Navy puts personnel system on Web

Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System

The Navy yesterday deployed for the first time the Navy Standard Integrated Personnel System (NSIPS) as a Web-based application, transitioning applications from a legacy client-server architecture to a PeopleSoft Inc. system.

Based on PeopleSoft's Human Capital Management (HCM) solution, the new system will allow more than 453,000 active-duty and Reserve Navy personnel to update and maintain information online through a standard Web browser.

"Now, rather than filing manual paperwork at their Personnel Support Detachment offices, our service members can update their addresses, phone numbers and emergency contact information from their home, ship or base via a standard Web browser," said Navy Cmdr. Susan Eaton, NSIPS and software engineering manager. "It represents a tremendous technological leap in our manpower and personnel systems."

Development of NSIPS began in 1995 to replace four systems. However, it is an interim human resources system that takes the place of the Navy's legacy human resources applications only until the Defense Department completes a single HR system for all services and military agencies. The Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System (DIMHRS) will use PeopleSoft applications to consolidate more than 80 legacy systems and provide service to the 3.1 million active and reserve members of the military.

In July, the Navy began incorporating the PeopleSoft HCM's ePerformance application into NSPIS. Officials can use the software for an automated process they Navy say will speed up the promotion cycle and improve data accuracy by replacing manual reviews of officer and employee applications. Until now, the Navy's performance review system has largely been paper-based.

NSIPS has had its share of critics throughout its development, as many have said cost overruns have negated any benefit the Navy could receive in developing an interim system.

A DOD inspector general's report released in March said the Navy would spend a total of more than $465 million on NSIPS and then still have to pay to transition to DIMHRS. DIMHRS is supposed to come online by the end of fiscal 2005, but that deadline remains tentative, as the systems integration contract for the system has not yet been awarded.

Navy Capt. Peggy Feldmann, the former NSIPS program manager, wrote in a fall 2002 article for the Navy that the service actually has a head start on DIMHRS by implementing NSIPS first.