**What is it?
The Army's Strategic Management System (SMS), the Army Enterprise performance measurement platform, now has the capability to accept timely cost data from the General Fund Enterprise Business System (GFEBS), the Army's financial management system. The automated link between GFEBS and SMS is made possible by use of SMS Connect, a web services capability. Integrating cost and performance measurement data can provide useful performance management information, especially during a period where fiscal realities have made efficiency and effectiveness extremely critical. This combination of financial and performance data has been established to assist leaders and managers in allocating available dollars against mission requirements.
**What has the Army done?
Fort Hood's Directorate of Logistics personnel paved the way to using SMS Connect, the web-services companion to SMS, as the means to import GFEBS data. Building upon this initiative, the SMS Program Office modified SMS Connect so that any user with access to the GFEBS Business Intelligence-generated Status of Funds (SOF) report can quickly build financial metrics in SMS with minimal effort, and populate those metrics in SMS with financial data from GFEBS. With just a few clicks of a computer mouse, financial data can be easily imported into SMS as frequently as necessary.
**What continued efforts does the Army have planned for the future?
Army users of SMS are expanding use of this new capability to integrate financial data into performance measurement. Cost of services, such as meal service, equipment issue, and child care can be compared across installations. Users can assess the cost of doing business and employ program management techniques, such as Lean Six Sigma, to optimize performance and increase efficiency.
**Why is this important to the Army?
The fiscal handwriting is clear -- the Army is undergoing significant cuts to its budget. Rather than using the "Salami Slice" method of budget reduction (cut everyone by the same percentage, regardless of consequences), many organizations are now using the performance management capabilities of SMS, coupled with the financial data available in GFEBS, to ensure that informed resource allocation leads to efficient and effective outputs, and that the organization's acceptance of risk mitigation ensures the most important things are accomplished first.
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Resources: To learn more about how your organization can begin this transformation using SMS please email: usarmy.pentagon.hqda-osa-obt.mbx.sms@mail.mil or visit: https://www.milsuite.mil/book/docs/DOC-104873.
Related Links:
STAND-TO! Edition: U.S. Army Enterprise Strategic Management System
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