Managing for Excellence\
Implementing BLM's Financial & Business Management System (FBMS)

**\
A Telecast Originating**

**from the**

**BLM National Training Center in Phoenix, Arizona**

**December 9, 2004**

This transcript is from the closed-captioning file produced during the
telecast.

It may contain errors and omissions in transcription.

Announcer: The Bureau of Land Management presents live from the BLM
national training center in Phoenix, Arizona, managing for excellence,
implementing the DOI\'s Financial and Business Management System of
FBMS. And now the host of your program, Carl Rountree.\
\
C. Rountree: Good morning. Welcome to our telecast on the Department of
Interior\'s new financial business management system or FBMS. We will
learn how powerful a system it will be, how it will replace a number of
legacy systems, and how BLM is taking the lead for the department of the
interior in creating a Center of Excellence. With us this morning to
talk about FBMS is former BLMer Nina rose Hatfield, deputy Assistant
Secretary, business management and wildland fire from the department of
the interior. Welcome. It\'s always great to see you.\
\
N. Hatfield: Thank you, Carl.\
\
C. Rountree: Also with us this morning from BLM headquarters office in
Washington D.C. is Larry Benna, assistant Director fiscal and business
resources. Thanks for coming out for our program.\
\
L. Benna: Always a program to see you and to be in Phoenix.\
\
C. Rountree: To provide the state office perspective, Gene Terland,
Associate State Director from the Utah state office is here. High Gene.
Thanks for coming from Salt Lake to give us the state office\'s
perspective.\
\
G. Terland: Thanks, Carl.\
\
C. Rountree: Also completing the panel is Jeannette Davis Callahan.
Welcome, Jeannette.\
\
It\'s great to be here.\
\
C. Rountree: Before we get started I would like to mention for
additional information on FBMS you should visit BLM\'s FBMS website
at\... During our broadcast we would like to hear from all of you. You
can contact us by phone or use the fax number on your screen. You can
send us a fax at any time. Throughout the broadcast, several times today
we will be opening up the phone lines to take your questions. We have
also reserved some time at the end of the program for a general
discussion and answer segment and we will stay on the air as long as we
possibly can to answer any questions you might have. Now that the
announcements are out of the way, let\'s get into things. To kick off
our program we will start with Nina, the executive sponsor, who is going
to give us the big picture look at FBMS and how what we\'re doing in BLM
ties into the large you are picture throughout DOI. The floor is yours.\
\
N. Hatfield: Thank you, Carl. You may be wondering why we would invest
the enormous time and effort necessary to implement an integrated
enterprise system like the FBMS. The answer is really very simple. We
cannot afford to continue conducting our business as usual. Our
constrained budget environment dictates that we seek the most efficient
and effective way of conducting our business so that we maintain the
maximum possible funding for our mission areas. The quest to be
efficient is a journey towards management excellence and the object is
to institute business processes that are effective for all of us as a
whole enterprise, rather than the program by program bureau by bureau
approach that we\'ve traditionally taken. This fragmented approach has
resulted in systems and processes that don\'t talk with each other, are
duplicative and costly to maintain. Did you know that we are operating
at least 16 different financial systems across interior? The result is
spending dollars to operate all those duplicative systems and to support
the reconciliation of the data housed in these various systems.

In addition to spending money on duplicative systems our major financial
and acquisition computer systems are so old that they\'re no longer
being supported by their vendor. Now, that means that we have a major
risk and expense in the operation of some of our core business systems.
But what is the FBMS? Well, FBMS is an integrated way to do the business
of finance, budget, property, travel and financial assistance. An
essential part of the FBMS is an enterprise management Information
System that will provide usable readily available management information
concerning cost and performance of conducting or mission activities.
Since all the components are designed to work together, we can put data
in once and it moves into the appropriate components of the system. For
example, when you enter an acquisition into the system, the data would
move to the financial system and create a property record if it was
needed. As a result, we can standardize the way we do business across
interior, which will allow us to be more efficient. More importantly, we
won\'t have to make sure that the data in all those different systems
are the same.

Now, I know that Larry and perhaps some of you have wondered why DOI
asked BLM to be among the first bureaus to implement the FBMS. Well, BLM
has a 10-year history of clean audit opinions of their financial
statements, highlighting BLM as a lead inner financial management.
Secondly, BLM has been a leader in developing a Management Information
System to give BLMers the quality and quantity of information they need
to do their missions. This track record gives the department confidence
that BLM will excel in the implementation of FBMS also. Let me assure
you that we have a series of readiness checkpoints to ensure that the
system and the bureaus are ready. We want to make sure the solution is
working the way we planned and that the organization is prepared.
Examples of these readiness checkpoints include ensuring that the data
has been converted, the help desk is in place and that the end users
have been trained. All of these checks are in place to assure that the
FBMS solution meets our demands and does not jeopardize our business.
We\'ve had an intense time of development over the past months and we
defined a governance structure to make sure that we stayed on track.
Many of the detailed decisions are at the functional and technical lead
level. We ask for the \"A\" Team members from the bureaus, and we\'ve
had over 500 talented interior employees working with our contractor to
establish a blueprint for a system that will meet our business needs.
For example, Stan Curtis, a financial systems analyst from the
Washington office, is the functional lead for the enterprise Management
Information System reporting module in the FBMS. Stan was instrumental
in the use and development of the BLM\'s Management Information System.
The former BLM deputy chief information officer David shear is our
technical lead or what we call our chief technology officer. David, too,
like Stan, brings a wealth of experience to the project office team. In
those areas where the functional and technical leads cannot finalize an
issue, we have established an executive steering committee comprised of
Larry and his peers from each bureau to guide the project. So, Carl, we
believe we\'re well on the way and we\'ll have a great implementation
process here.\
\
C. Rountree: Thanks for that great overview. Next, Larry is going to
talk about many of the overall FBMS benefits and soar some of the
reasons for changing the way we do business. Larry?\
\
L. Benna: Thank you, Carl. These are exciting times back in Washington.
What you are seeing on the screen right now is a schematic of the FBMS
system and what it will look like and what it will contain. I\'m hoping
this diagram is familiar to many of you because as you recall when BLM
did its MIS we had a similar diagram with a similar concept. In essence
the department is looking to do something very similar at the department
level that BLM did only they\'ll take us to the next step of being more
fully integrated. The modules include core financials, and this includes
accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, what we call
controlling funds management and sales distribution module where project
costs will be kept. In other words, this is all our financial and
accounting information. Some systems that will be in FBMS that I think
you\'re more familiar with include budget formulation, property,
acquisition, financial assistance and travel. FBMS is going to replace
several of our legacy systems such as the Federal Financial System,
which was called FFS, IDEAS which is our current procurement system and
the Management Information System or MIS.

