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Doc Mirelson/Brian Dunbar
Headquarters, Washington             June 25, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-1600)

RELEASE: 03-213

NEW FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT TOOLS UNITE NASA

     NASA's business operations took a giant leap forward 
this week as all 10 NASA field centers began using the same 
system to pay bills and manage financial accounts.

The new system, part of NASA's Integrated Financial 
Management Program (IFMP), is one component of a major 
overhaul of the way the agency does business. The program is 
replacing duplicative legacy systems with new ones for 
common use across the agency.

"NASA is changing the way it does business," said Patrick 
Ciganer, program executive for IFMP. "The new system allows 
us to work with common tools toward common goals, not as 10 
different centers with different ways of budgeting or 
managing their finances," he said.

"Under the new system, we'll be able to track our finances 
all the way from the overall agency budget down to the 
individual transaction level," Ciganer said. "We'll be 
providing NASA managers with up-to-date information on where 
their programs stand financially, and they'll have the tools 
evaluate tradeoffs required in the program planning. We'll 
also be able to take a consistent look across programs," he 
said.

The Core Financial Module, rolled out this week, replaces 
145 legacy systems across NASA. Under IFMP, NASA replaced 
nine of 10 legacy travel-management systems with one system, 
called Travel Manager. In the coming months, the Budget 
Formulation Module will replace 18 budget-formulation 
systems. Within the next two years, the Integrated Asset 
Management Module will replace more than 100 additional 
systems.

NASA's human resource offices have been using other modules 
to create position descriptions for new jobs and to allow 
job applicants to create resumes online. Before these 
personnel programs came online, prospective applicants had 
to mail resumes to individual NASA centers to apply for 
jobs, and prospective employers could only select from 
applicants who applied at the manger's center.

With the new system, prospective applicants can apply online 
for jobs across NASA, and prospective employers can evaluate 
resumes from anyone. As a result, NASA is receiving from two 
to 10 times more applicants for each job opening than under 
the old systems.

The personnel tools were essential for the Educator 
Astronaut program, which received more than 1,600 
applications in three months. The Staffing and Recruiting 
System (STARS) allowed NASA to efficiently collect analyze 
and process the applications.

For information about the Integrated Financial Management 
Program on the Internet, visit:

http://ifmp.nasa.gov/

For information about NASA on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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