Since inception, the Army Vantage platform has equipped the financial management (FM) community with the analytics tools to facilitate enhanced data-driven decision-making.
Army Vantage has been a breakthrough capability for the analytic community. The ability to access and integrate Army data, build analytic models, and visualize results all within a single platform has been a transformational tool in how we conduct and present analytics. I think we are just scratching the surface of the potential for Army Vantage to support data-driven decision-making. -Chip Haynes, AMCAG
The finance community met the challenges and demands of 2021 by designing, building, and deploying tools on Army Vantage to tackle pressing financial challenges, from contract reconciliation to demand planning.
With 3,000+ finance community members on Vantage producing over 6,000+ analytics products, FM professionals drove optimized financial stewardship to meet the mission and assure readiness in 2021.
To solve the problem of complex and timely contract reconciliation, financial and resource management professionals came together to design, build, and deploy the Contract Funding Management (CFM) tool, a one-stop-shop to view how a contract reports across seven essential systems of record: General Funds Enterprise Business System (GFEBS), Logistics Modernization Program (LMP), Electronic Data Access (EDA), Virtual Contracting Enterprise (VCE), Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS), Mechanization of Contract Administration Services (MOCAS), Wide-Area Workflow (WAWF).
Army Vantage’s premier data integration capability made it efficient to build a tool that enables professionals to confirm all systems are reporting accurately for the same contract, and if not, interact with the data and each other as a community to proactively address discrepancies.
Today, the CFM tool reports over 6,000+ reconciliation actions facilitated to ensure books balance to the penny across critical systems of record. Resource managers estimate that the tool's data integration features save 4-5 hours per user per day (estimated at $234[1] in labor cost hours). Today, the tool has over 650+ users, from accountants to budget analysts to contracting officers. The CFM tool saves time previously spent querying each system and investigating each contract individually.
“The CFM dashboard provides acquisition professionals with a means to “see-ourselves”. The dashboard eliminated the entire manual and tedious crosschecks between systems so that de-obligation of overestimated funds can take place during the year of execution.” – Nancy Lyons, Acting Executive Director, Services Acquisition
“The Contract Funding Management tool unifies Contracting, Resource managers and DFAS in one compete, auditable arrangement. The data display merges critical results and histories that were previously unattainable due to access limitations. It will be the learning tool for all that seek ULO validation, made in a language and view that beginners will understand.” – Heather Bird, Armaments Center DEVCOM
A similar effort was born out of the Command Accountability and Execution Review (CAER) program, where timely action on requisitions is essential to deobligate and allocate funds to other mission critical priorities if needed. FM professionals designed, built, and deployed the CAER KPI-1 tool to provide users with a dynamic view of aged requisitions to deobligate excess funds prior to their cancellation date.
Today, over 280+ FM professionals rely on the CAER KPI-1 tool to focus their workload and make strategic decisions on deobligations.
Through the CFM and CAER KPI-1 tools, Army Vantage demonstrated the impact of centralizing workflows that are cross-functional and affect a range of stakeholders while protecting permissions and data privacy at each echelon.
Army Vantage also facilitated essential centralization and transparency for a critical readiness resource, the Army Working Capital Fund (AWCF). Army Vantage became home to the AWCF portfolio which provides insights into critical AWCF operations across cash, inventory, and orders to ensure the $12 billion dollar resource is optimally utilized.
Today, finance professionals engage with four different dashboards on the AWCF portfolio in Vantage to review the AWCF daily cash balance, track performance to plan, and monitor demand and inventory. This unprecedented visibility informs purchase decisions and provides critical detail into what readiness needs look like today.
The finance community on Vantage continues to transform their workflows to be data-driven, and immediately operational. In addition to those listed above, the community deployed other tools and dashboards, leveraging key Vantage capabilities -- from data visualization to Natural Language Processing (NLP).
These tools and more have been posted to the Vantage Finance 360, the finance community one-stop-shop on Vantage for professionals to explore, comment on, and share the products they are building to support the mission and assure readiness for the Army.
As the community kicks off meeting the demands of 2022, this past year has underscored that data-informed workflows are the key to addressing challenges with confidence.
Explore these tools and more with your Army Vantage Account!
[1] Labor cost savings for the CFM tool was determined in partnership with tenured accountants. The tool is estimated to save 4.5 hours per day, or the time it takes to query 4-7 separate systems without the CFM tool for 15 contracts, the average research workload. For a finance professional earning an average of $100K annually, saving 4.5 per day generates an approximate labor cost savings of $234 per day.
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