OPM hires integrator for governmentwide HR system

The Office of Personnel Management recently kicked off its final push to start collecting human resources and payroll data from every agency. Under the Enterprise Human Resources Integration e-government project, the agency hired the Center for Organizational Excellence of Rockville, Md., to develop a repository to collect this information and provide knowledge management tools to agencies, an OPM official said. EHRI is one of five Quicksilver initiatives OPM manages. The 18-month contract is worth about $15 million. The Center for Organizational Excellence’s subcontractors includes AT&T Corp., Excella Consulting of McLean, Va., Integic Corp. of Chantilly, Va., and Lockheed Martin Corp. OPM awarded the contract through the agency’s Training and Management Assistance contract, and the center began work July 1. Two other teams of five also submitted bids, OPM said.The Center’s first deliverable is a prototype of the repository and collection system, due Sept. 30, said Steve Goodrich, president of the center.By next spring, the contractor team must have the EHRI portal and the collection application finished, and have started loading agency data into the system, Goodrich said. When the system is completed, by September 2004, it will house 1.8 million federal employee records. The system will be connected to OPM’s retirement system and to four payroll systems.Goodrich said the subcontractors’ experience in building similar personnel data systems was a key to winning the contract. AT&T built and maintains the Army’s Work Force Analysis Support System and Civilian Forecasting System. OPM is modifying both tools to be used through EHRI.Goodrich said the system will primarily use commercial software, but the project team has yet to make a final decision on the applications.“We will be reaching out to agencies in the next two months to determine their requirements,” Goodrich said.