OUSD(C) IT Development Initiative
Abstract
As the Department of Defense's strategic, operational, and tactical plans and objectives transform the war fighter with new capabilities and doctrine, the budgeting and accountability of funds used to pursue the Department objectives will become more complicated and detailed for senior leaders to make decisions with supporting rationale for the taxpayer. Incorporating information technology toward current and emerging business processes manifesting into a state-of-the art system of systems will result in increasing efficiencies, timely diagnostics, and reducing lifecycle costs to maintain, sustain and repair. This initiative exploits emerging technology, processes, trends, capabilities, and techniques to incorporate state-of-the-art information technology enabling the ability, agility, and level of fidelity to collect, process, administrate and report resource management data and to automate business processes within a more robust analytical environment within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) (OUSD(C)). Next Generation Resource Management Systems (NGRMS): The OUSD(C) is responsible for advising the Secretary of Defense on all Defense budgetary and fiscal matters, for Defense budget development and execution, and for overseeing financial management across the Department. The OUSD(C) has a broad set of responsibilities in supporting the Planning, Programing, Budget and Execution (PPBE) process. The Office of the Director, Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE), provides independent analytic advice to the Secretary of Defense on all aspects of the Defense program, including alternative weapon systems and force structures, the development and evaluation of program and defense program alternatives, and the cost-effectiveness of defense systems. There is a critical need for the development of a state-of-the-art information technology system to modernize and replace multiple, antiquated legacy systems and processes used to formulate, justify, present and defend the entire Department of Defense budget in the OUSD(C) to meet Title 10 and Title 31 mission and reporting requirements. The Comptroller’s plan for mitigating the deficiencies and capability gaps associated with current systems is development of the Next Generation Resource Management System. The OUSD(C) and CAPE use multiple systems to formulate, justify, distribute, and execute DoD budgets. The information managed by the budget formulation and programming systems is redundant, and reconciliation of information is difficult and inefficient. These systems require extensive manpower investments to give executives the information they need to make key financial decisions in a timely manner. The OUSD(C) and CAPE require a more efficient, effective Defense budget environment that optimizes the budget cycle to ensure users are processing and reporting efficiently and DoD Senior Leadership has the information to make informed, critical decisions. The OUSD(C) requires capabilities that shall provide for the effective formulation, and justification of the Defense budget. The requirement is for: • Automated exchange and reconciliation of budget data • Improved efficiency through the utilization of a unified budgetary model • Instantaneous ability to generate data for management reviews and decisions • Capability to accommodate emerging business practices To date, a prototype has been fully developed, deployed and is continuously being tested by two major components (Army & DARPA). Moving forward, the new “to be” system shall be designed as a single system with a unified data source for OUSD(C) and CAPE. The new system shall provide a single, integrated system that employs the latest technologies to fulfill the Department’s financial management responsibilities in an effective and efficient manner. The new system shall provide twenty-first century information technology that shall allow users to view information from multiple fully integrated modules simultaneously, e.g., current year budget submission, decision documents from previous years, and budget execution information. Advanced Analytics (Advana): Advana is a technology platform which, not only houses a collection of enterprise data, but expands the boundaries of a standard data warehouse by arming military and business decision-makers with decision support analytics, visualizations, and data tools. We have positioned Advana as a pivotal asset to enable the OUSD(C)’s “CFO of the Future” vision and support the DoD Data Strategy, both aimed at achieving the National Defense Strategy by advancing analytics throughout the DoD. Advana directly supports the DoD’s financial statement audit as the single repository for financial accounting data across the Department and services numerous other analytical use cases aligned to the National Defense Strategy. Advana provides: •A managed data service for acquiring, tagging, securing, transforming and centralizing core business and readiness data assets to support Enterprise Reporting and Analytics •A shared infrastructure that provides scalable and highly performant cloud compute and storage across multiple networks and security boundaries •Tools and capabilities to enable self-service analytics and data science across the Department The failure to meet these requirements will result in the Department being unable to successfully conduct and pass an audit and set senior leaders back years in being able to take advantage of Common Enterprise Data to make strategic decisions. Advana’s very beginnings were for the purpose of supporting OUSD(C) as the DoD financial reporting authority by creating a single platform where audit, financial reporting, and compliance monitoring could occur. Advana achieved this by establishing a common repository of enterprise data that opens the door for a larger opportunity to use this data to support advanced performance management analytics and generate insights that matter to executive sponsors. To date, investments have been used for developing and deploying a cloud-based data platform, complete with COTS analytics tools and web applications that are needed to reconcile financial transactions, review obligations, and significantly improve DoD’s financial management practices. In 2020, Advana has proven itself as an enterprise-wide data analytics solution that has capabilities far beyond the original financial management scope. For example, DoD’s COVID-19 response efforts, leveraging the DoD-owned Advana platform, have successfully demonstrated how a department-wide, collaborative response to a crisis can result in the rapid removal of organizational barriers, accelerate data exploration, and drive tremendous value for decision makers tasked with ensuring the safety, availability, and operational readiness of the DoD’s resources.
Document Details
- Document Type
- R2 Budgetary Justification
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2022
- Source ID
- 0605027D8Z_5_0400_PB_2022
- Change Summary Explanation
- The program enhancement in FY 2022 is to support an increase in the data storage resources and contractor cloud engineering staff required to develop across three domains as well as anticipate increases in user licenses, tools to support enterprise-wide analytics, and subject matter expertise needed to develop and expand the security and user management for these environments.
- Service Agency Name
- Office of the Secretary Of Defense
Entities
Organizations
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
Related Documents
- Child Project: Next Generation Resource Management System
- Child Accomplishment: Next Generation Resource Management System
- Child Cost Item: da88a34df1b6c6785df1692a736890d7
- Child Project: Advanced Analytics (Advana)
- Child Accomplishment: Advanced Analytics (Advana)
- Child Cost Item: 984a2b54ad2399bf2e921688713f562b