JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Brooke Army Medical Center and Troop Command military human resources personnel have been working for more than a year to ensure a smooth transition to the new Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army, which launched Jan. 17.
IPPS-A is an online human resources system that will provide integrated personnel, pay, talent and data capabilities in a single system to all Army components for the first time.
The system gives Soldiers the ability to view, track, and initiate HR transactions that result in the payment of entitlements. The integrated personnel and pay record supports readiness, talent management, and improves records accuracy and auditability. Soldiers have 24/7 access via a website and mobile application.
“Before IPPS-A was implemented, Soldiers would need to go to military HR to initiate any personnel actions,” said Cedric Evans, deputy chief, BAMC military HR division (G-1). “Now they can do it online from any device, including their phone. They are able to track that action 24/7 in real-time.”
Evans praised BAMC Troop Command S-1 HR staff for their efforts to make the IPPS-A transition smooth for the more than 1,470 Soldiers assigned to BAMC.
“We had to make sure that every Soldier at BAMC is accounted for to make sure nothing gets missed or lost during the transition,” explained Samuel Battistini-Velez, strength manager. “We had to verify one by one that there were no discrepancies, and all of the data was correct.”
Military HR personnel began training on the new system more than a year ago. “The hands-on training consisted of 99 modules which took about three and a half months to complete,” said Joseph Yokum, HR professional.
Additionally, the S-1 team participated in weekly training at the department level.
“To prepare, every Thursday we would have a class to learn about IPPS-A, and we haven’t stopped,” said Jacob Bedford, HR professional. “We’ve been going over it every Thursday since the start to help incorporate us into the system itself.”
Denise Serrano, HR supervisor, agrees.
“The go-live date got pushed back a couple of times, but the whole time we were continuously training and trying to keep up with our workload,” she said. “It was a little bit of a struggle for us, because in the meantime we were still having Soldiers coming through who needed support.”
Gregory Study, chief of military personnel at Troop Command, built a Microsoft Teams support channel that BAMC Soldiers can access anytime. The study is available on weekdays from noon to 1 p.m. to answer questions live, but Soldiers can drop their questions there anytime.
“I will respond back within 24 hours,” Study said.
All agree that IPPS-A will make things easier for everyone.
“Once we are up and running and everything is worked out, I think it’s going to be a good process for everybody,” Serrano said. “There have been some challenges, but we are working through them.”
“It’s going to be much quicker. I’m excited about it,” Bedford said.
For more information about IPPS-A, visit https://ipps-a.army.mil/mobile/.
BAMC Soldiers can join the MS Teams support channel at https://dod.teams.microsoft.us/l/team/19%3adod%3a97da748361d04443af582efe999fe926%40thread.tacv2/conversations?groupId=c3569b4a-9841-441a-9d16-d93b32c0d81a&tenantId=8903a443-af33-4ed4-acf5-ee613bcb2f59
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