There are some systems that won\'t be included in the FBMS but will be
interfaced to FBMS. These are the collections and billing system, called
CBS, the federal personnel payroll system, facilities asset management
system, and the budget planning system. It\'s important to realize that
all of the current capabilities for these systems will still be
available in FBMS when they\'re interfaced. There is a very exciting
change, I think, I would like to mention to you in FBMS and that is we
will have the ability to sign on one time with one password and get
access to all the modules in FBMS. This is a really big improvement over
the way we do business where people now have to sign on to a lot of
different systems with a whole bunch of different passwords. We have a
good example of what\'s going on right now and that comes from Nancy
Allen, who is an assistant field manager for support services in Utah,
who is actually on the phone joining us right now. Nancy, are you
there?\
\
Caller: Yes, I am.\
\
L. Benna: How\'s things in Utah?\
\
It\'s raining and we\'re getting snow in the mountains.\
\
L. Benna: Things are a little better near Phoenix.\
\
Caller: Hello, everyone. As assistant field manager for support services
I have many passwords to use for financial, budget, personnel and
various other reporting systems in order to get my job done. Currently I
have 12 different passwords I need to keep track of. They are written
down in a notebook with many old passwords crossed out, new passwords
written below, above and next to and now I\'m using some post-it notes
to keep track of them. In other words, it\'s a big mess. I have a
password for my computer log on, for my Lotus Notes password, my FFS
password, CBS, IDEAS, BPS, MIS, labor reports, eagles, FPPS, workload
measures and a couple others. As you can see, keeping track of these can
be very daunting. I really wish I didn\'t have to keep track of all
those different systems and make sure that the passwords comply with the
requirements. For example, how many characters are required, whether a
strong password is needed, and if I\'ve ever used that password in the
past. With our present financial systems, it\'s virtually impossible to
reuse a password. So as you can see, I\'m looking forward to using a
single integrated system that will be able to log \-- I will able to log
on once and access the entire system.\
\
L. Benna: Thanks, Nancy. We\'re looking for big savings for Utah in the
area of yellow stickies once we get FBMS in place here.\
\
Caller: I think I can help on that.\
\
L. Benna: We\'ll be talking.\
\
The security folks will be down to talk to you.\
\
L. Benna: Thanks again, Nancy. I think the key issue here is that in the
future that Nancy as well as all you, the BLM employees, will be able to
access the systems they need with their smart card and sign on one time
to get everything you really need to do your job. I would also like to
share now with you a perspective from Rayleen Cruz who is with one of
our sister agencies the Bureau of Reclamation and she has a very
interesting story to tell about property systems, another area where we
think FBMS will help out. Rayleen are you there?\
\
My bureau has about 20 different property systems or databases that we
use for personal property, fleet management and real property. I have to
enter a lot of the same data into all of those systems. If the truth
were told, they probably don\'t all agree. We had to create all of those
different systems because one system wasn\'t available that met all of
our business needs. Across the Department of Interior, there are nearly
160 different property systems. It would save property managers a lot of
time if we just had one system that we could enter the data into and
have it all available there. That way I could get all the information I
needed without having to go to all those different systems and I
wouldn\'t have to call another office and have them run a report for
me.\
\
L. Benna: Thanks a lot, Rayleen. Really appreciate that. There are a lot
of other benefits that I think will happen for the department as well as
BLM from the FBMS. FBMS will help make business processes more efficient
by automating tasks that are either burdensome, redundant and a lot of
which are now done manly. The new system will be integrated. This is a
big deal. For example, when vehicles are purchased, entering one
transaction will add data to all related modules in the system. I think
a big plus you\'re all going to appreciate is that we expect there will
be a lot less data calls from the department. Sorry, Nina.\
\
N. Hatfield: Or headquarters.\
\
L. Benna: Touché\'. The other part is Management Information System is a
new reporting system that will replace BLM\'s Management Information
System. This new reporting tool is intended to provide the same
functionality as our current Management Information System or MIS.
We\'ll have the same information only getting to the data and the tools
to use the data will change. Instead of using Brio software which we use
now, you will be using excel to download your queries or using a
software called Crystal Reports to get canned reports. As Nina mentioned
earlier, the executive steering committee was formed to make decisions
for the FBMS system. When it pertains to delivery, readiness definitions
and scope changes for FBMS. Also, many BLMers have been involved in
developing the blueprint document that outlines our business processes
and functional and technical design documents that relate to the data
conversion and all the interfaces we\'ll have to do.

