Customer Board Meeting March 21, 2012 United States Department of Agriculture Office of the Chief Financial Officer National Finance Center

Customer Board Meeting March 21, 2012

United States Department of AgricultureOffice of the Chief Financial Officer

National Finance Center

Old Business Updates

USDA, National Finance Center Customer Board Meeting

December 7, 2011

High-level Timeline Recent Accomplishments

Current State Issues/Risk

3

Help Desk Consolidation

• Market research completed for Call Center Information Technology (IT) solutions

• Phase 1 Help Desk to support NFC core payroll business (e.g., Payroll/Personnel System, EmpowHR, webTA, Hosting Plus) go live 10/01/12

• Developing functional requirements for IT solutions by 04/01/12

• Building out work space by 08/01/12• Developing Communications Plan• Developing training program for staff to

eliminate silo-like processes• Reviewing impact on SLAs• Developing path-forward for EPP inquiries

• None



4

• Conduct Global Inventory Assessment – 06/08/12

• Provide training on Mainframe Express Enterprise Edition - 06/30/12

• Develop overall testing strategy – 07/13/12• Plan the conversion of databases and

applications – 08/24/12• Determine pilot/proof –of-concept applications

and begin database and program conversion - 10/01/12

Risk Mitigation for Legacy Payroll/Personnel Systems

• Installation and training of Modernization Workbench toolset completed

• DB2/COBOL training in progress

• Installation of Mainframe Express Enterprise Edition in progress

• Conversion Services awarded

• None



5

Enterprise Reporting Solution

• Finalized the solution architecture and toolset to deliver the full range of analytic and reporting capabilities

• Developed the “Common Report Library” for government-wide standard reporting

• Developed Build 1 outreach approach to facilitate the ongoing information-sharing between NFC and customers

• None

• Demonstrate the prototype of the Reporting Solution at NFC’s Customer Forum – May 2012

• Conduct Build 1 detailed design – July 2012• Parallel Test Build 1 Solution – October

2012• UAT Build 1 Solution – January 2013• Deploy Build 1 Solution – February 2013

• Documenting detailed requirements for the government-wide standard reports and the ad hoc environment for Build 1

• Engaging the Reporting User Group (RUG) to validate the requirements and detailed design

• Procuring, installing, and configuring the components of the hosting solution

March 2012 PRT Recap for PPS

USDA, National Finance Center Customer Board Meeting

December 7, 2011

Schedule Release Summary

• GESD Projects Scheduled

– 142 Projects Scheduled

• GESD Projects Unscheduled Breakdown

– 81 Pending (HOLD/RESP)

– 85 FRDs Assigned

– 289 TBD

7

Schedule Release Summary as of 03/06/12

Unscheduled Project Breakdown By Line of Business (LOB)

Line of Business Total by LOB

PPS 307

EmpowHR 50

HRLOB (PPS/EmpowHR) 18

webTA 28

Other 15

PCIP/IPPS 37

8

Schedule Release Status

• CY 2012 Pay Period 12 Projects– 23 Projects Scheduled

CY2012 Pay Period 20 Projects– 20 Projects Scheduled

• CY 2011/2012 Annual Release Projects– 6 Projects Scheduled

• Off Release Projects– 35 Projects Scheduled

9

Software Change Request Totals

• Software Change Requests – 2010, 540 SCRs Completed– 2011, 384 SCRs Completed – 2012, 128 SCRs Completed (as of 03/06/12)

10

Software Problem Report (SPR) Summary

Number of SPRs 1st Quarter FY 2012 (October, November, December)

Beginning Balance 14

Received 367

Closed 361

Ending Balance 20

11

SPR - Average Age at Closure (Days)

Priority Category 1st Quarter FY 2012 (October, November, December)

Critical 0

High 2

Normal 4

12

Software Problem Report (SPR) Totals

• SPRs– 2010, 1490 SPRs Completed– 2011, 1564 SPRs Completed– 2012, 218 SPRs Completed as of 02/29/12

13

New Business





15

• None

2011 W-2 Issuance Process

• Issued all 742,428 W-2s prior to 01/31/12

• All W-2s are available on NFC’s Reporting Center

• Currently researching and issuing 2011 W-2Cs when necessary

• Developing Customer Notification to provide instructions on how to request W-2 reprints

