effort to standardize legacy accounting elements Air Force-wide.

The Air Force Deputy Functional Manager for DEAMS, Fred Carr, defined the task at the beginning of the February IPT workshop.

"The lack of standard nomenclature for legacy data is a long-standing problem," he said. "The emerging systems environment demands that we standardize our terminology, and the timing of the DEAMS effort means that migration to SFIS must be worked simultaneously with DEAMS implementation."

The discussions at Gunter Annex focused on four of seven legacy data elements that are potential threats to overall SFIS compliance and therefore, to DEAMS implementation. The elements were identified as a result of workshops here in October 2005 and in November 2005 at San Antonio, Texas, where future customers and users of SFIS met to develop a baseline of the SFIS. Action items and issues from those meetings were documented and analysis conducted at both the Functional Program Management Office and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Three additional data elements, the Foreign Military Sales Country, Case, and Line Item are being worked with FMS Personnel.

Four legacy elements

The elements discussed during the Gunter workshop included the Element of Expense/Investment Code (EEIC), Resource Center / Cost Center (RC/CC), Emergency/Special Program code (ESP), the Standard Document Number (SDN), and Foreign Military Sales Case, Line Item (FMS/CLL) codes.

A draft list of valid values for EEIC and RC/CC has been documented but according to DFAS data conversion team lead, Norm Berg, the list must be worked further and coordinated throughout the Air Force before becoming policy. The magnitude of the problem is evident in that there are currently 180 three-digit EEICs which must be migrated into 40 Object Classes. Nearly all EEICs have command and/or base-unique shred-outs indicating vital data that could be inappropriately coded if the migration does not reference that detailed information in some other form. The Air Force SFIS IPT has committed to reviewing legacy system capabilities and providing standard guidance to Air Force financial managers on how to capture program-specific cost data without using non-standard EEIC and RC/CC values prior to DEAMS implementation.

Johnny Lipscomb of the Air Force Accounting and Finance Office in Denver, Colo., briefed IPT members on SAF/FM policy concerning the Standard Document Number and the Business Partner Number which are data elements included in SFIS Phase I. The SFIS IPT advised the Major Commands that compliance with the current SDN policy will be monitored along with the standardized elements to be published upon completion of the legacy standardization process. The Major Commands requested additional time to validate some of their “unique” coding requirements before the list of valid values is updated. As a result, the AF SFIS IPT has agreed to delay finalizing the coding package valid values until the commands receive additional clarification from their functional experts.

The approach to the Emergency/Special Program Code will be re-addressed after SFIS Phase II is released sometime in March 06 The legacy element is being used for non-standard projects as well as for standard JCS ESP codes.

SFIS mapping to legacy elements is already underway. The SFIS IPT has completed most of the cross-walking necessary for developing the legacy data elements to SFIS conversion requirements. Cross-walking of the SFIS elements related to the Air Force SFIS standardization process will begin upon completion of the list of valid values for EEIC, RC/CC, ESP, and the FMS codes.

No end of challenges

Personnel Accounting Symbols or PAS codes are another example of the kind of challenges that SFIS implementers are facing. Air Force Personnel and Readiness owns this data element and currently intends to use PAS Codes for the Organization Unique Identifier or OUID. The DEAMS SFIS team has identified a disconnect with PAS Code usage as it only goes down to the squadron level and funding distribution must be able to reach the organization and branch level. The IPT will elevate the issue to SAF/FM but in the interim, the DEAMS SFIS plan is to populate OUID with the legacy Operating Agency Code (OAC), Operating Budget Account Number (OBAN), and the newly standardized Resource Center/Cost Center (RC/CC) code.

The IPT developed a template for SFIS documentation and will place SFIS-related documentation from the AF SFIS IPT and the DEAMS SFIS effort on the Air Force Portal. All briefings, workshop and meeting minutes including responses to issues and action items will be posted there in the near future.

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