The 43rd Sustainment Brigade officially went live, July 25, with Global Command Support System Army, a new logistical system, affecting numerous units across Fort Carson.
Several units on Fort Carson have been participating in the training that started in early July.
“GCSS-Army is the tactical unit/installation logistics and financial system for the U.S. Army,” said Patrick Patterson, chief of installation, Logistics Division, GCSS-Army, based out of Petersburg, Va. “GCSS-Army is an Enterprise Resource Planning solution that will track supplies, spare parts and organizational equipment. It will track unit maintenance, total cost of ownership and other financial transactions related to logistics for all Army units.”
Carlice Lewis, materiel and execution management instructor, Northrop Grumman, provides Global Command Support System-Army over-the-shoulder training, July 25, at the 43rd Sustainment Brigade Headquarters.
The system will allow the Army to be more efficient in the logistics process, ultimately saving money, said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Errick L. Moore, routing identifier code-geographical manager, 43rd SB.
“GCSS-Army is a commercial off-the-shelf system that is used to replace Standard Army Retail Supply System,” said Moore. “SARSS has been in existence since 1995 and it was effective, but the Army G-4 wanted to make sure that we had a system that was auditable by 2017.”
Units on Fort Carson were broken down into fielding groups for GCSS-Army’s fielding schedule, said Patterson.
He said Fort Carson organizations involved in FG19 GCSS-Army are Fort Carson Logistics Readiness Center; 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division; 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Inf. Div.; 10th Special Forces Group; Warrior Transition Battalion and 247th Quarter Master Company, 68th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 43rd SB.
“The trainers arrived here to Fort Carson June 30, and that was in preparation to start the setup of the classrooms for the warehouse finance and material management classrooms,” said Moore. “Then we started the actual new equipment training July 8.
“The training has been real successful across all the brigades and units, especially for 43rd,” said Moore. “With the new system, because we’ve been using SARSS for 15 years, we have to learn new practices, learn new languages, new business practices on how we do things. So it’s going to be an expected dip on the productivity, but as you get the Soldiers to learn the processes … it’s going to even out and we’ll get back on track.”
“This has been a very successful training event. During NET, we provided training to 200 students in GCSS-Army Warehouse Operations, Finance Operations and Material/Execution Management Operations.
“I’ll be honest, I was skeptical,” said Moore. “I was one of those who said ‘No, I like SARSS,’ but after attending the warrant officer advanced course, we had a block of an instruction by one of the developers who’s been on (GCSS-Army) since 1993 explain it and it really helps because it helps with your visibility … whereas if I was running a Supply Support Activity, I would be the only one that could view requisitions and everything else unless it was in another system.
“GCSS-Army allows not only me, but the commander, the maintainers, the property book officers, to actually go in and view the requisition as it’s coming through the pipeline,” he said. “It gives better visibility.”
The six organizations continued receiving over- the-shoulder training through the middle of August to ensure a smooth transition to GCSS-Army.