Navy center deploys SAP software

A Navy organization this month became one of the first federal organizations to deploy an SAP America Inc. financial management system.

The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SSC) in San Diego "went live" with SAP the first week of July to track its basic business operations, including its working capital fund and human resources records, said Randy Volker, the enterprise resource planning program manager for SSC San Diego.

The center deployed the software just 13 months after receiving approval to go forward. The center has completed 30 months of preparation, during which time it selected SAP's application software—even before choosing Price.waterhouseCoopers as its systems integrator last year, Volker said. Much of the center's and the integrator's work has involved process design and change management, he said.

Fifty-five employees are providing 40,000 hours of SAP classroom and computer-based training to the rest of SSC San Diego's 3,500 users, said Tom LaPuzza, a center spokesman.

The organization is spending $32 million on its SAP system and is in the midst of retiring 35 legacy systems, Volker said.

By early next year, SSC San Diego should be certified as complying with the Chief Financial Officers Act because it will have auditable accounting books thanks to the SAP system, Volker said.

Although initially slower than competitor Oracle Corp. in building Web-based interfaces, SAP has hit its stride in the Defense Department. MySAP.com, the company's Web-based interface, has registered more than 80,000 DOD users since mid-June, said Tom Shirk, president of SAP Public Services Inc.