During the next several weeks and months, BLM\'s FBMS implementation
team will be working with bearing point who is the contractor on
developing business processes to define employees\' roles with the new
FBMS system. This will be a collaborative process that will involve
employees as well as managers. This will be an opportunity for employees
and managers to look at what they\'re doing now and what they\'ll be
doing in the future using FBMS. Late or we\'ll be looking at potential
changes to business processes. Any changes that are made will be based
on sound business reasons. Once these potential changes to business
processes are determined, the changes will be coordinated through BLM
leadership and employees will be trained on these new processes. One
thing I really want to make clear is that the smooth transition of our
employees into new business processes is clearly our highest priority.
Carl?\
\
Thanks, Larry. I have made a note of those fewer data calls. Before we
continue I would like to mention in a few minutes we\'re going to be
opening up the phone lines to take your calls. Please keep in mind that
we want all your questions but we may not have every answer yet. For
those questions we can\'t answer today we\'ll make a note of them and be
sure to answer them through our website as the information becomes
available. And remember, we will be constantly updating your state leads
with new information. These folks are a grated resource for you as well.
So, if you have a question or comment for us, please send us a fax or
start dialing. But first I\'d like to ask Larry a question that\'s

probably on the minds of a lot of BLMers, and that is, how is the new
system going to affect the average BLM employee, Larry?\
\
L. Benna: I think the bottom line is there are going to be a lot of
changes but one thing to keep in mind is that in the long run we\'re
going to have an integrated, definitely more efficient system. Here\'s a
couple examples of some of the changes that are going to be coming in
the shorter term. I think the average BLM employee who travels is going
to be learning a new way to process their travel reservation
authorization and voucher. This process is going to be fully automated.
A fully automated replacement for companies like we use now like omega
and systems like travel manager and travel payment features of our FFS
system. Also as I mentioned earlier many employees who access our
Management Information System are going to learn a new tool to access
the FBMS enterprise Management Information System. Also employees will
have new terminology to learn, including most of our administrative
codes. We are just beginning to figure out the details soon and it
should be coming out to your state leads soon.\
\
C. Rountree: Thanks very much, Larry. With that answer we will take your
calls and faxes. We\'ll give you those phone and fax numbers again at
the bottom of the screen just in case you didn\'t get them. First let\'s
ask this question, Larry, it\'s a question that has been brought to a
lot of people\'s attention and that is how are we going to be able to
access the data in the old systems and for how long?\
\
L. Benna: The legacy data and historical data we have will be available
in the old system until we basically convert to the new system. I don\'t
think getting our historical data is going to be an issue as we begin
conversion.\
\
C. Rountree: Thank you, Larry. Another question that\'s on the minds of
a lot of people, Nina, is how will FBMS be different than the systems
it\'s replacing?\
\
N. Hatfield: I think the first thing is because we\'re using, as Gene
mentioned, an off the shelf software system, it was designed to move the
data between the different modules if you will, and so we believe that
it will just be a lot more efficient and really the \-- efficient and
the bottom line to me is as I\'ve looked at us tried to our financial
closing at the end of each year, and as we try to reconcile all the data
that\'s in these different systems that we now have not only are they
expensive to operate in terms of their age, but as Jeannette knows, we
have a lot of people spending a lot of time trying to make the data
match up in those different systems and because the new system is
designed to move the \-- enter the data once, use it many times, we
don\'t have to go through all that reconciliation. It\'s just going to
save us a lot of time and effort. And the bottom line, I think, is
we\'ll be able to turn our attention away from just making sure that the
data is correct to spending what we think will be more quality time in
looking at what the data really means for us. How can we help our field
managers do what they\'re doing out in the field more efficiently
because we\'ll be looking at what the data means us to rather than just
what the data is.

C. Rountree: Thank you, Nina. That\'s a good answer to a question on a
lot of people\'s minds. We have another question that he would like to
ask but before I do, by like to remind everyone to get on those phones,
give us a phone call. I am sure there are a lot of questions on
everyone\'s minds regarding FBMS, And if you\'re shy we can take your
fax. Please fax your questions to us as well. We would be more than
happy to respond to those. Larry, a question for you, generally it takes
organizations some time to gain efficiency after implementation. Are
there any estimates available from other organizations who have
implemented this SAP software on that time frame?\
\
L. Benna: Sure. We\'ve been told by the contractor very clearly that
when the new system is implemented there is going to be a time when our
efficiency is actually going to go down somewhat and that\'s basically
because it\'s a new system, people need to learn the new system, get
used to using it. I think the key is we\'re preparing for that
particular time. It\'s anticipated in a lot of the implementations of
this system, not only in the government but in the private sector.
That\'s clearly expected. And I think one of the things we\'re planning
on doing is basically managing, being able to manage that. For example,
we want to be able to notified our vendors there may be some issues as
far as payments, things like that, notify people that are going to be
affected by this. I know Nina has visited with several of the other
federal organizations and agencies that have implemented FBMS and she
and her staff as well as our contract office basically taking their
experiences and trying to build into it BLM so we will learn from some
of their issues they dealt with.\
\
N. Hatfield: We\'ve actually made a change in the way that we
anticipating deploying FBMS so we could make sure we had additional
resources to do some more training just because of the points that
Larry\'s making, that we know we need to spend additional time to make
sure that people come through that dip of learning just as quickly as we
can so we become very efficient.\
\
L. Benna: I think it\'s similar in some regards to when we implemented
our MIS system in BLM. There was time they needed to get used to the
system, the terminology, technical how to get into it, but I think in
the longer run it proved tune an effective tool.\
\
C. Rountree: Some excellent answers to some very hard questions.
Remember, if we don\'t get your questions now, we\'ll have another
opportunity later in the broadcast. Now before we go on, let\'s hear
from Don Striker. Don is currently the Park Service\'s Washington office
buzz was a superintendent of Mount Rushmore. He has an interesting
perspective on how FBMS will improve field operations department-wide.\
\
In the national Park Service, when we talk about financial management,
we use a half dozen or so different systems. And when we\'re out in the
field trying to use these different systems, each one of them has a
different look and field. We just tend to put the same information in
some cases into the same system \-- or into different systems multiple
times. As a park manager, I think one of the most frustrating aspects of
the job that I faced was not only trying to get all of our different
people trained in all of the different business systems we used but also
to try to respond to requests for information from Washington, whether
the information came from Congress or OMB or the department or the Park
Service itself, almost weekly we faced data calls asking us to extract
data from systems and turn into it a format that somebody else wants and
send sit on up the pipeline. It\'s frustrating because we know this data
resides in central databases and I guess we feel we could be a lot more
efficient if folks could get the data out of the systems themselves
instead of burdening the field with these many, many data calls.\
\
C. Rountree: Thanks, Don. Gene, are those the same sentiments shared by
BLM folks as well?\
\
G. Terland: Yes, they are, Carl. The number of data calls as well as the
need to enter the same data into multiple systems is a common
frustration. After all we heard about the new FBMS system I think it\'s
important to note that it\'s a commercial offer the shelf package based
around SAP enterprise software that the Department of Interior
purchased. The old way was to build the system around existing business
processes. This new way is for the business processes to adjust to the
system. As Larry mentioned, Utah has several employees involved in the
FBMS implementation team. I know they\'re looking forward to the
challenge and to working with other members of the team to determine the
new processes to be implemented and how we can make those functions more
efficient. With these new processes comes new terminology, lots of it.

