Remember that $1 billion dollar single payroll and personnel records system for the U.S military?

[unhappycamper]

Didn't work.

Military Update: DIMHRS program dumped as ‘a disaster
By Tom Philpott, Special to Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, February 20, 2010

After spending $1 billion and 12 years of effort, Defense officials have pulled the plug on a hapless plan to bring the four military branches under a single payroll and personnel records system.

"This program has been a disaster," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month. He said he applauded the decision to kill what proponents said would be the largest, fully-integrated human resource system in the world.

"Many of the programs that I have made decisions to cut have been controversial within the Department of Defense," Defense Secretary Robert Gates explained to senators. "I will tell you this one was not."

The object of so much disaffection is the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System (DIMHRS), known as "Dime-ers."

Secretary Gates clearly wasn’t a fan of the title or program, which at its peak employed 600 military, federal civilians and private contractors who tried to use off-the-shelf technology to meld up to 90 automated systems that continue to run across DOD.


Rest of article at:http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=68142

[Sherman A1]

1. Okay

I am wondering why a payroll and personnel records system would be all that complex? Certainly it would be a huge one, but why some many $$$'s and not work?

[hobbit709]

3. What we used to call the "brother in law effect"

Any military contract involves someone's brother in law making a component that the contract needs at 10 times the going price for the same part from anyone else.

[Statistical]

7. I am sure there is some of that but....

payroll is a $47 billion dollar industry (just ask adp and sap).

The DOD is one of the worlds largest employers.

The system also isn't just payroll but all personnel information. Unit strengths, payroll, insurance (for dependents), the dependent tracking system (DEERS), personnel records, medical records, promotion data, service records, life insurance and beneficiary data, training/schools/qualifiers, etc.

[unhappycamper]

5. Payroll is one of the most complicated computer systems around.

When it works, it works great. When it sucks, it sucks mightily.

And size does matter. This is one big mofo.

[Statistical]

2. Sadly as both a veteran and prior govt contractor I can say it needed to be updated.

Our current "system" (and yes it is a stretch to even call it a system) is a byzantine labyrinth of incompatible programs, networks, and protocols.

Some of them are utterly ancient running custom program languages developed by the DOD in 60s and 70s that nobody really understands anymore, are poorly documented, and containing thousands (likely millions of bugs). Worse even the source code is missing for many systems making improvements/upgrades/fixed impossible.

Here is just one example. Soldiers in a combat zone don't pay federal taxes thus there is no reason to withhold income taxes. The system can not account for that (or at least it couldn't as late as 2006) and due to limitations of original code nobody can change that.

So how do they "deal with it"? Soldiers get paid twice a month and taxes are withheld. Then soldiers get a third paycheck (we called it the tax paycheck) where they are "paid back" the taxes withed from previous two paychecks. Then at end of year the "fake tax repayments" are removed from total income by a manual process to make the W-2 reflect the actual income and not the income + tax repayments.

That is just one example out of thousands (maybe tens of thousands). Someday working with these ancient DOD systems is slightly less productive than smashing your face with ball-peen hammer. The ongoing cost (both in resources & manpower) to maintain dozens of duplicate (yet not redundant) systems has to be in the billions.

[lonestarnot]

4. Crimonetly!

[Fumesucker]

6. There's an app for that.. n/t

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Isn't this an item the Tea Party should be upset about? Why does it seem to me that the military

wastes the most money (remember $500 hammers?) and always gets a pass?