Customer Relationship Managers (CRM)

Holistic Approach

The Financial Management Service (FMS) is implementing a holistic approach with federal program agencies (FPAs) to improve cash management practices governmentwide.

Our goal is to establish a management framework for moving toward an all-electronic Treasury. FMS's goals are to: offer collection mechanisms that are easy to use, convenient and secure; streamline the collection process; make full use of Web and electronic technologies; manage the depositary services provided to federal agencies by financial institutions/agents; and provide timely collection of federal government receipts.

FMS will work closely with FPAs to develop a complete understanding of an FPA's entire collection portfolio and will recommend an integrated set of mechanisms to meet an agency's collection needs. Additionally, FMS will establish relationships in the chief financial officer's (CFO's) office to develop and administer the agencywide holistic approach, rather than working with an agency on an individual program or ad hoc request basis. Throughout the entire process, all FMS program areas and agency representatives will work cohesively to achieve the goals of all parties involved.

The specific methodology used to implement the holistic approach to collections is outlined below. The FPA and FMS will:

• establish overall agencywide electronic collections goals and specific bureau-level metrics for each agency,
• develop a strategic collections plan, with the appropriate mix of collection strategies and implementation timelines,
• reduce the number of paper lockboxes and Treasury General Account (TGA) depositaries,
• develop targeted marketing strategies to convince remitters to move from check payments to electronic remittances, and
• establish one agency participation agreement (APA) per FPA that will incorporate each collection mechanism application.

Several FMS divisions-Agency Relationship Management (ARM), General Revenue Collections (GRC) and Over-the-Counter Revenue Collections (OTC)-share responsibility for working with FPAs to implement collection mechanisms. ARM is responsible for managing the relationships between FMS and the FPAs. ARM will:

• work with each federal agency from the CFO level downward through the bureaus and offices to develop a complete understanding of the FPA's collections at all levels,
• serve as the central point of contact for FPAs to ensure their needs are met,
• ensure coordination between the FPA and other FMS program areas,
• coordinate with FPA and FMS to address issues that arise from time to time, and
• meet regularly with the FPA CFO's office to review progress in developing and implementing the collections strategic plan.

The GRC and OTC divisions will support the holistic approach as it touches their collection programs. These divisions are responsible for managing programs such as TGAnet, Paper Check Conversion (PCC), Pay.Gov, and the General Lockbox Network. The GRC and OTC divisions will:

• work with the FPAs in finalizing collection requirements,
• work with the FPAs to implement collection systems as outlined in their strategic plan, and
• revise and consolidate the FMS Treasury Financial Manual (TFM) chapters on revenue collection to support the holistic approach.

For additional information on the holistic approach, please contact your FMS customer relationship manager at ARM@fms.treas.gov.