FORT BELVOIR, Va. –
A new capability in ServiceNow will help streamline agreement processes and reporting requirements for interagency financial transactions at the Defense Logistics Agency.
The tool will be a one-stop shop for agreements for the Treasury Department’s G-Invoicing system and other documents such as memorandums of understanding, memorandums of agreement, and state and local government agreements, said Max Walens, head of DLA’s G-Invoicing Center of Excellence.
The platform was developed by DLA Information Operations and successfully tested in January. It’s expected to be rolled out in phases to DLA’s major subordinate commands later this year.
“We’ll have a single system capturing the evidentiary matter all in one place for DLA, serving as a single system repository for storage and records management keeping, and have the ability to coordinate agreements in the system instead of working them through email or DLA’s Task Management Tracker,” Walens said.
He added that ServiceNow can communicate with the Treasury Department’s platform for G-Invoicing agreements.
Having all agreements in one location will make data and metrics available in real time across the agency, said Jodi Beard, DLA Transformation’s program manager for support agreements. The system will help the agency comply with audit requirements and stop the practice of storing agreements on local share drives or other locations. It will also help with succession management of agreements that span up to 10 years, she said.
The initial rollout of the system will be as a management tool for developing agreements on the G-Invoicing side. The second phase will further develop the agreement side for DLA Transformation and eventually eliminate a monthly agreement-reporting requirement for all agency organizations. DLA has over 2,500 agreements with roughly one-third of those being non-reimbursable agreements, Beard said.
Developers are working on a data import function for existing agreements and the ability to pull information from the system to generate reports.
DLA Aviation will be the first to migrate information into ServiceNow and other organizations will follow as the process is developed and DLA Transformation works with system developers to resolve data discrepancies or issues.
“We’re learning as we go,” Beard said, adding that new users will soon receive training.
Proposed benefits of G-Invoicing include better communication between trading partners, increased transparency, common data standards, agreed-upon processes, and the ability to send and receive funds quickly and efficiently.