Joint Personnel Administration

Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) is the intranet-based personnel administration system used by the British Armed Forces from April 2006 onwards, replacing the separate payment and administration teams from each Force. Despite the ability to carry out over 40 formerly paper-based functions, from checking postings to payslips, the system has been heavily criticised.

Creation

JPA was created by Electronic Data Systems in partnership with the Ministry of Defence at an estimated cost of £269 million.cite journal |quotes=no |journal=Hansard |url=http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200405/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds06/text/60614w02.htm |date=2006-06-14 |author=Lord Drayson |title=Ministry of Defence: Joint Personnel Administration System] It is believed that JPA will save the MoD in excess of £100 million per year.cite news |url=http://www.itweek.co.uk/computing/news/2187549/army-personnel-hr-access-move |title=Army personnel to have HR access on the move |author=Sarah Arnott |date=2007-04-12 |publisher=IT Week]

Design

The system was designed around an Oracle COTS package, with an Oracle database as the back-end structure. JPA is essentially comprised of two parts; an Online and an Offline (Deployed) application. The Online application communicates directly with the main servers over the DII network on a client-server basis. However, if communications are not stable enough for this configuration, the system will automatically drop into Offline mode, with all database updates/deletes/inserts held locally. Once communications are restored, a Synchronisation process amalgamates the changes held locally into the remote master server.

Implementation

JPA was rolled out to each of the three armed forces at separate, phased dates. The Royal Air Force came first, on the 1st of April 2006. This was both on time and on budget. The Royal Navy followed in November 2006 with the British Army, most difficult of the 3 Forces administration-wise, completing the rollout in June 2007. JPA is maintained by a core team of analyst developers in the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency (SPVA), formerly the Armed Forces Personnel Administration Agency (AFPAA).

tatistics

Administers more than 340,000 live pay records
Maintains over 570,000 master personnel records
Maintains more than 725,000 pension records
Accounts for £5.7 billion in military pay and allowances
Provides IT services and supports over 8,000 desktop PCs worldwide [cite news |url=http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=133152 |publisher=PR Newswire |title=EDS Strikes Strategic Partnership With Ministry of Defence to Deliver Joint Personnel Administration System for UK Armed Forces |date=2004-10-28]

Criticism and problems

From the rollout of JPA problems with pay have been well publicised. Teething problems upon rollout include users not being able to log onto the system due to high server demands, and others not receiving the correct pay or allowances.

The rollout also came at the same time as the War on terror, which saw headlines such as "Anger As Our Boys Go Unpaid".Fact|date=July 2007

In February 2008 an RAF officer successfully sued the MoD for shortfalls in his pay packet as a result of JPA. [cite news |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/03/nraf103.xml |publisher=The Daily Telegraph |title=RAF Officer Sues MoD Over Pay Fault |date=2008-02-04]

References