PMKeys gets more traction

A NEW project will see Army optimise its use of PMKeyS in its current form while preparing for a planned upgrade to PMKeyS software forecast for mid-2008.

Project Traction, part of the Army PMKeyS Campaign Plan endorsed by DCA Maj-Gen Ian Gordon, will be responsible for coordinating Army-wide improvements to the uptake of PMKeyS.

Lt-Col Greg Tolcher, SO1 Personnel Information Management Section – Army (PIMS-A), said Army had been struggling to combine normal operations with an additional bottleneck of work associated with getting settled on a major new IT system.

“Our progress Army-wide has been encouraging but there’s still a lot of transitional work to be done. We expect our use of PMKeyS to move forward in leaps and bounds over the next three years.

“Regular and reserve soldiers will work side by side to improve HR data quality, remediate data anomalies, inform software design and testing, help to write user friendly business processes and training material and develop knowledgeable instructors who are sympathetic to the IT learning needs of their Army peers,” he said.

The PMKeyS software upgrade will include the commissioning of PMKeyS ADF Payroll, which will replace both legacy payroll systems, ADFPAY (ARA Salaries) and CENRESPAYII (GRes Salaries).

“How well the changeover to PMKeyS ADF Payroll works will depend on three critical factors,” Lt-Col Tolcher said.

“The first is to ensure that the design of the system is good and meets the Army’s ‘business’ or operational needs.

“The second critical factor is the quality of the Army’s personnel data for which we are responsible and accountable.

“The third critical factor is user knowledge of the system, achieved through well-designed and delivered training.

“Army has insisted that the PMKeyS upgrade provides appropriate introduction into service training for all users from the new recruit about to start Initial Employment Training (IET) up to the Commander who needs personnel management information to confidently inform command decisions.”

In one sense, Project Traction is less about PMKeyS itself and more about the Army’s decision to embrace the system fully such that the take-up results in fundamental improvements to the quality of personnel administration.

“This is about choice, learning, skills, personal mastery and commitment: attributes essential for success in any change management process.

“The Army has been using PMKeyS for around three and a half years, so we are mid-way through this journey and tracking reasonably well. The crawl is over and we are now walking,” he said.

“Project Traction, an Army investment in itself, will take us to the run, with clear benefits for the delivery of military capability and personnel administration.”