FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — Fort Leonard Wood is set to make the switch to the Integrated Personnel and Pay System - Army, or IPPS-A, designed to better integrate personnel and pay capabilities and provide a more comprehensive human resources record for all Soldiers in all components of the Army.
Before that can happen, a lot of data must be transferred to the new system, said Felesia Herron-Bryant, Fort Leonard Wood’s IPPS-A coordinator.
Herron-Bryant said Aug. 12 is the final date for Soldiers to perform transactions in the legacy HR systems before they are taken offline. The cutover, as it’s called — when the data is transferred to IPPS-A — begins Aug. 13 with a brownout, or shut off, of the legacy systems. Between then and Sept. 20 — when IPPS-A is set to go live — unit administration specialists will need to maintain manual accountability of HR actions for their units.
Essential systems, such as Interactive Personnel Electronic Records Management System, or iPERMS, and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, or DFAS, will remain available throughout the brownout and cutover, Herron-Bryant added.
Training is available online to help Fort Leonard Wood’s Soldiers navigate the new system. Herron-Bryant said any civilian or military member who will be reviewing or approving actions in IPPS-A must complete the R3 Leaders course. All other Soldiers are encouraged to complete the self-service course. Information on both courses is available on the Army’s IPPS-A website.
Herron-Bryant said IPPS-A will modernize the Army’s HR capabilities and improve Soldiers’ lives through transparency and mobile capabilities, delivering near real-time access to an online record for a Soldier’s entire career, with tracking abilities from start to finish.
“In the legacy environment, the Soldier would have to do an HR action on a piece of paper,” she said. “The Soldier would turn that in and then wouldn’t have any idea on what the status of that action was, where it was at or when it would be approved. Now, the Soldier can turn in a personnel action request from a personal mobile phone and then they will have complete transparency of understanding where that action is.”
Lauren Hill works in Fort Leonard Wood’s ID card office and is one of 30 HR civilians and Soldiers here who has been receiving training on the new system for more than a year. She said the self-service options for Soldiers add convenience to the process of updating their records while also modernizing the way Soldiers can access their information.
“It’s right on time as far as this generation and how they use technology for everything,” she said. “Everybody wants everything at their fingertips right now.”
More information on IPPS-A is available online or by calling one of Fort Leonard Wood’s IPPS-A specialists at 573.596.2398/2406/2407.
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