1. Government Employees Services Division (GESD)
United States Department of Agriculture
Office of the Chief Financial Officer
National Finance Center
Government Employees Services Division (GESD)
Randy Speed, Director Government Employee Services Division (GESD) November 27, 2012

2. Government Employees Services Division
THANK YOU FOR BEING OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS!!!!
WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!!!!

3. Government Employees Services Division
Mission Statement
GESD focuses on achieving NFC’s overall mission of maintaining its core functions of software development and maintenance, customer service, and business development, in the support of the payroll/personnel, human resource, and insurance lines of business.

4. Government Employees Services Division
GESD consists of six directorates:
Donna Speed, Applications Development
Dawn Hughes-Morris, Payroll/Personnel Operations
Gary Millet, Payroll Accounting
Anita Fincher, Client Services
VACANT, Human Resources Line of Business
Tony Priola, Government Insurance & Collections

5. Government Employees Services Division
Established the Government Insurance and Collections Directorate (GICD) in 2011, which includes five distinct areas for insurance benefits processing:
Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Program (PCIP)
Tribal Insurance Processing System (TIPS)
Direct Premium Remittance System (DPRS)
OPM Federal Employees Health Benefits Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System (CLER)
Administrative Billings and Collections (ABCO)

6. Government Employees Services Division
FY 2012 “Major” Accomplishments

7. Government Employees Services Division
Operational Achievements
Issued 742,428 W-2s for 2011
Issued over 500,000 Personal Benefit Statements for 2011
Paid over 650,000 employees bi-weekly with gross disbursements of $2.4 billion
Processed 57,753 retirement and separation cases
Managed the application software release schedule that included 4 scheduled releases of 262 projects
Responded to over 1,400 customer inquiries for PPS, HR, and webTA business lines

8. Government Employees Services Division
Operational Achievements
Received more than 34,000 telephone calls on the PPS system
Met the SLA metric of 80% of calls answered within seconds for PPS
Met the SLA metric of 85% of calls answered within seconds for EmpowHR and webTA
Completed testing of the A-123 General Computer Controls and Business Process Controls for PPS, EmpowHR, and webTA systems
Completed Business Process Controls in support of the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements 16 (SSAE 16), for FY 2012, resulting in an unqualified opinion for NFC

9. Government Employees Services Division
Statistics from October 1, 2011 to October 31, 2012
Software Change Requests (SCRs)
Beginning Balance: 519
Received: 
Closed:   
Software Problem Reports (SPRs)
Beginning Balance:
Received: 
Closed:    1303
Incident Reports (IRs)
Beginning Balance: 178
Received:  
Closed:  
NOTE: The higher Closed numbers for SPRs and IRs are due to open items carried over on October 1, 2011.

10. Government Employees Services Division
Enhancements to the Employee Personal Page (EPP) effective Pay Period (PP) 20, (October 1, 2012)
Automated setup process to establish new employees in EPP
A process for new employees to establish an EPP work address, if their Agencies have not already established the Agency work address
A special process for enrolling employees in EPP who do not have a valid Agency work address
A new process for retrieving forgotten EPP user identifications (ID) and forgotten passwords

11. Government Employees Services Division
Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) Roth
The TSP Enhancement Act of 2009, Public Law , signed into law on June 22, 2009, authorized TSP to add a Roth 401(k) feature to the plan
This benefit allows participants to contribute on an after-tax basis to their TSP accounts and receive tax- free earnings when they withdraw the funds
NFC implemented this feature in Pay Period 10, and we were the only provider to meet the TSP implementation deadline

12. Government Employees Services Division
Payment Application Modernization (PAM) Project
Treasury’s Financial Management Service (FMS) provides multiple services in the form of payments, collections, and financial reporting
FMS modernization of payment operations through the PAM Project, by consolidating more than 30 FMS legacy applications currently used to disburse $1 billion Federal payments annually
NFC converted the Disbursing System’s ABCO, DPRS, and IPPS refund files and the Payroll Accounting System’s (PACS) local services tax to the FMS- mandated Standard Payment Request (SPR) format
PAM was implemented in PP 18, 2012

13. Government Employees Services Division
OPM Guide Updates
Pay Retention for Former NSPS Employees, OPM Update 04, Guide To Data Standards
Effective February 1, 2011, OPM’s Update 04, Guide to Data Standards established a new Pay Rate Determinate (PRD) code of Y = NSPS RETAINED PAY to be used by all Federal Agencies
PRD “Y” will allow employees to be paid above the EX level IV pay cap but not to exceed 5% above the cap
These system changes were implemented in PP 04, 2012
NFC issued Title I, Bulletin 12-9, New Pay Rate Determinate Code, dated March 12, 2012

