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By Steve Lawson, Corporate Communications
 

 

DFAS HEADQUARTERS July 1, 2020 – Data’s everywhere and that is especially true here at DFAS. Data’s used to answer many questions like how many people are paid by the Agency, how many people utilize mailed versus online W-2 statements, or how many employees utilize telework. 

DFAS also has access to an extraordinary amount of Department of Defense financial and non-financial data. Leveraging current data analytics capabilities, and growing enhanced data analytics capabilities, will enable the DFAS to turn business data into business insight, facilitating more informed business decisions.

Realizing the power of data and data analytics, the agency added a data analytics element to the FY20 Initiatives supporting the FY17 – 21 Strategic Plan. Under the Agency Operational Health (AOH) metric, an element called “Tactical Data Analytics (Business Insights)” was added. By the end of this fiscal year, the goal is to have “established an effective organizational structure and governance model for addressing agency-wide data analytics.” There are several current initiatives in the agency to help achieve that goal.

Colby Shreffler, a lead analyst in the data analytics cell at DFAS Indianapolis, explained his team’s focus is on offering a new perspective for interpreting data utilized by DFAS mission areas.

“We’re trying to give management tools to make informed and unbiased decisions that are based on data,” said Shreffler. “We work with different mission areas to try to uncover opportunities to leverage data, review their underlying processes, and potentially find opportunities for process improvements.”

Several areas around DFAS have leveraged the use of data to help with decision making and to help predict trends, including the team at the Mechanization of Contract Administration Services (MOCAS) team at DFAS Columbus.

Two specific projects, the MOCAS Aged Balance Reductions and Automation Project, and the MOCAS Cancelled Funds Reduction Project, provide tangible benefits to DFAS customers and were recognized during last year’s Association of Military Comptrollers (ASMC) Professional Development Institute.
 
For the Cancelled Funds Reduction Project, the Data Analytics team, led by Elizabeth Gibbs, DFAS Columbus program manager in the Data Analytics Office, developed a MOCAS Predictive Dashboard to help reduce overage invoices. 

“The goal of this project was to provide DFAS Columbus Accounts Payable MOCAS with predictive analytics to better help them manage workload, quickly react to changes in inflow, and prevent overage spikes," said Gibbs. 

The effort began about a year ago when the MOCAS system experienced an increased inflow of inventory, about 43,000 more invoices than were received the previous year, which drove overaged balances up.

 

To help drive down the aged balances and prevent inventory spikes in the future, the Data Analytics team created new reports, including a powerful predictive analytics dashboard. The data analytics program office delivered advanced reporting capabilities that use multivariable regression and other complicated mathematical methods to estimate the number of future aged Invoices.

“The goals of the project were to deliver at least two dashboards a month to Operations and to maintain MOCAS overage at least 10 percent below historical averages," said Gibbs, “both of those goals were achieved."

“In fact, this January, Overage was the lowest it had been in any January for the last seven years.” This project produced powerful information that helped increase overall payment timeliness by three days to the DoD Contractors.

Stay tuned for more information on the data analytics initiative, including upcoming data analytics training opportunities and the establishment of a Data Analytics Community of Practice. At DFAS, we are embracing a data-driven culture to help support our customers and achieve our agency goals!
Page updated July 1, 2020

 

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