ASAP Customer Board (ACB) Meeting Minutes
March 19, 2007
Birmingham, AL

• Previous ACB Meeting Minutes

Introductions around the table were initiated. ACB members mentioned the organization they support and their role on the Board. New members were also introduced at this time. ACB Members in attendance: Dee Ann Haworth, Chair, Anita Easterday, Vice Chair, Linda Holiman, Tisha Leeth, Sam Moore, Lisa Thompson, James Turner, and Maria Vargas-Capriles. FMS/ASAP Team Members in attendance: Victor Poore, Carol Cole, Myron Pinkney, and Laura Holland.

ACB Administrative Issues

• November 2006 minutes were approved for posting.
• FMS informed the members that the Department of Education will not be moving to ASAP since they are a Center of Excellence.

Conference Calls

• Conference calls and their length were discussed. A general consensus of sticking to agenda items on the calls was reached and calls should be kept to a two hour limit.
• Scheduling dates for future meetings will be covered at the end of each meeting.
• Meetings will take place twice a year for face to face and conference calls quarterly. We will schedule a primary and backup date for the quarterly conference call. One month prior to the calls, we will confirm with ACB if they are available on the primary date or if we need to use the back up date.
  
  
• It was determined that members will be notified in a timely manner regarding future ACB face to face meetings. This notification is necessary in order to obtain affordable airline fares.

ASAP User Survey

In January 2007 a User Feedback form was distributed to the ACB members. The purpose of the User Feedback form was to measure the benefits and costs of the ASAP payment system to each user. The results of this form were to be used in an OMB mandated Alternatives Analysis, which is used to determine future development activities. ACB members also requested copies of the final Alternative Analysis.

Survey Comments:

• ACB members complained about the timeframe for information.
• Some had a hard time understanding what was being requested and there was confusion about the meaning of a number of questions on the form.
• In the future, when similar feedback forms are distributed to the ACB, FMS will try to provide enough lead time to complete the exercise and have open sessions to discuss any questions that users have regarding the form.

• Information received from the survey was sent to contractors procured by the FRB-Richmond. The data collected will be used in an Alternatives Analysis. The Alternatives Analysis is a presentation of four alternatives for future ASAP development. Once all functionality and enhancements are incorporated into ASAP, the system then is said to reach a "steady state".

Release Schedule Updates

• ASAP has created a schedule of enhancements that will be implemented over the next 5 years. FMS has mandated that we use the title "Release", as opposed to "Version" with all future upgrades.
• Scope document should be posted to website as soon as possible after implementation, since "fixes" keep users informed on application functionality.

Release 2.7 - RO Enrollment

The new enrollment flow process was explained:

• The Federal Enrollment Initiator starts the enrollment process by identifying the Recipient Organization to be enrolled and entering the DUNS, TIN, type of organization and the point of contact information.
• Unique DUNS, TINS and emails are required.
• The role of the Point of Contact is critical to the ASAP.gov enrollment process.
• The RO Point of Contact confirms that information entered by the enrollment initiator and is responsible for identifying the recipient organization's officials.
• The Head of Organization approves the officials identified by the point of contact.
• The Authorizing Official is responsible for confirming the recipient organization's information and identifying the users who need access to the ASAP.gov application.
• The Financial Official is responsible for entering the bank account information for the recipient organization.
• Once all of the above tasks are completed, the application will notify the Federal agency that the organization enrollment has been completed and they can create and fund accounts.
• The enrollment cycle allows each role up to 45 days to complete their task. The application will generate email reminders if no action is taken after 35 days, 40 days and on the 46th day the enrollment is deleted if all tasks are not completed.
• Emails are sent to users when identified to use the application.
• Changes to DUNS and TIN should be processed through the user's servicing Regional Financial Center (RFC). Users are responsible for informing their Federal agencies and obtaining their approval to change a DUNS and/or TIN. The RFC will ask the user for proof of an agency's approval before processing the change.

Q: Anita asked if the FPA Enrollment Initiator (EI) could be notified when a Recipient Organization (RO) changes the Point of Contact (POC)?
A: This doesn't happen now, but if a change request is submitted we will evaluate it and determine if it will be changed in a future release.

Q: What notices are the Head of Organization/Redeligated Head of Organization (HOO/RHOO) receiving?
A: The HOO/RHOO currently receives notices when a Federal Agency has enrolled their RO and when an Official (Authorizing (AO), Financial (FO), or POC) has been added, modified, or deleted.