14. Government Employees Services Division
OPM Guide Updates
Pathways Program – OPM’s Updates 59 & 60
OPM issued guidance on June 25, 2012 with an effective date of July 10, 2012, which abolished and added new Legal Authority Codes and Remarks to implement the Pathways Program regulations
NFC implemented mandatory system changes in PP 15, 2012 
NFC issued Title I, Bulletin 12-17, Update 59 OPM Changes
OPM issued Update 60 on October 18, 2012, making changes to the prior guidance related to the Pathways Programs, retroactive to the original effective date of July 10, 2012 
NFC analyzed this update and will implement the required system modifications in PP 25, 2012

15. Government Employees Services Division
EmpowHR Achievements
Insourcing Project
Reduced contracting staff by 36
Increased Government employees by 20 FTEs
Generated potential savings for NFC - $3.5 million
Primary Computing Facility (PCF) Move
Re-hosted from NITC-Kansas City to NFC’s PCF in Denver in June 2012
Completed as collaborative effort between NITC, Unisys, and NFC
Eliminated the need for contractual support for infrastructure maintenance
Resulted in significant cost savings and better control of the infrastructure for maintenance and future upgrades

16. Government Employees Services Division
FY 2012 Accomplishments and Moving Forward

17. Government Employees Services Division
Help Desk Consolidation
Completed Facility build out (All Phase 1 Employees Consolidated; e.g., PPS, EmpowHR, webTA)
Extended resolution window and resolution challenge timeframe
Developed a training framework supporting NFC Quality Commitment (e.g., includes course assessment for existing trainees and new employees to ensure training content is constantly updated)
Developed communications strategy and completed six monthly employee updates and three client updates
Updated NFC Home Page “Who to Call” for Phase 1

18. Government Employees Services Division
Help Desk Consolidation
Developed a single process to combine and standardize the current Tier 3 (programmer intervention) SPR and IR processes
Modified Employee Personal Page to allow users to obtain replacement passwords quickly and to simplify process for authorized Agency personnel to request user ID resets
Added Remedy Broadcast (internal communications feature)

19. Government Employees Services Division
Moving Forward with Help Desk Consolidation
Build a foundation for continuous technology improvement and consolidation of help desks
Continue to expand Remedy Knowledge Management by making available for external customers by December 15, 2012 (currently available to help desk employees)
Expand call recording by January 15, 2013
Create ability for customers to challenge incident resolution (re-assigned back to SME group for followup) by November 30, 2012
Add additional Lines of Business into the Consolidated Help Desk model (Phase 2 activities began the week of November 13, 2012)

20. Government Employees Services Division
Risk mitigation for legacy PPS
Completed review and reconciliation of global inventory assessment of the PPS application suite
Shipped application code to vendor for conversion and remediation
Converted build of new IDMS test environment applications
Moving Forward with Risk Mitigation
Begin loading IDMS test environment with baseline data
Build DB2 test environment for converted batch and online applications
Build netCOBOL development environment for online PPS applications (e.g., IRIS, PINQ, etc.)

21. Government Employees Services Division
Insight Enterprise Reporting Solution
Announced branding of Enterprise Reporting Solution as Insight - Business Intelligence Delivered
Deployed Customer Pilot to Reporting Working Group representatives from 18 Agencies
Finalized and implemented the data management and loading approach
Developed “front-end” business intelligence user interface
Completed Change Readiness Survey
Launched customer communications including demo and Website

22. Government Employees Services Division
Moving Forward with Insight
Monitoring pilot usage and feedback
Developing, loading, and testing “back-end” data warehouse tables for Build 1
Developing standard reports and dashboards for
Build 1
Designing applications support model and processes (i.e., configuration management)
Developing training approach
Conducting Certification and Accreditation (C&A)

23. Government Employees Services Division
NFC Time and Attendance (T&A) Solutions
Completed webTA 4.x Design Document for the OCFO pilot
Approved webTA 4.x platform for the software
Re-platform webTA 3.8 from Unix to Windows by January 2013 to reduce costs
Implement OCFO pilot in June 2013
Additional Agency conversions to follow

24. Government Employees Services Division
Moving Forward with NFC T&A Solutions
Preparing test scripts to test software and platform for webTA 4.x
Evaluating GDCI Paycheck8 as another Federal T&A option
Proactively reach out to STARWeb customers to discuss future options in preparation for the sunset of STARWeb

25. Government Employees Services Division
Employee Personal Page (EPP) mobile application
EPP’s traditional design has been replaced with a new responsive design format that intuitively knows what type of device the customer is using
Content is automatically reformatted to provide the best presentation of content and easiest navigation for the computer, tablet devices, or smartphones
Development, coding, unit, and user acceptance testing phases were completed
Moving forward with EPP mobile application
EPP Mobile is HERE!!

