Total Force Structure Management System (TFSMS) FY05 Pre-Fielding Message

1. PURPOSE. CG MCCDC (TFSD) AND MCSC WILL BEGIN
FIELDING TFSMS DURING MAY 2005. THIS MESSAGE IS THE FIRST IN A 
SERIES OF MESSAGES AND PROVIDES AN OVERVIEW OF TFSMS DEVELOPMENT 
AND OUTLINES PLANS FOR FIELDING AND TRAINING.
2. BACKGROUND 
 A. TFSMS WILL REPLACE FOUR LEGACY FORCE STRUCTURE DATA
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS CURRENTLY BEING USED: THE TABLE OF MANPOWER 
REQUIREMENTS (T/MR), THE LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
(LMIS), TROOPLIST, AND THE MANNING LEVEL PROCESS (MLP). 
 B. TFSMS IS A MODIFIED COMMERCIAL-OFF-THE-SHELF (COTS) WEB-
BASED SYSTEM BASED ON THE ORACLE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SUITE OF
APPLICATIONS. THIS NEW SYSTEM WILL ALLOW MANPOWER AND EQUIPMENT
MANAGEMENT CHANGES TO BE EXECUTED VIA A SINGLE SYSTEM AND ALLOW FOR
THE EFFICIENT COORDINATION OF MANPOWER AND MATERIEL SOLUTIONS. 
TFSMS WILL OPERATE PRIMARILY IN GARRISON; AS A SERVER-BASED
APPLICATION, IT WILL NOT REQUIRE STAND-ALONE DESKTOP HARDWARE AND
REQUIRES ONLY MINIMAL SOFTWARE AT THE OFFICE LEVEL. WHILE NOT
DESIGNED FOR DEPLOYMENT, REACH-BACK CAPABILITY WILL BE AVAILABLE VIA
THE LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN) FOR COMMUNICATION WITH OTHER TFSMS
USERS AND OTHER MARINE CORPS MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS. IN
ADDITION TO THE COTS APPLICATION, TFSMS INCLUDES TOOLS TO SUPPORT
SYSTEM DESIGN, WEB ENABLED ELECTRONIC WORKFLOW AND CHANGE REQUEST
MANAGEMENT, STANDARDIZED AND AD-HOC REPORTING CAPABILITY, AD-HOC
QUERIES, PLANNING AND DECISION SUPPORT AND MODELING.
 C. TABLES OF ORGANIZATION (T/O) NUMBERS AND TABLES OF EQUIPMENT
(T/E) NUMBERS WILL NO LONGER APPLY IN TFSMS. A UNIT'S MANPOWER AND
EQUIPMENT DATA IN TFSMS WILL BE ACCESSIBLE VIA EITHER THE UNIT
IDENTIFICATION CODE (UIC) OR UNIT NAME. ALSO, BILLETS WILL NO
LONGER HAVE A SPECIFIC LINE NUMBER; RATHER, EACH BILLET WILL HAVE
ITS OWN UNIQUE BILLET IDENTIFIER CODE (BIC). UNIT EQUIPMENT
ALLOWANCES WILL BE DISPLAYED ON THE SAME SCREEN WITH UNIT MANPOWER
REQUIREMENTS. THE CAPABILITY TO INTERACT WITH THE APPROVED
ACQUISITION OBJECTIVE PROCESS WILL BE INCLUDED IN TFSMS. 
 D. THE TRANSITION FROM T/MR AND LMIS TO TFSMS IS NOT EXPECTED
TO DELAY THE NEXT TROOPLIST/MANNING CYCLE OR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF
APPROVED CHANGE REQUESTS. THE TFSD WEBSITE WHICH CURRENTLY POSTS
CURRENT AND FUTURE T/O&E DATA WILL BE REPLACED BY TFSMS.
3. FIELDING PLAN 
 A. INITIAL FIELDING OF TFSMS WILL BEGIN IN THIRD QUARTER FISCAL
YEAR 2005. TFSMS FIELDING WILL CONTINUE WITH "RELEASE TWO" OF TFSMS
DURING FOURTH QUARTER FISCAL YEAR 2005. TFSMS DEVELOPMENT AND
DEPLOYMENT WILL FOLLOW A SPIRAL DEVELOPMENT APPROACH IN A SERIES OF
BLOCK UPGRADES UNTIL FULL OPERATING CAPABILITY (FOC) IN SECOND
QUARTER FISCAL YEAR 2007. 
 B. INITIAL FIELDING 
 (1) AT INITIAL FIELDING, ALL FORCE STRUCTURE DATA WILL
MIGRATE TO TFSMS. PERSONNEL WITH THE NEED FOR FORCE STRUCTURE DATA
(TO INCLUDE UNIT T/O&E'S) WILL ACCESS THE DATA VIA TFSMS. DURING
THE INITIAL FIELDING PHASE, MOST ACTIVITIES WILL ONLY BE ABLE TO
VIEW THE DATA (NON-TRANSACTIONAL USERS); HOWEVER, A LIMITED NUMBER
OF ACTIVITIES WILL BE ABLE TO CONDUCT TRANSACTIONS (I.E., MODIFY
DATA) VIA TFSMS (TRANSACTIONAL USERS). 