We understand the need for training our employees, folks there in the
audience, and look forward to participating in the development of some
of the end user training. There are some \-- there are many benefits
coming with this new FBMS system. For example, sharing resources across
the department, especially during the busy fire season. Also having the
ability to make electron authorization and vouchering of our own travel
will undoubtedly improve our ability to move to a more paperless
environment that. The goal is for the future process to be easier, more
accurate and to save a lot of time. Employees will be able to do online
ordering from catalogs, similar to ordering from internet sites such as
Amazon.com. A key feature is the integration of procurement, property
and finance, finally allowing the data to be shared across all functions
instead of being reentered by each group. This will free up resources to
perform other tasks such as the analyzing of the data instead of
reentering it. Our state uses the Management Information System data on
a daily basis with the FBMS system we will be able to continue using
this type of data, we will just be learning a new tool to access the
data. This data will also be available to our headquarters office and to
the department, thus reducing the need for data calls. Sorry, layer a,
Nina.\
\
L. Benna: What goes around, comes around.\
\
C. Rountree: love those reduced data calls. Gene, it certainly looks
like there are a lot of ways FBMS can streamline our operations and make
our work more efficient. We have a call coming in. This one for the
panel from Bonnie in Medford. Bonnie, welcome. We\'d like to take your
call if we could, please.\
\
Caller: Thanks, Carl. Actually it\'s Bonnie from Safford, but our
question is, how this system is going to be different represent from MIS
in the way we track our budget. Especially at the end of the fiscal year
when we\'re really trying \-- we\'re in a crunch to know exactly how
much money we have almost to the penny, I\'m \-- we\'re wanting to know
how this is going to help us be a little more \-- find out how we can
really get in on the exact numbers.\
\
C. Rountree: Sound like a question for our Bergeette guy. \-- budget
guy.\
\
L. Benna: Again, I think the reporting tool for FBMS is \-- it\'s a
really powerful tool and it provides a lot of capability to run a lot of
reports. So I think our basic capability for budgeting is probably going
to improve somewhat. The system is going to replicate and improve
slightly on our MIS system and I think we\'re looking at a minimum being
able to track our dollars the way do now and hopefully as we get more
used to the system being able to track our dollars a little better.\
\
C. Rountree: Bonnie, did that answer your question?\
\
Caller: Yes, thank you.\
\
C. Rountree: Sorry, Safford. Finally, let\'s hear from Jeannette Davis
Callahan who is going to discussion what the National Business Center is
going to implement FBMS.\
\
Thanks, Carl. BLM\'s National Business Center in Denver is tasked a key
role, the actual implementation of FBMS for BLM. We\'ve been working
very closely with bearing point who was contracted by the department to
assist DOI with the FBMS implementation. The department and bearing
point have developed DOI project plan for the implementation across the
department. Based \-- and based on the dates and tasks in that
departmental plan, the National Business Center has developed a detailed
project plan for BLM\'s implementation. Our project plan has laid out
schedules for all the important tasks that must be done to implement
FBMS in fiscal year \'06, tasks such as blueprinting our work processes,
designing functional and technical design specifications for interfaces
and data conversions, defining business process procedures, developing
system testing plans, running mock data conversions from the old system
to the new system, and the very important task of training BLM\'s folks
how to use this new system. In order to accomplish all of these tasks,
we\'ve dedicated several employees and contractors who spend 100% or
almost 100% of their time working on FBMS issues. John Kunzler, Julie
O\'Neill, Ben Valdez and John Foster, to name a few.

You\'ll be seeing and hearing a lot from these folks as we go through
this transformation. We also have many folks on our staff and Washington
budget staff who have been designated as subject matter experts, or
SMEs, as we like to call them. We have asked our states to participate
also as state leads and super-users. All of these folks have very
important roles in the testing, data cleanup, data conversion and
training for FBMS. Over the last several months we\'ve had over 250
employees from across BLM participating in workshops, both in Denver and
in the D.C. area, blueprinting how BLM will use this new system. That
work has now been completed and we\'re moving on to the development of
the functional and technical design specifications for interfaces and
data conversion. After that, we move into system testing and training,
data conversions, and then the \"I\" word, implementation. You\'d like
more \-- if you would like more information on BLM\'s FBMS project plan,
the status of the project and loads of other information on FBMS, it\'s
available to all of you on our FBMS website. That website is\... I also
know that you\'re all very concerned and very interested in training for
this new system. The department and bearing point have developed a
training strategy for FBMS. This strategy uses many different forms of
media, such as CD-ROM, internet-based training, satellite broadcasts and
classroom training. BLM plans to supplement the DOI training by having
the super-users perform testing, dated cleanup and development of
training materials for the new system. Most of this will occur in
Denver. We\'ve set up some training rooms with computers in our building
that will accommodate this group and other groups that will be coming in
for training.

