Modernizing of DND payroll postponed as collateral damage in Phoenix debacle
Here’s another likely casualty of the botched rollout of the Phoenix Pay system to tens of thousands of federal government employees: The Department of National Defence earlier this month cancelled plans to solicit bids for a key section of its own project to modernize the military pay system.
The multi-phase project, dubbed Guardian, has been under development for at least five years.
As with Phoenix, the main idea with Guardian is to replace outdated pay technology with systems that are flexible and automated. Parts of the pay systems at both Phoenix and Guardian are to standardize human resources software built by PeopleSoft.
In order to take full advantage of the common software, however, the two systems must be linked. The Phoenix project had planned to give DND access to its system last October. But this will have to wait.
The DND procurement halted on March 7 had been aimed at pre-qualifying firms (systems integrators) expert in the black art of tying together technology systems and software programs. The winning systems integrator was to have taken on a number of important roles, including upgrading the PeopleSoft software and integrating the job of payroll administration across civilian and military systems.
It’s not clear what will happen now. Military personnel are still receiving pay through their decades-old systems so there is no pressing emergency.
“We have decided to focus on the part that aims at modernizing nonpay systems, notably the Human Resource Management System,” said DND spokesman Daniel LeBouthillier, in apparent reference to software that allows military managers to figure out who should be trained, promoted or moved.
“The military pay transformation option has simply been deferred to a later date,” said LeBouthillier, “allowing us the time necessary to ensure our processes and policies match our technology requirements.”
The rationale for continuing with Guardian over the long term remains strong. Guardian is a central part of DND’s overall effort to improve the operational readiness of the Forces, in part by giving military
The technical difficulties associated with trying to link up with the Phoenix Pay system may simply have been insurmountable.
commanders better information about who is available for what jobs. This appears to be the part of the Guardian project that will keep rolling. As with Phoenix Pay, the proposed military pay system has also been billed as a way to save money through automating pay processing and to provide bosses with more accurate information.
The experience of Phoenix Pay’s rollout may have convinced Guardian’s managers to step back. Indeed, the technical difficulties associated with trying to link up with the Phoenix Pay system may simply have been insurmountable.
“We essentially unlinked pay systems from the project for the time being, given the complexities involved in military pay,” LeBouthillier said.
The writing on the wall could have been seen late in January when Chief of the Defence Staff Jonathan Vance revealed he had put Brig.-Gen. M.C.D. Savard in charge of the Guardian project (military personnel management capability transformation project in DND jargon) — thus replacing Brig.-Gen. J.S. Sirois.
The systems integration contract was wound up just weeks later.