DOD Expands Data Repository for Business Information Across the Enterprise

The Defense Department is expanding its repository for common enterprise data, which helps make certain business information accessible and standardized, to include more information systems across the department, according to an updated system of records notice that will be published Wednesday in the Federal Register. 

In the notice, DOD modifies the system of records known as the Defense Repository for Common Enterprise Data, or DRCED, to serve as the system of records departmentwide. DRCED will now be managed by data officials from the Army, the Navy and the Air Force in addition to the DOD chief data officer and an official from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense Comptroller. Previously, the OUSD(C) was the sole system manager. 

The change to DRCED enables it to “support new information systems being established within the DoD using the same categories of data for the same purposes,” according to the notice. 

“The expanded system of records will support multiple information systems that provide DoD-wide and component-level enterprise solutions for integrating and analyzing targeted data from existing DoD systems to develop timely, actionable, and insightful conclusions in support of national strategies,” the notice reads. 

Congress mandated DOD’s chief management officer and OUSD(C) establish the repository in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. The updated system of records notice notes DRCED includes personal and personal financial information like DOD ID numbers and pay data, employment information such as work schedules, and medical readiness and deployment information. 

The notice also updates the purpose of the system. The previous notice in the Federal Register describes the repository as an integrated data processing system producing reports for audits and other business functions and indicates DRCED will “maintain information retrieved from several systems of record within the Department.” The new notice outlines four purposes: 

• “To improve data quality, data automation, and data linking of common enterprise data across the DoD for financial, business, and mission readiness reporting.
• To implement shared internal compliance controls for data governance including enhanced auditing capabilities across the enterprise.
• To provide a platform for shared service and business system optimization analytics across the enterprise, to include predictive models used to measure the effectiveness of combat units and operational readiness.
• To make data more easily accessible, standardized, efficiently processed, and useful across the DoD.”

The modified system of records will be accompanied in the Federal Register Tuesday by a proposed rulemaking that would exempt portions of the DRCED from certain parts of the Privacy Act of 1974 for national security reasons.