Austin, Texas – Transitions are not always easy, especially with technology. Not everyone is accepting of the word “change.” Well, the Texas Army National Guard is having no problems with accepting the “change” created by the Integrated Personnel and Pay System – Army (IPPS-A), the Army’s 21st Century Human Resources system, which just went live across the entire National Guard March 23rd.
Last week, the TXARNG J1 Mobilization team completed over 500 Soldier Readiness Process’s (SRP) much faster than with Army legacy systems.
“We completed SRPs on 585 Soldiers over 4-days,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Frank Hinnant, J1 Mobilization Team officer in charge. “Over those four days, we only needed 12 hours to complete the task. IPPS-A cut our production time by at least 50 percent.”
The TXARNG went live in IPPS-A on February 25, 2020. Hinnant and his team, who consist of seven additional Soldiers say the increased functionality in IPPS-A is the key contributor to the improved efficiency. Specifically, the ability to create tiles in the system for specific SRP tasks.
Hinnant said IPPS-A can process SRPs for up to 200 Soldiers a day. The most processed by Hinnant and his team is 188. With the Standard Installation and Division Personnel Reporting System (SIDPERS), 188 Soldiers would’ve taken six to seven hours, according to Hinnant. With IPPS-A, he said it only took four.
“During the migration period, we set up tiles specifically for SRPs,” said Hinnant. “When you click on the drop down arrow, all the tiles they need to check the Soldiers SRP are there.”
Processing one Soldier using SIDPERS could take as long as 15 minutes due to having to navigate multiple pages to complete the various tasks associated with an SRP, according to Sgt. Christina Pena, J1 Operation Guardian Support (OGS) Cell NCO.
“With tiles, you can see everything in the Soldiers file at once,” said Pena. “You don’t have to close a page and then open another one. The functionality of IPPS-A really helps expedite certain processes.”
During the brownout period of the migration from SIDPERS to IPPS-A, Hinnant said Texas had Soldiers coming back from overseas deployments who needed to be processed off of active duty status so they could transition to their proper medical benefits. This was the first time he and his team saw the improved efficiency of IPPS-A.
SGT Devonta Lovings is a Support Cell NCO for the OGS mission. He said he spends an hour a day monitoring who is coming on and off active orders, and making adjustments to their orders where they’re needed.
“Sometimes, we have two or three people come off the mission, but then on the same day another 10 who’s orders change saying they’re coming off orders on a different day than originally decided,” said Lovings. “I’m able to complete all of that in an hour with IPPS-A, whereas with SIDPERS it would take longer than an hour.”
Hinnant and his team have seen how much of an upgrade IPPS-A is from SIDPERS and how this improvement impacts the efficiency of HR processes. The improved efficiency and functionality excites Hinnant and his Soldiers.
“I’m one of the leads on OGS, so I’m always bringing Soldiers on and off the mission daily,” said Pena. “This forces me to use different features in IPPS-A regularly. These features make my job 100 percent easier.”
| Date Taken: | 04.10.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 04.17.2020 13:51 |
| Story ID: | 367140 |
| Location: | ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 267 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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