Navy sets course to manage its human resource data
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The Navy is developing an integrated system based on human resources software from PeopleSoft Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif., that will serve as the single point of data entry for all the service's pay and personnel records. Using PCs, clerks will access personnel and disbursing functions now performed by separate systems and offices. The Navy Standard Integrated Personnel System is designed to collect, collate and analyze data on the service's active, Reserve and retired
The Navy is developing an integrated system based on human resources
software from PeopleSoft Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif., that will serve as the single point
of data entry for all the services pay and personnel records.
Using PCs, clerks will access personnel and disbursing functions now performed by
separate systems and offices. The Navy Standard Integrated Personnel System is designed to
collect, collate and analyze data on the services active, Reserve and retired
personnel, providing automated tools for searches, queries and data retrieval.
NSIPS will keep records for more than 800,000 active-duty, Reserve and retired
personnel at about 800 Navy sites worldwide, ashore and afloat. The system software, which
is still in development, is designed to automatically trigger all personnel and pay
transactions.
NSIPS will cost $165 million, with lifecycle costs estimated at $470 million, Navy
officials said.
We surveyed the marketplace and determined that the PeopleSoft product fit our
requirements the best, said Capt. Mark Moranville, NSIPS program manager at the
Naval Reserve Information Systems Office in New Orleans.
Lockheed Martin Corp. is the prime contractor for NSIPS, providing systems integration
and software development under a General Services Administration schedule contract order.
Human Resources Management Software from PeopleSoft serves as the primary application for
NSIPS, managing such data as names, addresses and pay grades. It also consolidates
personnel and payroll processes.
We hired Lockheed Martin to modify the software package to cover the gap between
what the product did out of the box and what we wanted it to do, Moranville said.
Lockheed Martin is customizing PeopleSofts program with the help of the Defense
Finance and Accounting Service, which oversees the Defense Departments payroll
systems.
NSIPS replaces four legacy systems: the Reserve Standard Training Administration and
Readiness Support System, Source Data Systems, the Uniform Microcomputer Disbursing System
and the Diary Message Reporting System.
The Navys new, unified system will have an open client-server architecture with
data held at the local, regional and corporate levels. Personnel and pay transactions must
first be verified by the appropriate DFAS system before being posted to local and regional
personnel office databases.
PeopleSofts applications integrate with a relational database from Oracle Corp.,
Moranville said. A headquarters NSIPS database will be established in New Orleans for
survey purposes, he said.
NSIPS acts as a feeder system for Navy personnel databases at the local, regional and
corporate levels, as well as for DFAS corporate-level pay systems in Cleveland,
Moranville said.
Four sites are already running early versions of NSIPS: two Reserve sites in New
Orleans, one on the Smart Ship USS Rushmore and another on the USS Bonhomme Richard, the
Navys newest amphibious assault ship.
At NSIPS sites on land, clerks enter data into their local client-server system, which
links to DFAS systems through the Defense Information Systems Network. Shipboard personnel
offices use superhigh frequency transmitter links to satellites, such as the International
Maritime Satellite system, to forward data to DFAS through Naval communications stations
attached to the public switched network.
On ships, NSIPS shares unclassified LANs with the Naval Tactical Command Support
System, which manages parts, inventory, finances, automated technical manuals and
drawings, medical, mess, ship store and administrative data.
The NSIPS Program Management Office is buying PCs for the system through several
existing indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts managed by the Space and Naval
Warfare Systems Command. The system uses hardware configurations tailored to the size of
the sites and the number of personnel records in a particular office.
NSIPS hardware runs on Microsoft Windows NT. PCs on the Rushmore include 266-MHz
Pentium IIs from Vanstar Government Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va. The PCs have 64M of RAM
and 4G hard drives. The servers, which also run NT, include 266-MHz Pentium IIs with 96M
of RAM and 8.4G hard drives.
NSIPS passed milestone II review in January and will pass milestone III in October
1999, Navy officials said. Initial operational capability is scheduled for November 1999;
full operational capability is planned for March 2000.
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