The first training will be held January 24th through January 28th with
an FBMS kickoff workshop. This workshop will include the state leads and
super users who will be invited to Denver for an update on time lines
and schedules. At that kickoff we\'ll also be providing some system
walk-throughs on SAP, Prism and EPCS, and others if they come available
before that date. We\'ll also be talking about data cleanup and
conversion and many other issues. We have several more training sessions
scheduled over this next year. You can contact your state leads or visit
our FBMS website for the schedules and contents of the upcoming
training. Realistically speaking, we know we\'re going to have a
learning curve when we implement FBMS, and there probably will be a few
bumps in the road. But to help smooth out those bumps, the department
and the bureaus are working on several levels of help desk support to
provide answers to your questions as we go through learning the new
system. Our timetable for this implementation is very aggressive, but I
think we have a good plan. I know we have good people, and that\'s what
it takes to make this work. Nina chose BLM to be the first big bureau on
FBMS because she has confident that we can do it. I have that same
confidence. I know our BLM folks have the knowledge, the dedication and
the can-do attitude to make this FBMS implementation work.\
\
C. Rountree: Thank you so much, Jeannette. We would like to mention in a
few minutes we are going to be again opening up the phone lines for our
last question and answer segment. If you have a question or comment for
us About anything we have covered in this program, please give us a call
or send us a fax. We will get to as many of your questions as we can in
the time we have remaining. For the first question, Jeannette, I was
wondering if the data conversion every FBMS will have any impact on
BLM\'s closeout this fiscal year.\
\
This closeout will be a unique one for us at the National Business
Center, so I guess the answer is yes. The plan is we\'re going to go
through our fiscal year \'05 annual close in pretty much the same manner
we always do each year. The difference will be that after we close FFS
that\'s planned for October 6, then we have to perform a data conversion
to FBMS. Then we have to close FBMS in order to get opening balances for
fiscal year \'06 in the new system. We\'re not expecting to come up on
FBMS until October 26. So, folks, there\'s going to be a little more
downtime for the folks out in the field and for the folks in the
National Business Center as we go through the implementation of this new
system.