Q: Does the effective date on banking data appear on the confirmation page?
A: Currently ASAP displays the effective date that accounts will be available on the confirmation page when a FO adds banking data.

Q: Will RO's have the ability to modify data if entered incorrectly before HOO approves?
A: The POC for the RO has the opportunity to modify incorrect roles he has assigned to the officials by using Modify/Delete Officials-Organization Pending Enrollment, as long as the POC does it before the HOO approves. Any changes to personal data can only be changed by the user after the HOO approves the user by using the Modify My Information.

Release 3.0 - November 18, 2006 - Notification of Change and Online Notification

• The Notification of Change (NOC) is not a new process however, ASAP was not processing these notices until Release 3. NOC are changes sent to ASAP by the RO bank when changes are made to the bank account number, routing number, and account types demand or savings for ACH accounts.
• ASAP will post NOC codes that will be accepted. ASAP application will reject, with an explanation, any NOC code that the application will not accept.
• The online notification subject line was modified to include text that described the notification message instead of the machine language that was being displayed.

Release 4.0 - April 30, 2007 - Internet Enrollment for Federal Agencies (FA)

Discussed the FA Enrollment process:

• Regional Finance Center (RFC) starts the FA Enrollment by identifying the FA POC and Certifying Official (CO).
• The FA POC is responsible for identifying the individual FA people who need access to the ASAP application.
• Once the users are defined by FA POC, the CO will approve or reject users.
• Each role has 45 days to complete a task.
• CO can only be defined, modified or deleted by the FA servicing RFC.

The use of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Technology for FA CO is scheduled to be implemented later this year.

Q: In obtaining a PKI certification do we get the forms at the time the enrollment starts? Do we tell FA, when a new Certifying Official is defined, to send forms to servicing RFC at the same time to ensure they are completed correctly?
A: Agencies will be notified prior to PKI being turned on as to what information will be required and how it shall be obtained.

Q: Does ASAP have functionality that allows FA users to look at all transactions for a given ALC?
A: Users can only see ALC information that relates to them.

Q: How will an email address be modified?
A: For FA users, once 4.0 is implemented, they may need to re-enroll to change email and last name. They will need to notify their servicing RFC to make the change.

Release 5.0 - November, 2007 - Federal ACH Debit for Returns

• ACH Debit for Returns and proof of concept for data security enhancements will be included in this release.
• The implementation of Rapid Application Development (RAD) and its use with Release 5.0 was discussed.
• It was explained that RAD will be used for development with Release 5.0.
• RAD is a discipline used to develop software in a short period of time.
• Volunteers may be asked to participate in the RAD process for Release 5.0. The ACB members requested to be a part of the RAD process.
• The first phase of Release 5.0 will begin the week before Memorial Day (May 21st thru 25th).

Q: Is the RAD process used with other applications?
A: FMS is changing their standards and will be using RAD for development as we move forward.

Release 6.0 - April, 2008 - Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Requirements

• Release 6.0 covers HUD conversion to ASAP and covers the next phase of data security.

Q: Will Release 6.0 be for HUD only?
A: No, it will also include Data Security.

Release 7.0 - November, 2008 - HUD Requirements

• HUD continuation.

Release 8.0 - April, 2009

• Regards Government Wide Accounting (GWA) interface.
• Database changes (long term) were discussed.

Q: Will the Central Contractor Registry (CCR) Interface be in Release 8.0?
A: CCR does not have the required bank data needed for ASAP. Until required banking data is mandated, ASAP will not interface. We will continue to have discussions with the CCR group.

General Remarks/Questions

• CBAF is responsible for password issues. Attendees were given a Quick Reference card with ASAP contact information and ASAP hours of operation.
• It was requested to include three digit RFC Identifier on quick reference card. The next ASAP Customer Board conference call is scheduled for June 20 from 2:00 to 4:00(EST) and the backup date will be June 21 from 2:00 to 4:00. The ACB will be contacted a month before to confirm the conference call.
• The Federal Agency user group meeting will be July 19th in Washington DC. Details will be posted on the ASAP website. The NCURA conference for Universities is scheduled for November 4-7, 2007. The next ACB face to face meeting will also take place at that time.

Q: Will recertification be done in the application?
A: Not at this time. User recertification is being built into the TWAI for FMS.

Q: Anita asked if the agency reconciliation report is available for FA users?
A: Currently it is available.

Q: Can FMS direct the state organization where to go to get the list of FA Identifiers that are used for payments?
A: There is not a list of identifiers that are used for payments, however if anyone needs to know what an identifier is, they can contact the FMS Austin RFC.