Commerce Administrative Management System (CAMS) Program Management Plan (PMP)

Executive Summary

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has embarked on implementing a new, automated Commerce Administrative Management System (CAMS), designed to modernize and integrate its financial and administrative management systems and to streamline related business processes.  The goal of CAMS is to employ modern technology in providing managers with standardized, accurate, and timely financial information to manage their resources while simultaneously reducing administrative costs. 

The Department of Commerce is undertaking this CAMS initiative for a number of reasons.  The Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP) requires that an Agency’s financial management systems be linked together electronically for effectiveness and efficiency. The current NIST financial management system, as a whole, although time tested and successful in supporting current operations, does not comply with the requirements in the JFMIP definition.  Very few components of the system are “electronically” linked and much of the transactional data is transferred manually via batch exports and imports.  In addition, contrary to the JFMIP’s requirement of having an electronically “integrated” financial management system, there is a significant amount of duplicate data stored in the individual components of the system.  CAMS, once implemented, will aid the Department and Bureaus in meeting the Federally mandated guidelines of streamlining and standardizing accounting and financial management procedures.

The CAMS Implementation will enable compliance with a number of key legal mandates passed in recent years, including: 

• Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA) of 1982 – Encompasses accounting, financial management, operational, and administrative areas and establishes specific requirements for management controls in Federal agencies.

• Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990 – Lays a foundation for comprehensive reform of Federal financial management. Under the Act, an agency CFO’s responsibility extends to every aspect of financial management related to operating agency programs making the CFO the key decision maker in “agency wide and agency component accounting, financial and asset management systems”. The CFO Act establishes a leadership structure, provides for long-range planning, requires audited financial statements, and strengthens accountability reporting. Maintenance of an integrated agency accounting and financial management system that provides complete, reliable, consistent, and timely information is specifically assigned to the CFO.

• Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993 – Intended to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Federal programs by establishing a system to set goals for program performance and to measure results.

• Government Management Reform Act (GMRA) of 1994 – Requires agency financial statements to reflect the results of agency operations and, beginning with FY 1997, a government-wide financial statement that includes results of government-wide operations.

• Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA) of 1996 – Requires each agency to implement and maintain financial management systems that comply substantially with Federal financial management systems requirements, applicable Federal accounting standards, and the United States Government Standard General Ledger at the transaction level. FFMIA builds upon and compliments existing legislation.

• Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-127 “Financial Management Systems” – Sets forth general policies for Federal financial management systems. Each agency is required to develop and maintain a single, integrated financial management system.

• Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP) – A joint undertaking of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the General Accounting Office, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), working in cooperation with each other and other agencies to improve financial management practices in Government. The JFMIP has published a series of publications entitled Federal Financial Management System Requirements (FFMSR). A Core Financial System Requirements document has been prepared as a continuation of the FFMSR.

In addition, according to the DOC Office of Inspector General (OIG) (Sep 2000), the Financial Management Systems are among the top ten management challenges facing the DOC, specifically:

“Many of the Department’s financial systems are seriously outdated and fragmented; they are unable to provide timely, complete and reliable financial information; they are inadequately controlled; and they are costly and difficult to maintain. The financial systems, taken as a whole, are not compliant with GAO principles and standards, nor with requirements of the CFO Act, the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP), or OMB.”

It is envisioned that CAMS will provide NIST with a number of strategic, process and organizational benefits, including: 

• Capturing information at the source of the transaction, moving it electronically (both vertically and horizontally) between program managers, financial, budget, acquisition and administrative personnel;

• Improving customer service through real-time communication;

• Facilitating the long-term transition from a focus on data entry in the DCFO to a focus on data analysis;

• Including a long-term goal of shifting responsibility for some data entry functions;

• Providing detailed transactional data at the line item level;

• Providing automatic real-time General Ledger updates and validation of funds availability;

• Providing a common Accounting Code Classification Structure across the organization; and

• Enabling compliance with OMB, GAO, Treasury and JFMIP requirements.

CAMS Vision

The CAMS concept, as defined by the Department of Commerce, consists of the Core Financial System (CFS) along with related functional and administrative feeder systems built on a modern, tightly integrated Relational Data Base Management System (RDBMS) providing the flexibility for changes as Federal requirements change and to expand as needed.  The current Core CAMS strategy being implemented at the Bureau level consists of the CFS and two administrative system interfaces: the NFC Labor Distribution Module and the Commerce Purchase Card System (CPCS). The CFS provides financial management and accounting services and consists of the following modules: General Ledger, Budget Execution/Funds Control, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Cost Accumulation/Allocation, and Financial Reporting.

The CAMS Implementation at NIST also includes the development of the NIST CAMS Portal. The vision for the NIST CAMS is to provide CAMS users with a user-friendly, central location to retrieve financial management and accounting information.  In addition, the Portal will provide users with commitment tracking ability.

CFS is the key component of the overall system, which provides the critical linkage of the financial management and accounting services to be implemented. Other administrative systems at NIST, such as Procurement, Grants, Travel, Property, and Time and Attendance also have financial transactional data and will need to be integrated or interfaced with CFS. 

CAMS Implementation at NIST

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Director of Administration and Chief Financial Officer (DA/CFO) organization is primarily responsible for the financial operations of NIST, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and the Technology Administration (TA).  All three Bureaus currently operate out of one shared Working Capital Fund (WCF) and utilize the same financial management system. The current “As-is” NIST financial management system is comprised of a set of mainframe and PC applications, many of which have been custom developed within the organization. These applications are written in multiple programming languages and some are approximately 30 years old.  The financial management system components communicate through system and/or manual interfaces, but for the most part are not integrated.

Phase III Implementation Strategy

The overall Phase III Implementation strategy is to deploy CAMS throughout NIST, NTIA, and TA concurrently in October 2003.  This approach will allow for a manageable distribution of scope throughout FY 2002 and FY 2003, will allow key business decisions to be made utilizing input from TA/NIST/NTIA and will reduce overall project risk.

CAMS NIST Cross-Serviced Bureaus

Core CAMS has been implemented and is now the accounting system of record for six (6) Customer Bureaus that NIST cross-services. These Bureaus were implemented in a two-phased approach during FY 2001 and, as a result, the legacy Federal Accounting and Reporting System (FARS) was taken off-line in June 2001.

Change Management

As part of the CAMS Implementation for NIST/NTIA/TA, the CAMS Implementation Team has developed and is executing a comprehensive change management strategy, working together with the numerous stakeholders internal and external to NIST to achieve positive results. The CAMS Implementation Team is committed to working with NIST, TA, and NTIA stakeholders to understand the various financial and administrative systems, functions, and processes, to collaboratively design the “To-Be” CAMS environment, processes and systems and to ensure that CAMS provides the holistic and successful environment intended.