General Fund Enterprise Business System Analysis

Introduction

Business information systems handle information flow and maintenance that supports an enterprise or any other activity. Information-driven companies make evidence-based decisions which implies that they can be quite sure that their decisions would be successful since there is information to help them (Army worldwide, n.d.). Data consists of the raw facts that reflect environmental events. In technical terms, an information system can be described as a collection of interrelated elements that accumulate (or collect), process, archive, and transmit data to support organizational decision-making and management. Business information systems can provide less expensive, diverse, and concentrated or innovative products or services on specific market segments (Qiao, G., & Conyers, 2014). They introduce business strategies and require an understanding of how the programs are structured, controlled, and developed. All of the information systems can be defined as organizational and management solutions to environmental challenges. This research discussion analyzes the GFEBS (General Fund Enterprise Business System) by focusing on the characteristics of the users of the system, features, and impacts of the order.

GFEBS is a United States Army web-based resource planning (ERP) program. GFEBS eliminates or incorporates more than eighty established financial and fund management frameworks to automate the Army’s business processes and transactional data. That is one of the world’s biggest ERP networks, supporting approximately a million interactions per day. From a financial viewpoint, the program provides treasury disbursement and contractor self-service support (SUS) as well as guidance and evaluation for SUS’s operational and tactical fields to Army Financial Management leadership. It is also based on the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA) of 1996, which allows federal financial management processes to have credible, accurate, and prompt financial management data to management (Atkinson et al., 2017). Throughout the introduction of GFEBS, government departments, together with contractors, have benefited from using GFEBS to improve profitability and reduce payment errors. The move was not made applicable to areas abroad, such as Japan and Germany. In the United States, GFEBS operations are conducted in governmental centers, such as Indianapolis, Cleveland, Columbus, Limestone, Texarkana, Rome, and Langley. Payouts are routed via the GFEBS networks to pay suppliers worldwide. Hence, the program facilitates many activities throughout the United States.

Characteristics of the Users of the System

PEO EIS is liable for the management and implementation of the network of information technology and business systems possessed by soldiers in the United States. Every day the Army needs to work and requires many supplies. Over 3,000 militaries, civilians, and contractors constitute a widely dispersed team that serves as the Army’s trustworthy professionals in system and software engineering, system administrators, logistics professionals, and cybersecurity professionals.

Sums of money charged to state vendors in the U.S. are usually obtained within a short period, that is, between one to two days. When a mistake or issue arises, or further data is required, the notification is generated. In contrast, the specialists attempt to make the transaction so that the request for detailed information is promptly obtained via the GFEBS system. The consumer or supplier is informed and may have a resolution in minutes, thereby facilitating the processing of payments with no delay. This process is only stated because all GFEBS transactions are carried out in the States.

The system is all about data management, such as transfer. It supplies armed forces members with the data they need to make reasonable decisions. The program is also essential to military readiness and motivates people into their everyday tasks. GFEBS Master Data Elements report indicates that a robust network of 37 system branches and 71 procurement projects support army and DOD field communications. It also maintains logistics, health, accounting, personnel, coaching, and supply chain services for all ten combatant commands, managing about $4.3 billion annually. The system’s program assists soldiers every day around the world, from recruitment to retirement, from home station to foxhole. They lead the Army’s effort to streamline and simplify legacy stove-pipe structures into an automated organization to make information accessible, readable, and transparent for soldiers to get what they need and return to their work

Foreign countries’ customers falling within a different time zone do not gain from GFEBS performance in much the same manner as consumers on the stateside. When a request for extra details is rejected due to timing discrepancies, the customer will take an extra day to submit the correct documentation. Also, the system will prolong the consumer’s transactions. The infrastructure to facilitate GFEBS transactions should be issued to the department of defense offices based in Japan and Germany. Hence, reducing costs, delegating the same resources to local workers as other government employees, and offering better service to their customers

Features and Usage of the System

Being one of the world’s largest ERP systems, the General Funds Enterprise Business System handles most of the Army’s financial and accounting processes, from the general ledger and accounts payable operations to inventory and management of the real property. More critical than ever is a robust and interoperable joint network linked across the operational, strategic, and business levels (Ketrick et al., 2011). In line with the efforts to modernize the Army’s system, the system has helped reduce the physical footprint of our current network, lowering costs, and incorporating innovative technological technologies that improve capabilities and safe global connectivity.

