Assignment 1: Business Analysis

Boy, my mother was right when she said time went by faster when you got older. It is hard to believe that it has been a year since my first article in The Air Force Comptroller magazine. It has been a busy year, with a lot of very important events that will change the way we do business in the future. Mr. Montelongo 's transformation vision counts new technologies as one of the three key enablers that will enable FMers to become strategic partners in the future. Let me start out my second year by updating you on the top four IT strategic objectives.

1. New Accounting System: The Program Management Office at Scott AFB is doing great work on the requirements. They have documented the business rules for all of TRANSCOM to use and coordinated
As I travel and speak to Air Force financial managers, I often hear that my audiences don 't know anything about a new accounting system or something called DEAMS (Defense Enterprise Accounting and Management System). Simply, this is our new accounting system that will utilize Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software, combined with DoD business rules. The package procured will have General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Financial Reporting, Funds Distribution, and other functions integrated into one single package. I don 't have the space to cover everything but I can tell you that Mr Short devoted an entire column to it in the January 2004 issue of this magazine. If you get a chance, take a look at this informative article and make sure those around you know about it too!!! (Want to read the article and can 't find the magazine...Log into the Portal and go to the SAF/FM page of the MyOrg Tab. In the Essentials block, there is a list of current and back issues of The Air Force Comptroller magazine. Click the link that says "The Air Force Comptroller Magazine, Vol 38." On the resulting page, click "Vol 38, Issue 1" in the Related Links box (next to the page title). A dialog box will appear giving you the option to open the Zip file on the Portal or download/save it to your computer. The Zip file contains the PDF version of the January 2004
Modern Budget Formulation: Exciting news on Budget Formulation this week as I was briefed on Phase 1, Budget Analysis. We are on schedule for December to deploy COTS capability to the SAF/FMB staff. The COTS tool selected is Oracle 's analytical tools Discoverer and Oracle Financial Analyzer. Later phases include: Phase 2 (Cost Model and Force Structure Interfaces), Phase 3 (Budget Development), Phase 4 (Budget Justification), and Phase 5 (Budget Electronic Exhibit Generation). These phases will use other capabilities of the COTS and extend to the MAJCOMs and installations. Our spiral approach plans releases in six-month increments and we will be soliciting field level support to help create the requirements and perform the