ARLINGTON, Va. – The United States Army Reserve (USAR) has begun its preparation for their migration from the Regional Level Application Software (RLAS) to the Integrated Personnel and Pay System – Army (IPPS-A).
Since November 2019, Capt. Nanda Ravala, IPPS-A Sustainment Officer has worked with the IPPS-A Requirements and Data Branch, and USAR G1 and G3 teams to build the structures in Army Organization Server (AOS) for the Reserve.
“Right now, I’m going back and validating that all billets we need in AOS have been created,” said Ravala. “I’m checking to make sure each face of the Army Reserve has a space in AOS.”
The initial analysis of the Reserve’s AOS was recently conducted. The overview discovered that 70 percent of Reserve Soldiers have a billet created. Approximately 32,006 Soldiers have no available billet, and require creation of a temporary billet (templet). The USAR also requires the creation of an additional 937 Unit Identification Codes (UIC) in order to be ready for IPPS-A.
“As part of the USAR AOS working group, we had an agreement between USARC and Human Resource Command G3 Functional Management community,” said Ravala. “The plan will be to build 30% Standard Excess templets per each Unit in AOS. In order to expedite the process, we are leveraging automation to create the necessary templets.”
As for USAR G3, Ravala said he’s been working with them to confirm the number of templets required at the two-star level, and ensure those templets are available prior to IPPS-A Release 3 in December 2021.
Ravala began his education in AOS and the Faces 2 Spaces concept shortly after joining IPPS-A. Maj. Kyle Luoma, a member of the IPPS-A Requirements and Data Branch has led Ravala’s tutoring.
“I gave him a crash course on the basics, GFM DI, AOS tools, AOS data, and some force management concepts like UIC registration, authorizations, command codes, etc.” said Luoma. “As far as Faces 2 Spaces, I focused on developing an understanding of the metrics / output of the faces to spaces program that I wrote. Now, I am working to get him access to the development environment so he can collaborate on the code and assist with customizing it for the USAR specific functions.”
As he progresses towards Release 3, Ravala wants to learn as much as possible about AOS, and the Release 2 effort so the Reserve can have as smooth a transition to IPPS-A as possible.
“Templet management and training were some of the issues the National Guard experienced during Release 2,” said Ravala. “We want to use those lessons learned to make sure every Army Reserve face has a space prior to Release 3.” (Story by Justin Creech, IPPS-A STRATCOM)
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