Army set to launch eMILPO

eMILPO site

After a seven-month delay due to data migration problems and the war in Iraq, an Army effort to consolidate 43 personnel databases into one Web-based electronic military personnel office will be launched Aug. 1.

The $9.5 million eMILPO system is designed to provide near-real-time visibility on staff information throughout the Army via a Web-based application.

It was originally scheduled to go online in January, but was delayed after an Army fielding team discovered errors from data transactions and other problems associated with migrating 43 super-server databases to the eMILPO test database, Col. Gina Farrisee, the Army's adjutant general, said earlier this year.

Army Personnel Command officials decided at that time to delay the launch until March, and the system was ready to go, but was delayed again due to Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to a command spokesman.

The eMILPO system is an interim step toward the Defense Department's $500 million multiservice, integrated personnel and pay management system, known as the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System. The Army is scheduled to be the first service to implement the system, during the fourth quarter of 2004.

Navy Capt. Valerie Carpenter, the system's joint program manager, told Federal Computer Week earlier this year that her office was planning to exercise a contract option in June for one of the five contractors currently competing for the program award, but that award still has not been made.

The vendors are Computer Sciences Corp., IBM Corp., Northrop Grumman Information Technology, Lockheed Martin Systems Integration and PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting.

EDS is the prime contractor for eMILPO.

Carpenter said the "delay of eMILPO does not negatively affect the development or deployment" of the system.