C. Rountree: Thank you very much for that. Great. The phone lines are
opened up again for the final question and answer period. The numbers
are on the screen for you in the case \-- in case you didn\'t get them
before. As I already mentioned, we want all your questions but we may
not have every answer yet. For those questions where answers aren\'t
available today, we will make a note of them and be sure to answer them
through our website as the information becomes available. Our website
will be the source of all that information. We\'ll try to get to as many
of you as possible. First up, let\'s take a fax, which I have just
handed me. It\'s for either Gene or Nina. The question is: how will FBMS
coordinate within FPORS, a little alphabet soup there. I\'m not sure I
know what the acronym stand for.\
\
N. Hatfield: I think this is a really good question because it\'s an
issue we\'re not only going to have with NFPORS but all the other legacy
systems we have across the department that have management data and
information in it. So as we are looking at the deployment of FBMS we are
looking at each of these systems individually and making decisions about
if we\'re going to maintain that system, if that\'s a system that is
going to be shut down as the FBMS functionality comes alive or if there
is someway that we\'re going to need to build a bridge between the two
systems. And I think NFPORS is one of the ones we will definitely be
analyzing about how we\'re going to use the data. It\'s not unlikely, I
think, that with NFPORS we may actually build a bridge from that system
initially and move the data from NFPORS into the enterprise Management
Information System. But I think the bottom line is whether it\'s NFPORS
or FBMS, what we will have is a single data entry and then using the
data, and wherever we need it in terms management information. So we\'re
still analyzing all those systems BLM has its own systems we\'re
analyzing as we begin deployment, and so we\'ll make that decision on a
system by system basis. So I\'m not exactly sure if we\'ll come out with
NFPORS but bottom line we\'ll have a single data entry point and use the
data throughout the system.\
\
C. Rountree: We have a caller on line 1. I think I recognize this
caller. Margo in Phoenix you have a question?\
\
Caller: I do, Carl. What is the anticipated workload in FY05 in
preparation for this implementation at the field level? Second part of
my question more importantly is going to be field level testing for this
prior to implementation?\
\
C. Rountree: Jeannette, you want to respond to that?\
\
Yes, I will start with the workload piece of that question. I think the
most significant workload issue that\'s going to be involving the field
is probably data cleanup. We really have to get our data as clean as
possible before we convert to the new system. Otherwise there will be
two things that might happen. It either won\'t convert or it will
convert and we\'ll have garbage starting out and we don\'t want that.
And the second piece of your question is, are the field going to be
involved in testing. The answer is, yes, we do have \-- we are expecting
to bring in state leads and super users into Denver to help us and to
participate with the testing. That\'s actually going to be part of their
learning experience with the new system. So, yes, we will be bringing in
super users and state leads although we don\'t expect to be bringing
testing out to the field. It will all be done in Denver.\
\
C. Rountree: Thanks for that, Margo. Did that answer your question?\
\
Caller: It sure did, thanks.\
\
C. Rountree: Next we have another caller, Tom from Denver. Tom is asking
a question about additional positions in data conversion. Larry, would
you like to take this?\
\
L. Benna: Sure. Thanks for calling, Tom. One of the good pieces of
information I can share with you related to this is that recently we
were provided by the department additional resources for implementation
of FBMS.\
\
C. Rountree: Can\'t argue, Larry.\
\
L. Benna: I never argue with money coming my way. Again, this is coming
from what they call the charge card rebates at the department level. So
there is funding available for BLM to work on training and travel as
well as some backfilling of positions in the National Business Center.
So there may be some money available for that as well as other needs for
BLM\'s implementation of FBMS and I think with a we\'re doing right now
is we have our budget office in Washington analyzing the needs of both
the states as well as the business center and we\'re matching those
against the available resources we\'ve gotten and that we have, and
hopefully in the annual work plan, which should be coming out sometime
this month, we should be able to start to provide some resources for
travel, training and where it\'s deemed necessary, perhaps extra
positions.\
\
C. Rountree: Thank you, Larry. We have another call, Howie from
Milwaukee. How are you?\
\
Caller: I\'m pretty good. Will \--\
\
C. Rountree: Could you turn your TV down, Howie? There\'s a little
feedback here. Thank you.\
\
Caller: Will this FBMS system integrate with GSA schedules so we don\'t
have to put in vendors from the schedules like we do now into IDEAS? Or
will that automatically integrate?\
\
C. Rountree: Anyone on the panel like to respond?\
\
N. Hatfield: I think he\'s asking about the vendor tables, and we will
have those.\
\
Caller: Yes, I am.\
\
N. Hatfield: Okay. We will have \-- Jeannette\'s probably much more
familiar than I am about this, but we are going to have vendor tables
that are \-- that will be in the system, and we\'ll have a single set of
vendor tables so that the entire department can use them and we think it
will be less expensive for us to maintain them.\
\
Correct. There will be a centralized vendor table. Yes. And we believe
that will also have customer information centralized as well.\
\
Caller: Will that come off the GSA schedule or would you be using that?\
\
We get our vendor table information from D.O.D. They send us files on
C.C.R. registrations and we put those in the system.\
\
C. Rountree: Answer your question, Howie?\
\
Caller: A little bit. Then there\'s another question\... using the DINs
numbering system, if, for instance, you put in a number and it requires
a report or whatever kind of report it requires, will this automatically
happen?\
\
I\'m not sure I understand that. Could you repeat that?\
\
Caller: If you put in a DINS numbering system like A is for agreements,
Ps for purchase orders, when you use an A, agreements, we have to
provide a facts report each quarter. Will this automatically throw into
us a facts report?\
\
I don\'t know the answer to that. There are a lot of details still being
worked out. I don\'t know if this is one of them or not. There may be
someone on the procurement side of the house that knows the answer to
that. Or it may be one of those issues that we\'re still working out. I
know I haven\'t heard any discussion about that particular issue. So
that means it either isn\'t an issue or we haven\'t gotten around to
recognizing it yet.\
\
Caller: Thank you.\
\
N. Hatfield: I think as a general matter we are working with the bureaus
and that\'s what the subject matter experts have been doing, is working
with us as we go through and get ready to deliver on this system, but
working with us in terms of specific business reports that you need in
the course of doing your work, and so as a general matter, that\'s
exactly what the subject matter experts are helping us decide.\
\
C. Rountree: Terrific. We do have the question. We will get a more
detailed answer and posting that on our website. Next we have another
question from bishop, California, and Joe is on the line. Joe, do you
have a question for the panel?\
\
Caller: Hey, Carl, how you doing?\
\
C. Rountree: Pretty good. How you doing?\
\
Caller: Good. My question is kind of specific and it relates to the
administrative codes that will be replacing the P.E. codes in MIS. Do
you anticipate at this point that those codes will be letter codes and
designed in a way for easier retention and application in the system?
Secondly, do you anticipate those codes will expand beyond the current
P.E. codes, be the same or be less?\
\
C. Rountree: Panelists? Good question, Joe.\
\
N. Hatfield: I think again that\'s one of the things that our subject
matter experts are in the process of working out. I think again the core
value here is that we will decide upon a coding system across the
department, and BLM will be using the same number of digits or letters
in a code as parks will and Bureau of Reclamation, so we have all of
those people working together to try to decide what is that the code
needs to be in order again for the businesses to be able to do their
business. I think \-- they\'re really doing a good job in terms of
trying to work on a coding system that\'s going to work across the
department.\
\
Right. But those decisions haven\'t been finalized yet. So we don\'t
have a final answer for you. That will be one of those that we\'ll put
out on our website as soon as that\'s been determined.\
\
Caller: Thanks for the comment. Just a thought that might help is \--
and I work on BMS and \-- BPS and MIS quite a bit. I think one of the
things that might help in terms of increasing the integrity of data is
to use letter codes that are somehow in a way very easy to remember that
apply to certain kinds of projects. So wildlife might be WLD or
something like that. Just a thought in terms of improving the integrity
of the system.\
\
Thank you.\
\
G. Terland: I think a point that Nina mentioned in there is that we\'re
not in this just by our selves. We have other bureaus in the department
that when we come out with the whole thing we will have to be pretty
consistent. So what we do in BLM will have to be worked out with the
other bureaus in the department.\
\
C. Rountree: Gene, just a question regarding FBMS. How do you feel it\'s
going to help BLM in managing what we do, which is managing lands and
natural resources?\
\
G. Terland: FBMS is aimed at improving the efficiencies and
administrative processes to where we don\'t have to spend near as much
time in that arena, and allows us to spend more time on the groundwork,
Carl. So I think that\'s the primary area.\
\
C. Rountree: Great. Thanks so much. Nina, I\'m sure there are a lot of
other interior agencies that are probably interested in what\'s in it
for them, what\'s going to happen to them. We have a question in the
form of a fax which is: when will other interior agencies implement
FBMS?\
\
N. Hatfield: Well, we\'re bringing up the agencies in about three
different ways, actually. BLM will be in the first wave with the office
of surface mining and minerals management services. That will happen
October 1 of \'05, as Jeannette said, the actual date will be a little
bit after that. Then in the next year, we\'ll be bringing up Fish &
Wildlife Service, mark service and the office of the \-- Park Service
and the office of the secretary. Interestingly enough although the
office of the secretary has a smaller budget to deal with, we\'re
running seven different financial systems within the office of the
secretary. So believe me, we\'re excited about having a single system to
work from. That will be the second one. And that will be planned for
October 1 of \'06. And then the last wave to come up will be the USGS,

