Peake: Better Management through Standardized Business Processes
WASHINGTON – To upgrade its financial and asset management systems, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced two requests for proposals (RFPs) for the Financial and Logistics Integrated Technology Enterprise (FLITE) Program.
“FLITE makes good business sense because it will allow VA to do a better job of managing its resources,” said Dr. James B. Peake, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. “Strong business systems are vital to supporting delivery of our services to veterans, and we expect FLITE to be the cornerstone of this effort.”
The purpose of FLITE is to standardize business practices and modernize information technology that supports financial and asset management. The program has two components -- Strategic Asset Management (SAM) and Integrated Financial Accounting System (IFAS). Both components are Web-based and will automate many manual procedures.
The RFPs released are for the SAM component. One is for the SAM pilot implementation at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center; the other is for hardware to support the SAM application. The SAM project will use the VA-owned Maximo software application to manage all classes of physical assets, supply inventories and work management activities.
The release of the SAM RFPs moves the FLITE Program from the planning phase to the development phase and begins a multi-year process to consolidate asset management and improve access to data for decision making, evaluation and action.
VA expects to release RFPs for hosting and implementing the pilot for the IFAS project and program management support services in the near future.