• None



16

2011 Electronic Paperless Personal Benefit Statements

• A total of 605,471 statements will be generated

• 326,525 statements will be printed and mailed

• 278,946 statements will be paperless and posted to EPP

• Any agencies still receiving paper statements will be reminded annually of their opportunity to go paperless

• 74 (47%) agencies are identified as paperless

• 84 (53%) agencies are identified as receiving paper statements

• None



17

2012 Annual Pay Raise

• NFC generated a total of 11,153 pay raise actions

• Pay Raise actions included transactions for 60 different agencies for employees in the non-foreign areas

• NFC received requirements from the following agencies for their employees in unique pay plans in the non-foreign areas:o Farm Service Agencyo Smithsoniano Department of Commerce

• None

•None • None

Governance Process

Customer Board (CB)

• NFC and Board Executive Meeting– Represent the interests of their respective

Department/Agency or Council membership

– Have the authority to speak for their respective Department/Agency or Council membership

– Have the authority to commit resources, make decisions, and enforce decisions on behalf of their Department/Agency

– Will facilitate information dissemination resulting from Board meetings to their respective organizations

– Provide strategic advice and guidance on PPSS related matters

– Set Software Change Request priorities (if required) 19

Project Review Team (PRT)

• Represent the NFC Payroll/Personnel System and Services (PPSS) clients in establishing prioritization of agency specific requests, system-wide enhancements and unresolved customer-wide initiatives involving the NFC Scheduled Release

– Representing all users, large and small, to meet agency needs within the PPSS

– Providing a unified approach to system project prioritization

– Providing comments and recommendations to ensure that projects are prioritized in a fair and consistent manner using customer input, NFC, LOE, etc.

– Providing consensus solutions to system problems, changes, or proposed enhancements 20

Committee for the Agriculture Payroll/Personnel System (CAPPS)

• Provides a forum for information sharing between the USDA/NFC PPS user community, the program staffs at departmental level, and the technical systems staff at the NFC

– Representing all users, large and small

– Interacting with other system users and NFC in implementing, operating, maintaining, and continually improving the automated USDA/NFC PPSS

– Providing leadership and guidance to agency users regarding the PPSS and assures the integrity of the systems

– Coordinates Work Groups/User Groups

21

Configuration Control Board

• Internal to NFC

• Manage changes to the system based on Government-wide requirements, requests from users, need for system upgrades, effectiveness, and efficiency improvements

• Schedule 4 releases of software in PP04, PP12, PP20, and PP25 each year

• PP01 Annual Pay Raise

• Reacts to feedback from CAPPS, User Groups, Project Review Team (PRT), and Customer Board (CB)

• Implement the near- and long-term requirements of HRLOB

22

EmpowHR





24

EmpowHR In-sourcing

• Participated in training and knowledge transfer sessions

• Gathered, reviewed, and cataloged Unisys documentation

• Shadowed and monitored contractor development staff

• Owned 90% of development work by CY 12 PP4 Release

• Determined we are ahead of schedule with regard to performing the development work and realized significant cost savings in previously slated contractor funds that could be redirected to other much needed GESD initiatives

• Own 100% of development work for CY12 PP20 Release

• Continue internal and external stakeholder engagement (e.g., internal communications, external webpage, customer forums, etc.)

• EmpowHR application re-hosting from NITC, Kansas City to NFC’s PCF in Denver July 2012

• Proceeding with staffing the last 4 positions (2 developers and 2 requirements analysts)

• There will be no CY12 PP12 Release due to EmpowHR Re-Hosting

• Analyzing current EmpowHR project inventory of unscheduled projects to facilitate schedule projections. Currently working toward scheduling projects for our CY12 PP20 Release

• Proceeding with EmpowHR Security Clean-up Project

• None



25

• Re-Hosting of EmpowHR by ITSD to begin by 06/30/12

Data Center Re-Hosting of EmpowHR

• QA testing of the application began on 03/12/12

• QA test team members are testing, logging, and resolving issues

• EmpowHR Stakeholders were invited to assist in testing application on 03/13/12

• ITSD/GESD continuing to work together to test the application, finalize the timeline, and implementation plan

• EmpowHR maintenance contract Period of Performance (POP) ends 06/30/12

Documents

Customer Board Meeting March 21, 2012 United States Department of Agriculture Office of the Chief Financial Officer National Finance Center