the Bureau of Reclamation and BIA, and they\'re scheduled to come up on
October 1 of \'07.\
\
C. Rountree: Another question we\'ve gotten in, it\'s related to
training, the question is: will there be on site training by vendors?
Jeannette that might be a question for you that you might be able to
answer for us.\
\
The answer is yes. We do have a very detailed training plan. Right now
we\'re bringing in super users and SMEs into Denver for the workshop
January 24th through the 28th. If we\'re talking about \-- and then
we\'re going to have various other training sessions as well throughout
the year for super users and SMEs. If we\'re talking about end user
training here, which I suspect is probably the question, end user
training occurs late in September throughout October and may run into
November. We are going to target for individual end users training on
the modules that they will actually use. So they won\'t sit down and get
a lot of training on accounts receivable if they\'re never involved with
accounts receivable. It will be targeted to what they do. So they\'ll
get their hands-on classroom-type training. Also when we go into
implementation, the system itself has an online help function. It\'s
very much like a windows environment with dropdown menus and a help
function that I think folks will find pretty easy to use. So they have
the classroom training, the help function in the software itself, they
will also have as a resource their state leads and the super users in
their states. Those folks will have had extensive training all
throughout the year because they\'re going to be working very closely
with us on testing and et cetera, business process procedure reviews and
they\'re going to have a really good understanding of this system at the
end of the year. So they have those folks as resources they can call on.
And also there will be a help desk in place where they will be able to
call and ask a real live person any question they want and they\'ll be
able to get an answer.\
\
C. Rountree: That\'s certainly going to be important to have somebody on
the other end of the line.\
\
Exactly.\
\
C. Rountree: One other fax we\'ve gotten in, Gene, this is from Utah.
Either you or Jeannette can probably answer this. That is, how will this
affect the current staffing such as budget analysts. Will this be more
hands on by office?\
\
At least my impression of FBMS, and corrected me if I\'m wrong, and we
should actually improve and decrease the amount of workload as far as
our administrative/budgetary processes. We\'ll still have the need for
the analysis and gathering the information out of it. It\'s something we
need to take into consideration as we look at workload and assignments,
that type of thing.\
\
C. Rountree: Larry, anything from you?\
\
L. Benna: That\'s a very good question. One thing I think we\'ll be
seeing is in the next few months or so we\'re going to be looking at
working with the contractor to actually start mapping out what employees
are doing now versus how they do business processes and they enter
transactions in the systems and whatnot versus how the new system \--
how we\'ll tailor our work in the new system. This is a little
different. We\'re doing in the other way around, we have a system in
place and we\'ll tailor our work into the new system. We are looking
time prove our processes quite a bit with this.\
\
A lot of that work, I might add, will be done in June. So probably
sometime in July we\'ll know something more definite about that.\
\
C. Rountree: Thank you all very much. Nina, fairly specific question
coming in via fax. Is FBMS going to be 508 compliant? For those of our
folks that don\'t know what 508 is, you might explain.\
\
N. Hatfield: I was hoping you would tell me. Is that the \--\
\
508 is the disability issue.\
\
N. Hatfield: Yes, it is. It is compliant with that. I might broaden it
more. It will also be compliant with our security requirements. All of
those things are built in.\
\
And do continue to give all the details.\
\
N. Hatfield: Thank you for your help, Gene.\
\
C. Rountree: The problem with a fax. We have one last fax available and
that is: has FBMS been successfully implemented by other federal
agencies? Nina, you want to take a shot at that?\
\
N. Hatfield: There are a number of federal agencies who have implemented
the core software we\'re using here and that\'s SAP and they\'ve also
used some of the other software that\'s involved in the whole suite. I
think that we have probably one of the better plans in terms of looking
at it really across the entire enterprise, and I think we really are
going at this with the idea that we can change our business processes
and really be more efficient, take advantage of the things that are
built into the software. But there are a number of federal agencies that
have used the core SAP software, including NASA is now running it, IRS
is using it, there are several others, but the other thing that we have
the advantage of is that this software is used literally by thousands of
companies throughout the world, and so it is a leading edge business
approach, so we know that there are thousands of instances of it being
used, and as I was meeting with one private sector company for a lessons
learned, they were dealing with, sometimes in interior we think we are
so different and unique. We have eight bureaus. They were dealing with
business end tease in countries all across the world. So they were
having to deal with different tax systems, different languages,
different time \-- so for us the implementation across the eight bureaus
may be actual lay little simpler than some of the SAP implementations
that have taken place worldwide. But it certainly is a very robust
system, a system that is well-known, and one that we had a lot of
technical interaction with before we chose it as the software that we
thought would best meet our business needs. So we feel confident that
it\'s going to be a good system that will meet our business needs.