The program aids in the implementation of advanced technologies to enhance skills and stable global connectivity. The Home Station Mission Command Centers provide a set of uniform resources used at headquarters of corps, divisions, and theatre, allowing for special operations task command in all operational stages. A network consisting of adaptive, secure, and values-based capabilities is tailored to the needs of a commander and incorporated into a typical security environment.

Besides, GFEBS aims at improving IT structures for their enterprise. It is the strategic leader of the Army for business information systems aimed at driving the modernization of the Army via innovations. ERPs and business processes improve the efficiency and precision of the Army, enabling better decision-making for members by improved awareness of resources around the military, primarily by four main programs. GFEBS is the administrative, asset, and accounting management solution of the Army, and the basis for the readiness of the Army to audit. It automates, simplifies, and exchanges critical data around the enterprise to help real-time resourcing decisions.

Through the Global Combat Support System, it offers up-to-date procurement, repair, and property book and associated warehouse and installation-level financial monitoring capabilities down to the company level and procurement stage. The Logistics Modernization Program (LMP) is wholly grounded and funds activities funded by Working Capital. Although the program continues to promote vital enhancement programs to boost readiness and the capability of the Army to track and handle content in real-time. The Integrated Personnel and Pay System is the first single, highly integrated HR system that dynamically adjusts, simplifies, and incorporates Total Force-wide Soldier military and pays operations. From hiring to retirement, IPPS-A is fulfilling the One Soldier, One Record Army target.

Impact of the System

The main effect of the system is that it has improved the way of doing business. The system has accelerated access to information and enabled users to accomplish an objective (goal) rapidly. Through creative procurement strategies that crack conventional molds to acquire and implement vital capabilities quickly, GFEBS has ensured the Army’s readiness. Many agreements by the transaction regulator, such as those used by the Defensive Cyber Operations system for prototype projects, minimize the time taken to schedule and grant conventions by utilizing contractual obligations. As the first and most robust system of financial management in the history of the Army, the General Fund Enterprise Business System, or GFEBS, now operates globally. Moreover, GFEBS has helped the Defense Department to control better the executive funds by offering more effective information sharing with contractual systems, better transparency of fund progress, and transparency tools that enable better information review from previous models

The GFEBS documents financial transactions with supporting information to monitor transactions down to the general level and provide a publicly available trial balance. The GFEBS currently has almost 40,000 users throughout all unit elements, and this is the most commonly used Army’s Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP). For instance, an assessment by the Army Audit Agency found that GFEBS is compliant with 1,054 of 1,113 Federal Financial Management Improvement Act criteria (Army Deploys New Financial Management System, 2011). The system has cut operating expenses and transferred those gains to its consumers in the form of lower bills and better service. Such benefits are the result of a rigorous quest by the Agency for constant creativity and better business practices.

Consumers at DFAS keep responding to the massive changes in their business needs. At the same time, the organization is concentrating on business performance so that it can invest in the military’s combat effectiveness in a resource-constrained world (DFAS FY 17-21 Strategic Plan, 2017). Through close collaboration with a strategic workforce, this program would allow a greater understanding of the real nature of the workforce and the different global dynamics and circumstances as well as critical local discrepancies (Graup et al., 2014). Nevertheless, the system’s negative effect would be that the security of the issue of personal data is becoming extreme considering that in the present age much data is still to be stored in computers. From this, it could significantly compromise data protection and become a key factor in the era of information systems advancement.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as shown by the improvements in the accounting standards brought about, the General Fund Enterprise Business systems seem to have served their function. Generally, the advantages of the systems bear a significant impact on accounting knowledge and processes, and also on strategic organizational planning. The explanation for this is not only a business cycle of automated means through the introduction of a full ERP program, but also with the concept of scientific administration. This method should also suggest incorporating internal management of the company over the entire corporate cycle, via a series of pre-designed and enhanced plans, costs, supply, production, and inventories.

References

Army deploys new financial management system. (2011). Web.

Army worldwide. (n.d.). Web.

Atkinson, R.D., Castro, D., & Ezell, S. (2017). Enabling customer-driven innovation in the federal government. Web.

Graup, P., Jakobsen, G., & Vellema, J. (2014). Building a global learning organization. CRC Press.

Ketrick, P. K., Bailey, J. W., Cunningham, M. O., Odell, L. A., Douglas, G. R., Floyd, D. M., & Insolia, A. (2011). Assessment of DoD enterprise resource planning business systems (No. IDA-P-4691). Institute for Defense Analyses Alexandria Va.

Qiao, G., & Conyers, Y. (2014). The Lenovo way: Managing a diverse global company or optimal performance. McGraw-Hill Education.

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