Department of the Navy Converged Enterprise Resource Planning Program: the United States Navy gets down to the business of doing business using a bold and radical initiative called the Navy ERP.

Over the past three decades, a steady stream of legislation has directed federal agencies to improve their financial management operations, systems, performance, and internal controls. Consistent with one of these laws--the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990--the Secretary of Defense is actively pursuing a clean audit opinion on Department of Defense (DoD)--wide financial statements. The Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Management and Comptroller) is working closely with the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) to support this goal and recently has developed a strategy that emphasizes business process transformation as the key to audit readiness. Within this strategy, the Navy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Program is a critical element.

Transforming our business processes will require process consolidation and standardization. Fewer and better integrated systems and better controlled processes will produce higher-quality financial information supporting better operational and resource allocation decisions by Navy-Marine Corps senior leaders. A related and welcome outcome of this transformation ultimately will be a "clean" opinion on Department of the Navy (DON) financial statements. The Navy C converged Enterprise Resource Planning Program is the cornerstone for future DON enterprise management--and is also one of the components of the "Sea Enterprise" section of the Secretary of the Navy's Naval Power 21 vision statement.

The Navy ERP is a bold and radical initiative to improve Navy business processes. It transfers ERP methodology proven in the commercial sector to government processes, in the largest government enterprise resource effort yet attempted. The Navy ERP will provide a single, consolidated end-to-end business management system, standardizing the present patchwork of Navy business processes--acquisition, financial, maintenance, and supply-chain operations. Targeted benefits from this integration include (but are not limited to) streamlining organizational infrastructure, maximizing synergy in business functions, harvesting efficiencies available through technology insertion, and reducing the cost of support operations, freeing up resources for warfighting.

Successful implementation of an ERP can happen only if all parties are willing to change the way they do business. This is an axiom developed from successful private sector ERP conversions. Revamping processes and systems represents a significant cultural change for all organizations throughout the DON and the DoD.

Another immutable lesson from previous ERP implementations is that enduring, vocal support from top management is absolutely essential for success of the conversion effort. This support has been clearly expressed by senior managers throughout the Office of …