C. Rountree: That\'s encouraging to know that it\'s software that\'s
been out on the street, tested, and a lot of the kinks have been worked
out of it.\
\
N. Hatfield: In fact, it has been tested \-- it has to meet some very
basic federal requirements before we could even purchase it or use it.
So there are some federal standards. SAP meets those standards. As a
matter of fact, of all the software out there, I believe SAP came
through the testing process first.\
\
C. Rountree: Great. A question I think that everyone may be asking,
Jeannette, has to do with E travel, and I\'ve heard that E travel will
be very simple for the average traveler to use. Is that true and is
there a built-in help feature in the E travel software that\'s going to
help make life a little less complicated for folks?\
\
Yes. We haven\'t chosen the vendor yet for E travel, but we\'re
expecting a very user-friendly system, probably something similar to
Travelocity in terms of how the help function will work. There will be
an online help function. We\'re expecting to have a booking engine for E
travel in March, and the authorization and vouchering piece of E travel
should be available October 1st. But we don\'t have any detailed
information yet, again, because that\'s one of those decisions that
hasn\'t yet been made, although we expect that very, very quickly.\
\
C. Rountree: Thank you very much. A question that keeps coming up, I\'m
told we\'ve had several faxes on this particular question, has to do
with service first. The question is what about integrated with the
Forest Service and with our service first needs? Nina, you want to take
a shot at that?\
\
N. Hatfield: I\'m glad that that\'s a question that\'s been raised,
because we believe that the leadership that BLM has shown in service
first is something we\'re trying to emulate across the department. It is
a challenge for us in the context of primarily the security issues that
we have related with trying to make sure that our systems are secure.
I\'m sure everybody is aware we\'ve been in some pretty heavy litigation
making sure all our systems are secure. So that\'s probably a much
bigger bear 81 for us than the actual technology itself. I think we are
trying to work through making sure that we can interface with the data
that we need from the Forest Service, and we\'ve been successful in
doing that in NFPORS because the forest service is using the same
system. I think our primary focus at the moment is making sure it will
work for BLM and getting it successfully implemented for BLM and over
the years to come we will look more and more how we can work with the
Forest Service and other partners in.\
\
C. Rountree: Just to let you folks know, we have received a number of
other faxes of a very technical nature and while these are probably the
most literal people dealing with FBMS I\'m not sure we\'re capable of
dealing with the more technical aspects every it, but, again, we will
answer your questions, we will put them up on the website and they will
available as soon as we have answers. At this point I\'m afraid to say
we\'re going to have to wrap up our discussion. We appreciate your
questions and comments. Thanks for visiting with us. But before we close
things out, Jeannette, do you have any final comments for the audience?\
\
Well, I\'d like to talk a little bit about this year. This year will be
a challenge for all of us. We have an awful lot of work that we have to
get done during this year \-- well, a lot of folks are pretty
overwhelmed with what they have on their plate, but I know we\'ll get it
done. And I\'m looking forward to fiscal year \'06 when we actually
implement this system. I\'m anxious to see when we implement this new
system and when folks are comfortable with it. I think we\'re really
going to see a lot of appreciation for the benefits that we\'re going to
get with this modern integrated system, which is a far cry different
from the old FFS that we\'ve been used to working with. So I\'m anxious
to see that.\
\
C. Rountree: Thank you very much. Larry, any last words from the
Washington office?\
\
L. Benna: Usually have one or two to say. This shouldn\'t be any
different. Again, I think overall the bottom line is that moving to FBMS
is a good business decision and the department and BLM also need a new
integrated management and business system. The system we have now, parts
of it will not be supported anymore, and we just need to \-- we need to
move to something that meets our needs and the department\'s needs a lot
better. And I think the system that was chosen, I think Nina allude to
do this earlier, based on where it\'s been deployed and capability,
it\'s definitely the best one that\'s available now to meet our needs. I
guess from sort of a practical standpoint I think we should kind of
realize that the FBMS train has basically left the station and I think
the best thing we can do now is to try to get the best ride on this
train that we can.

Now, how do you do that? I guess I would just encourage everybody, get
involved as much as you can, talk to as many of your colleagues and
friends and managers as you can, learn everything you can about this new
system and how it might affect you and what you do, take all training
you can, and visit the website. The website is updated quite frequently
with a lot of new information and if you feel you need more information
after that, get a hold of your state coordinators or call up the folks
from the business center that are really involved in this. And I guess a
final statement would be that the department has a very clear and high
level vision for being a world class financial and business organization
in the government, and I think that they will probably reach that goal
with this system. I think it\'s coming along. And I think equally
important is that BLM\'s goal is to \-- is for us to be a world class
business and finance organization within the department. I think we\'ve
been there before and we want to continue to be there to just improve
our standing. And I think we can do that as well from what I\'ve seen so
far. Finally, maybe most important is I want to wish everybody a good
holiday great holiday a good new year, hope you enjoy your family and
friends.\
\
C. Rountree: As we all do, thank you, Larry. Gene, what the state office
perspective, any last thoughts you would like to share with us?\
\
G. Terland: Thanks, Carl. It\'s important for us at the state level to
keep involved and informed of the progress in moving to FBMS, and,
Larry, I would like to compliment your folks on the job they have done
so far in keeping us aware on what\'s going on. As I indicated, it will
be important to get our employees trained in the new processes, the
terminology changes and the changes in data entry format, and I\'m glad
to here there\'s going to be money to do that. The more education and
training we can accomplish up front, the easier it will be for the
transition to FBMS. I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy
new year.\
\
C. Rountree: Nina, savoring the last word for you. Do you have some
final thoughts, kind of the big picture thoughts for FBMS and the
bureau?\
\
N. Hatfield: I would just like to mention that we\'re very well affair
that the FBMS is a massive undertaking for all of us, and I know also
that we\'re going to have to adapt to some new ways of doing our work as
we\'ve been talking about, the terminology, new business processes, and
that the roles and what we do day to day will change. So we all have to
be patient with ourselves and give ourselves the opportunity and take
the time to learn and practice on the FBMS so that we\'ll be as quick
with the FBMS system as we now are on our existing systems. But at the
end of the project, I am very confident that we\'ll have a better, more
cost effective way for us to perform our work, and I know that there\'s
absolutely no better entity to be leading in this business process
change that we\'re undertaking with the FBMS than having the experience
that BLM has in terms of leading the way. So we are very confident. BLM
will lead the way in delivering what is really a modern integrated
system for the entire Department of the Interior. So we\'re looking
forward to it. I also wish everybody a happy holiday. I have to go home
and do my tree now.\
\
C. Rountree: I would certainly like to thank our panel. That just about
wraps it up for our overview of the new FBMS system and the features and
benefits we will see once things are fully implemented online. Remember,
for more information, please visit the BLM FBMS website at\... we will
be sure to post the answers to the questions we weren\'t able to re
solve today. Look for those in the near future. If you have future
questions related to FBMS, here are some contacts that will get you
going in the right direction. All of these people can be contacted
through BLM\'s Lotus Notes system and are ready and willing to help you
as much as they can. We hope this telecast has been of value and that we
have helped answer some of the questions that have been on your minds.
Thanks to all the folks behind the scenes here at NTC who did a
wonderful job and make all this possible. Thank all of you for being
with us this morning. So long from Phoenix.