26. Government Employees Services Division
Debt Management Implementation Plan
To ensure compliance with the Federal Claims Collections Standard (FCCS), the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996, and various code of federal regulations applicable to debt collection
NFC is making major modifications to existing debt management processes including:
Documented ABCO database change
Provided Treasury with test results for the increase in the automatic garnishment amount
Implemented the process to garnish debts that are less than or equal to $50
Continuing to meet with Treasury to discuss action plan and level of effort for developing and implementing proposed changes

27. Government Employees Services Division
EmpowHR Implementations
DHS/FEMA EmpowHR Implementation - PP 17, 2012
Completed Requirements Phase for One USDA
Moving Forward with EmpowHR Implementations
Developing a Project Schedule for Phase I of One USDA
Reviewing One USDA proposed Implementation Strategy and Timeline

28. Government Employees Services Division
Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Program (PCIP)
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) (March 23, 2010), expanded access to FEHB to those that had been previously denied insurance coverage due to a pre-existing condition
PCIP currently has 39,221 active enrollments
FY 2012 Processing Accomplishments:
Call Volume (Tier 1 and Tier 2) ,907
Applications Processed ,198
Applications Approved ,012
Applications Denied ,271

29. Government Employees Services Division
Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Program (PCIP)
PCIP provides customer service and processes applications for 23 States and the District of Columbia
Enrollments are taken from individual applicants and support services are provided to the PCIP Health Carrier (GEHA), HHS, and OPM
PCIP Tier 2 currently employs a total of 38 Federal and contracted full-time employees at NFC

30. Government Employees Services Division
Tribal Insurance Processing System (TIPS)
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) (March 23, 2010), Section 157 allows eligible Tribal Employers to purchase FEHB and Federal Employee Group Life Insurance (FEGLI)
Provides enrollment processing, and billing and collection to 42 Tribes and 68 POIs
Provides support to 84 FEHB Carriers and OPM
Currently has 3155 active enrollments

31. Government Employees Services Division
Implemented TIPS on March 22, 2012
FY 2012 Processing Accomplishments:
SF2809s processed 3,378
SF2810s processed

32. Government Employees Services Division
Direct Premium Remittance System (DPRS)
Enrollment processing and billings/collections of FEHB premiums for eligible former employees and dependents under the Spouse Equity Act and Temporary Continuation of Coverage (TCC) Government-wide
Processing and billing/collections for 77 Federal Agencies with 35,977 active enrollments
Direct Pay accounts for OPM
Telephone and written inquiries from 84 FEHB Carriers and individual enrollees
FY 2012 Processing Accomplishments:
Phone calls answered ,947
Enrollments processed ,482
Written Inquiries processed ,034
Collections processed $3.4 million

33. Government Employees Services Division
On the Horizon

34. Government Employees Services Division
Federal Employees Retirement System-Revised Annuity Employees(FERS-RAE)
Interim solution for OPM BAL , which provides guidance for new hires and elected officials under FERS effective PP 27, 2012 (January 1, 2013)
New employees designated as FERS-RAE will have to pay significantly higher employee contributions, an increase of 2.3 of their salary
New members of Congress and Congressional employees, in addition to paying higher retirement contributions, will accrue retirement benefits at the same rate as regular employees
NFC is working with OPM on implementation date

35. Government Employees Services Division
Paperless Personal Benefit Statements
NFC has determined that going paperless will reduce PII incidents and will be beneficial to employees
Statements produced in 2013 (for CY 2012) will incorporate TSP Roth changes

36. Government Employees Services Division
OPM Changes for Separate Locality Pay Table for Other Non-Foreign Areas
OPM is discontinuing the separate locality pay table for pay area “ON”, other non-foreign areas effective January 2013
Employees in the affected non-foreign areas now receive the full locality pay rate as the Rest of U.S.
Title 5 - Effective PP 01, 2013
Non-Title 5 Agencies - System Change Request to develop requirements
NFC will update our Table Management System to reflect these changes

37. Government Employees Services Division
QUESTIONS ?