MTMC moves to state-of-the-art financial software.

The way the Military Traffic Management Command organizes its finances will undergo a big change in the near future.

MTMC will adopt a commercial financial system in June 2002 that will handle virtually all the command's accounting and financial management requirements and responsibilities.

The move represents an end to paper document financial record keeping in MTMC, said Steve Jebo, Project Manager.

The new software originates from Oracle Federal Financials, of Redwood, Calif.

"We're going from a semi-automated, military-unique process of the 1970s', to a commercial, off-the-shelf software package," said Jebo.

Implementation is already being assisted by KPMG Consulting, of McLean, Va.

"Normally, it's a two-to-three-year process to develop and implement this system," said Jebo.

"We're going to do it in 14 months."

Jebo added that a key to the timely implementation of the system will be KPMG's customized development approach.

"They have key training and development tools that we're already using to accelerate our transition to the Oracle systems," said Jebo.

The Military Traffic Management Command has used a series of automated files for more than three decades to generate financial management reports and create accounting entries.

"This system has not been able to meet Department of Defense-imposed accounting standards of recent years, when the Pentagon has faced increasing public and Congressional scrutiny of its financial controls and fiscal record keeping," said Jebo.

"For the first time, we will have asset and monetary visibility that equals or betters any major corporation."

MTMC's U.S. Navy partner, the Military Sealift Command, at the Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., implemented a similar system in July 2000.

The capability of the Oracle systems is "phenomenal," said Jebo.

"We'll be able to track all receivables, payables, workload, and overhead in a relatively instantaneous fashion," said Jebo.

This is good news for MTMC customers.

A big criticism of bills issued by MTMC is their incomplete or erroneous information.

"We will have total visibility for books through receipt of payment," said Jebo. "It will provide a complete range of information for any MTMC bill."

Instruction on the new system began June 11 at KPMG Consulting's world headquarters building in McLean, Va.

MTMC finance employees, representing units from around the world, began practicing with the system in such learning modules as line of accounting, budget execution, program and managerial reporting, and financial reporting.

All the students had a favorable response.

"If it works the way they say it will, it'll be great," said financial specialist Mike Schafer, of MTMC Headquarters.

"The end result will be tremendous."

Financial supervisor Mary Prunty agreed.

"All of us here know we're going to be using the product; we want it to meet our needs.

"I'm very impressed with what I've seen so far--actually, I'm very excited."

Mark Oerlemans, program and accounting analyst of the 598th Transportation Group, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, also expressed his support.

"There will be a lot of unknown issues," said Oerlemans. "but it will be a great improvement."

The instruction was observed by KPMG senior managers Ginger Bonin and Don DeCelles.

"It's going to be a good solution," said Bonin. "It's very flexible and can accommodate many of MTMC's requirements--and it will do all this without modifying the programming logic, which is a risky and time-consuming proposition.

"We have had tremendous feedback from MTMC as part of our information-gathering steps. We often do not get such high-quality feedback, so this will significantly improve the likelihood for success."

"I can say the biggest challenge MTMC has is moving from a 30-year-old legacy application and adapting a new commercial, off-the-shelf software solution," DeCelles said.

He added, "MTMC will greatly benefit from the last three decades of automation."

"The natural tendency is for an organization to simply apply new technology to old business practices. That flawed approach negates the opportunity to take advantage of business practices honed over the years by private-sector corporations and built in to the leading solutions, such as Oracle Financials."

DeCelles' advice?

"Avoid paving the cow path," said DeCelles. "Do not automate the same old business procedures.

"If you take advantage of the `best practices' that are now inherent in Oracle Financials by changing your business processes to work within the commercial off-the-shelf solution," said DeCelles, "you avoid the pitfalls of concentrating your scarce human and financial resources on making software changes."

The improved financial record keeping may help customers in another way: Reduced rates.

"We can identify which processes are most cost effective," said Johnnie Fisher, Deputy Chief of Staff for Resource Management.

"We can identify costs and reduce them.

"This tells me we can reduce freight rates we charge our customers."

In fact, said Fisher, freight rate development in the past was built on a baseline of historical data.

"Now, we are real time," said Fisher.

"With Oracle, our systems will be rational and justified."