Jane Edwards
Sid Getz, senior vice president for consulting services at CGI Federal, said the modernization of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ financial management system through the Financial Management Business Transformation program has helped VA improve the decision-making process, automate processes, maintain clean audits and comply with federal accounting regulations.
Getz appeared on Tuesday before lawmakers during a House subcommittee hearing on the status of VA’s FMBT program.
CGI Federal is supporting the department’s FMBT program by helping VA migrate to the new Integrated Financial and Acquisition Management System using its cloud-based Momentum enterprise resource planning system and Agile methods under a 10-year contract awarded in 2016.
He told lawmakers that there are 4,700 live iFAMS users across 20 VA offices that have processed more than 3.5 million iFAMS transactions, disbursed over $8.5 billion through the U.S. Treasury and used the system to view about 8,500 business intelligence reports on a weekly basis.
Getz mentioned some of the key factors that have contributed to the progress achieved by the program, including collaboration and transparency, incremental approach and change management.
He said VA has adopted a SAFe Agile-based implementation technique to mitigate program risk and has completed six waves of system deployment.
“This incremental approach reduces program risk by allowing future users to review work in progress and provide early feedback that allows the FMBT team to adapt quickly,” Getz said during the hearing.