 (2) SELECTED USERS AT HQMC, MCCDC, MCSC, MANPOWER AND
RESERVE AFFAIRS (M&RA), AND MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE, ALBANY,
WILL BE ABLE TO CONDUCT EQUIPMENT AND MANPOWER TRANSACTIONS VIA
TFSMS. THE COMMANDS SCHEDULED TO RECEIVE INITIAL FIELDING REPRESENT
MARINE CORPS "EARLY ADOPTERS" WHO ARE INVOLVED IN MARINE CORPS LEVEL
MANNING AND FORCE STRUCTURE DIRECTIVES AND TRANSACTIONS.
 (3) THE TFSMS URL AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR NAVIGATING THE
SYSTEM WILL BE PROVIDED VIA SEPCOR.
 (4) TFSD WILL PROVIDE ORIENTATION DEMONSTRATIONS TO THE
OPERATING FORCES BEGINNING IN THIRD QUARTER FISCAL YEAR 2005 IN
ORDER TO DISPLAY TFSMS FUNCTIONALITY AND CAPABILITIES TO USERS,
POTENTIAL USERS, MARFOR HQ PRINCIPALS AND SENIOR-LEVEL STAFFS. A
SCHEDULE FOR DEMONSTRATION VISITS WILL BE PROVIDED VIA SEPCOR.
 C. RELEASE TWO. TFSMS RELEASE TWO IS PLANNED FOR FOURTH QUARTER
FISCAL YEAR 2005. USERS WHO PERFORM STRUCTURE AND EQUIPMENT
MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS AT HQMC AND AT THE MARFORS, DOWN TO THE
BATTALION LEVEL, WILL BE ADDED AS TFSMS TRANSACTIONAL USERS. 
 D. AS FOLLOW-ON RELEASES OF TFSMS ARE FIELDED, USERS WHO ONCE
HAD VIEW-ONLY CAPABILITY WILL BE CONSIDERED FOR UPGRADE TO
TRANSACTIONAL USERS IF THEIR DUTIES SO WARRANT. 
4. TRAINING PLAN 
 A. USER TRAINING WILL SUPPORT INITIAL FIELDING AND CONTINUE
THROUGH SUBSEQUENT RELEASES AS UPGRADE AND SUSTAINMENT TRAINING. 
TRAINING WILL ENCOMPASS FORMAL INSTRUCTOR-LED TRAINING AND
SELF-DIRECTED WEB-BASED INSTRUCTION. IOC TRAINING FOR TFSMS
TRANSACTIONAL USERS WILL UTILIZE INSTRUCTOR-LED TRAINING IN
COMPUTER-EQUIPPED CLASSROOMS. 
 B. IOC TRAINING FOR NON-TRANSACTIONAL USERS WILL BEGIN DURING
JUNE 2005 AND WILL BE INCLUDED AS PART OF DEMONSTRATION TEAM
VISITS. INITIALLY, TRAINING IS PLANNED FOR TFSD CAPABILITIES
ANALYSTS, FOLLOWED BY HQMC USER GROUPS, THEN THE FMF AND SUPPORTING
ESTABLISHMENT.
 C. TRAINING WILL BE GEARED TOWARD SPECIFIC USER ROLES. THE
MODULAR FORMAT WILL ALSO SUPPORT WEB-BASED TRAINING BY ALLOWING
USERS TO ACCESS INDIVIDUAL AND CONTENT-BASED MODULES. THE TFSMS
TRAINING CURRICULUM WILL PROVIDE USERS WITH A WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF
TFSD FUNCTIONALITY AND SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE OF THOSE TASKS DIRECTLY
RELATED TO THE USERS' FOCUS AREA (E.G., MANPOWER OR EQUIPMENT). 
TRAINING MODULES WILL RANGE FROM AN INTRODUCTION OF TFSMS AND ITS
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PREVIOUS LEGACY SYSTEMS TO THE CHANGE REQUEST
PROCEDURES FOR STRUCTURE AND EQUIPMENT, REPORT VIEWING, WORKFLOW
PROCESS FOR CHANGE REQUESTS, DATA MANAGEMENT FOR MANPOWER AND
EQUIPMENT, AND SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATION. SPECIFIC TRAINING FOR
QUERIES AND REPORT OUTPUT WILL BE PROVIDED BY THE COGNOS REPORTNET
AND POWERPLAY TOOLS WHICH ARE EMBEDDED WITHIN THE TFSMS APPLICATION.
5. COORDINATING INSTRUCTIONS
 A. REQUEST THAT MARFORS IDENTIFY A SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT TO
HELP FACILITATE THE SCHEDULING OF TRAINING VISITS FOR THEIR
RESPECTIVE SUBORDINATE COMMANDS, TO INCLUDE BASES AND STATIONS. 
PROVIDE THE LIAISON'S CONTACT INFORMATION TO THE POCS LISTED IN
PARAGRAPH 5C NLT 20 MAY 2005.
 B. COMMANDS WITH TFSMS USERS ARE ASKED TO REVIEW THEIR
RESPECTIVE TEEPS IN ORDER TO IDENTIFY PROSPECTIVE DATES TO RECEIVE
TFSMS DEMONSTRATIONS AND FOLLOW-ON TRAINING DURING THE THIRD AND
FOURTH QUARTER OF FISCAL YEAR 2005. 
 C. REQUEST EACH COMMAND DESIGNATE A POC TO COORDINATE FIELDING
AND TRAINING ISSUES WITH MCCDC AND MCSC AND PROVIDE THAT POC (NAME,
RANK, ORGANIZATION, TELEPHONE NUMBER, EMAIL ADDRESS) TO MS. CYNTHIA
CHEEK OR LEON PAPPA, VIA THE MARFOR REPRESENTATIVE NLT 1 JUNE 2005.