On August 23, 2005, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a press release announcing the National Business Center (NBC) as one of five Federal Human Resources (HR) Shared Service Centers (SSC). Now that the NBC has been chosen by the OPM to continue as an HR Line of Business (LoB) SSC, the NBC's vision is to offer not only the NBC's world-class integrated core HR and payroll solutions, but the full range of HR functions envisioned by the OPM. What this means for the NBC's customers, is seamless coupling of streamlined HR processes and state-of-the-art technology to support the full employee life-cycle, along with the NBC's time-honored commitment to excellence.
For 30 years, by delivering "core" HR systems and services, the NBC has partnered with Federal agencies enabling them to focus on their agency's mission. Currently, a large number of Federal agencies enjoy this benefit.
The NBC's current core offerings include:
- HR operations, such as personnel action processing, position management, and benefits processing
- Payroll processing
- Time and attendance reporting
- Labor cost reporting
- Corporate Datamart environment
- Drug and alcohol testing
The NBC is currently designing modern, end-to-end, optimized business processes covering the full employee life-cycle, including recruitment, hiring, applicant intake, benefits enrollment, personnel actions, position classification, performance management, employee and labor relations, and others. These processes will reflect best practices from both the private and public sectors. Today, an agency typically employs HR generalists. Through the NBC's economies of scale, the NBC will provide true specialists for each HR function, as well as cost-effective and timely processing of HR transactions, freeing the agency's HR staff to focus on policy and strategic human capital planning.
The NBC's HR back-office solutions will be supported through new Information Technology (IT) solutions that leverage and integrate with the NBC's proven core offerings. If an agency chooses to not use the NBC's HR back-office solutions, they can choose to have their own HR staff access the same systems that the NBC's HR staff uses: the Federal Personnel Payroll System (FPPS), the Quicktime Time and Attendance System, a recruitment IT solution (FY 2006), employee benefits self-service (FY 2006), and in the FY 2007-2009 timeframe, IT solutions for position classification, performance management, employee/labor relations management, and others.
The NBC is developing the technical infrastructure required to support and fully integrate the NBC's IT solutions to provide seamless, faster, and more secure processes. The most visible feature of this environment to be designed this fiscal year will be a portal with the following features:
- Single sign-on for all HR applications
- Integration of the NBC HR solutions
- Enhanced employee and manager self-service
- Enhanced user experience
- New interface for the FPPS
Behind the portal, processing and integration efficiencies will be gained through implementation of several technical enhancements. These include an automated workflow solution; Web services for real-time, system-to-system interoperability; and an enterprise service bus deployed in a services-oriented architecture. These enhancements will allow the NBC to mix-and-match best-of-breed solutions for each HR function and to interoperate with the NBC's other offerings, such as finance and accounting.
The NBC client base continues to grow through word-of-mouth referrals from the NBC's current clients and through the NBC's participation in Federal government-wide consolidation initiatives. To enhance customer rapport, the NBC will hold one-on-one meetings with senior customer managers and will establish an NBC HR User Group. Also, the NBC will partner with clients and vendors to provide additional functionality and technical capabilities.
Customer service, innovation, and best value are the cornerstones of the NBC. With the combination of the NBC's diverse-yet-integrated solutions and expanding client base, the NBC is enhancing its ability and commitment to pass along the economies associated with scale and state-of-the-art technology.
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