ARLINGTON, Virginia – The Integrated Personnel and Pay System – Army (IPPS-A) recently received two new additions to the project from the Training with Industry (TWI) program.
Maj. Ryan Hughes and Capt. Max Brugler started positions with the IPPS-A Release 3 build and Training teams in late July after completing their internships with TWI. Hughes is responsible for management, production and execution of transition training to include live training, S1 overview courses and other trainings designed to bridge the gap from the Army’s legacy systems to IPPS-A.
Brugler, as the new Release 3 test officer will test the system to ensure the capabilities installed during build function fully.
“To be on the IPPS-A project is an unique opportunity,” said Brugler. “It’s an opportunity to be on the team who’s creating the future technology for the Army and making HR functions easier for both S1’s and end users.”
The TWI program places Soldiers in one-year internships with civilian companies, which exposes Soldiers to the latest commercial business practices, organizational structures and cultures, technology development processes, and the latest corporate management techniques.
Brugler’s internship was with Navigant while Hughes’s was with American Airlines. Brugler gained experience with PeopleSoft, the software program utilized by IPPS-A.
Hughes gained valuable experience in Palantir Foundry, PeopleSoft, and DEV Spotfire software. Palantir Foundry is a platform that re-imagines how people use data by removing the barriers between back-end data management and front-end data analysis. With Foundry, anyone can source, connect, and transform data into any shape they desire, then use it to take action. Hughes also trained on TIBCO Spotfire which is a smart, secure, flexible, and scalable tool that provides data visualization and predictive analytics capabilities. With those two tools, he was able to develop a better understanding of how to visualize data and draw appropriate conclusions from data.
“Passing these skills along to fellow Soldiers is important because they will allow HR Professionals to be effective advisors,” said Hughes. “HR Pros need to be able to turn data into key performance indicators, trends and proactive insights for their Commanders to enable decision making. These skills will improve their data organization skills.”
Brugler completed transactions/record updates such as salary changes, Hire/fire, promotions, office location changes and job level/title changes using PeopleSoft. Brugler believes this experience gives him skills that will allow him to understand his new position faster.
“The daily responsibilities of my internship mirror the functionality being utilized in IPPS-A,” said Brugler. “That experience gave me a broad understanding of the system itself, which will help flatten the learning curve as I transition as a R3 Test officer.”
Learning the HR processes of the U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard is exciting for Hughes, as is the opportunity to provide help to so many Soldiers.
“I look forward to having the opportunity to impact the working conditions of the 1.1 million Soldiers across the Army--regardless of them being in the National Guard, Reserves, or Active Duty.” said Hughes. “I’m excited to be able to serve in this position where I can make a difference in so many Soldier’s lives.”
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