Notes from the Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary, Financial Operations and Technology.

DEAMS: Financial Management at Your Fingertips During the past half century, the military Services and Defense Agencies developed a wide variety of financial management programs, each unique to their specific needs. With the advent of information technology, the array of systems exploded, and today, there are literally thousands of different programs and processes. Most systems are a combination of old and new, ranging from paper and pencil legacy processes to near state-of-the-art, computer-based management systems. Few can interact with others, none meet Congressionally-mandated requirements, and all flail to provide the level of reliability, accuracy and timeliness needed for today's rapid-fire environment.

It is easy to describe the kind of FM environment we need today. In the ideal world, we would all speak one financial language and work with one set of business rules and processes. We would enter data once and use it across the enterprise. We would provide our customers with one consolidated and accurate bill. We would be able to accurately measure the performance of our management practices and processes. And we would comply with the Defense Department's Business Enterprise Architecture and Congressionally-mandated standards.

This may sound utopian, but the day when all of that will be possible is just over the horizon--DEAMS is coming!

The Defense Enterprise Finance and Accounting System (DEAMS) was established in August 2003 as a joint initiative of the US Air Force, U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS). The official DEAMS mission is to support the warfighter with timely, accurate financial information enabling efficient and effective decision making by DoD managers, but that is only the macro view. This system is going to have a positive impact on every level of financial management.

The program passed its first critical milestone in July 2005 when Oracle Federal Financials was selected as the commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software at the heart of the system. The second milestone came in February of this year when Accenture was chosen as the System Integrator (SI). Under the SI's guidance, ten highly specialized and dedicated Integrated Product Teams are now hammering out the details leading to deployment of this ground-breaking new way to manage Defense resources.

Beginning early next year, DEAMS will be implemented in several increments. The first, Version 1.1, is a technology demonstration at HQ USTRANSCOM, HQ Air Mobility Command (AMC), and tenant units at Scott AFB, Ill., including HQ Air Force Communications Agency and the Defense Information Systems Agency. In Version 1.2, DEAMS will be applied to USTRANSCOM's components, the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC), Military Sealift Command (MSC), and all remaining AMC bases. Version 2.1 will include the rest of the Air Force's 84 major installations.

DEAMS will replace outdated, unreliable legacy processes and systems with proven COTS software, which provides end-to-end tracking of financial transactions and produces fully auditable financial reports. DEAMS will help to ensure our nation's strength by giving leaders at all levels the critical information they need to make decisions that are right for America.

We expect DEAMS to transform what we do into a showcase of business excellence--trusted partners in the business of defense.

--Mr. Richard P. Gustafson