OPM embarks on $9.4M path to modernize benefits systems
The Office of Personnel Management has kicked off the procurement to modernize its financial management and benefits systems, looking to industry for information on existing commercial solutions it can adopt.
OPM said in a request for information this week that it wants “commercially available alternatives” to its federal retirement trust funds’ accounting system, which administers accounting functions for the Retirement and Disability, Federal Employees’ Health Benefits, Retired Employees’ Health Benefits, and Federal Employees’ Life Insurance programs for all federal civilian employees and retirees.
OPM planned for this modernization in its fiscal 2018 congressional budget justification, requesting $37 million for it and other IT modernization initiatives in the coming year. Specifically, it would cost $9.4 million for the modernization of the trust fund system, the largest line item in that requested modernization plan.
“The Trust Fund Federal Financial System (FFS) is currently unable to meet many trust fund accounting and related business processes, resulting in increased inefficiencies across multiple areas within OPM,” the budget justification reads. OPM continually faces a backlog of federal employee retirement claims.
The current system is a commercial off-the-shelf adaptation of CGI-AMS Inc.’s Federal Financial System, with a custom-built subsystem for investments, according to the RFI.
“OPM is looking for new and innovative technological approaches and solution options to fill existing technology and trust fund related business gaps that are preventing the agency from fulfilling long term strategic goals efficiently and cost effectively,” the RFI’s synopsis states. It plans to acquire “systems implementation services, application hosting services, operational support (post implementation including help desk services), and Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) financial management software applications”
The agency is also open to using an interagency agreement to acquire a shared service to fill this need.
Modernizing this system and the business processes “will serve as a catalyst to propel automations within financial operations reducing manual labor effort and time, eliminating human errors, and reducing the overall cost of operation and maintenance by consolidating and integrating the processes of other related systems,” the agency says.
The agency will host a pre-solicitation industry day June 29 for vendors to ask questions and gather more information on the procurement.
Responses to the RFI are due by July 5.
