FM transformation underway at Hill

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HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  The Air Force Financial Management transformation currently underway is the greatest single change in the organization's 60-year history.

"We - and all of Air Force Financial Management - are transforming the way we conduct business to better provide expert decision support and analysis to commanders while continuing to provide high quality financial services to all Airmen," said LtCol Brian O'Connell, Commander, 75 CPTS Comptroller Squadron.

According to Mr. John G. Vonglis, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller, the result of this effort will save the Air Force more than $200 million over the next 10 years, money that will be available for other programs supporting the war-fighter."

One of the cornerstones of the financial transformation effort was the opening of the Air Force Financial Services Center this fall at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota. The AFFSC will centralize and streamline most financial processes now being handled by individual bases.

The AFFSC will centralize and transform the majority of financial services that are currently provided by 93 separate Financial Service Offices at base level, not excluding GSUs and RPOs.

"The AFFSC will be established through two phases ultimately resulting in Airmen having the total force expertise of FM matters available at one location," said Roger Bick, Director, Air Force Financial Management Strategic Planning and Transformation Program Management Office, Pentagon.

Phase I was the opening of the Central Processing Center (CPC) in October 2007. The CPC will focus on consolidating base-level back-shop operations.

"Such operations include, but are not limited to, processing travel and military pay documents," said Mr. Bick. "These transactions are termed "backshop" as they are not generally seen by the customer."

Phase II operations will being in October 2008 when a "24/7" full-service contact center is established. Knowledgeable staff in the contact center will provide top-quality pay and travel service to customers via telephone, Web, and fax.

"From this point onwards, Airmen will only need one telephone number to find solutions to their financial issues," said LtCol Brian O'Connell. "Having a single contact center will eliminate the inconveniences that customers experience in having to fix financial issues during regular duty day.

To prepare each base to transition to the new Financial Service Center, the SAF/FMT Financial Service Transformation Team has launched a "Cut-over" initiative. Cut-over includes both the preparation for migration of the workload and the actual migration of the workload to the Financial Service Center.

This team of experts on Cut-over will be here on 5 December 2007 at 1300 in the base theater to brief on the process and answer any question you may have.