(U.S. Army Photo)
Wave 8a Update
Approximately 7,000 end users were added to GFEBS in the deployment of Wave 8a on 1 April 2012. End users deployed in Wave 8a were primarily from the following commands: Army Materiel Command (AMC), Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC), Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), and United States Army Central Command (USARCENT).
Wave 8a also deployed to the following Program Executive Offices (PEOs): PEO Aviation (AVN), PEO Command, Control and Communications-Tactical (C3T), PEO Combat Support and Combat Service Support (CS&CSS), PEO Intelligence, Electronic Warfare, and Sensors (IEW&S), PEO Missiles and Space (MS), PEO Soldier, and PEO Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (STRI).
This is the largest wave deployment to date and brings the total number of end users to approximately 45,000.
GFEBS is an unparalleled leap forward in Army financial management; fulfilling high level mandates for auditability and fiscal responsibility while simultaneously transforming the Army’s long-standing budget culture to a cost culture.
For additional information on GFEBS, please visit the GFEBS page on the milWiki portal, the military online encyclopedia, at https://www.milsuite.mil/wiki/Portal:GFEBS.
What is GFEBS?
The General Fund Enterprise Business System – or GFEBS – (a project office of the US Army’s PEO EIS) is the Army’s new web-enabled financial, asset and accounting management system that standardizes, streamlines and shares critical data across the Active Army, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve. GFEBS uses Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing (SAP) software, a Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. This is a significant step in transforming how the Army does business – moving the Army from a spending culture to a cost management culture. The primary goal of GFEBS is to capture transactions and provide reliable data to better enable Army leadership to make decisions in support of the Warfighting capability. GFEBS will provide leaders with data that has never before been available through a single access point. GFEBS has already deployed to approximately 45,000 end users and will eventually deploy to 200 Army locations around the world, making GFEBS one of the world’s largest ERP solutions.
GFEBS provides significant benefits to the Army’s financial management portfolio through the introduction of new business processes. The benefits of GFEBS will be felt throughout the Army from Headquarters, Department of the Army all the way down to the operational level. Leadership will have greater visibility of operational activities at the Command and Garrison level, improved forecasting, and better decision making ability because of accurate and real-time cost data.
The scope of GFEBS consists of six major business process areas bringing various benefits and impacts for the Army. These include:
- Funds Management
- Property, Plant & Equipment (PP&E)
- Spending Chain
- Reimbursables
- Cost Management
- Financials
GFEBS is a major change for the way the Army does business. It replaced the Standard Finance System (STANFINS), the most widely used standard accounting system for Army installations, and the Standard Operations and Maintenance Army Research and Development System (SOMARDS), the standard accounting system for most Army logistics and acquisition operations. It impacts jobs and roles within all Army organizations, and changes everything from the day-to-day activities of Army financial operations to decision-making at the Command level.
GFEBS began implementation with a single organization at a single location on 1 October 2008; this was followed by a slightly larger implementation on 1 April 2009.Since then, additional and larger-scale implementations have occurred along with continuing development. On 1 April 2011, the Army added more than 7,600 new users in locations in the United States, Europe, and Korea. Then on 1 July 2011 the Army added another 10,800 users, the largest single addition of new users, from the ARNG to complete deployment in all 50 states and four territories. When fully deployed, GFEBS will engage more than 55,000 end users at some 200 locations worldwide and impact almost every Army organization and function.
GFEBS involves fully or partially replacing 106 information systems, interfacing with other systems (presently 54 systems) and reengineering business processes and data structures. Implementing a new system with the scope of change involved with GFEBS, across an organization the size of the Army and with the Army’s geographical dispersion presents many and significant challenges. Overcoming the challenges requires a unique and well-defined solution that begins with pre-deployment activities 15 months before go-live and continues with a series of monthly tasks to walk each new organization from the initial introduction to operational capability at go-live.