Local implementation, national coordination, and Navy-wide program are the words of NAVAIR’s Navy ERP implementation team as they support NAVAIR personnel in transitioning to a single Navy-wide Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) management system.

Navy ERP is a software-based management system, developed by the SAP Corporation, based in Walldorf, Germany. SAP solutions will unify, standardize and streamline all of the Navy’s business practices into a single, secure, reliable, accessible and near real time system. NAVAIR was one of four Navy commands to pilot an earlier version of SAP for an ERP system, which NAVAIR named Sigma.

“It’s going to take all our energies to make this Navy-wide system a success,” said Vice Admiral Wally Massenburg, NAVAIR Commander. “The more prepared we are now, the more successful the Navy will be.”

“We’ve learned in the NAE (Naval Aviation Enterprise) that to do Enterprise you need Enterprise information,” he said. “ERP will provide that for the Navy. Our employees in the every NAVAIR competency, from the comptroller, business financial management (BFM) to the program management community, have been engaged with Navy ERP experts on thousands of details, incorporating lessons learned to ensure success for the Navy.”

To support preparation and transition, each NAVAIR site has created a Navy ERP war room and staffed them with a site-based implementation team. The national war room, located at Patuxent River, serves as a central hub of transition activity and houses critical staff, including the NAVAIR implementation team, consisting of a role management, communications management and deployment management

The NAVAIR implementation team works with site implementation teams, focusing on preparing the users for the transition to Navy ERP. The teams use communication and change management as tools in the preparation process.

“The expectation is for our personnel to be able to do the job they are doing today in Navy ERP starting on 1 October 2007,” says Captain Mike Paul, NAVAIR’s lead for the Navy ERP transition. “There is a lot of work that needs to be done to make that happen with the implementation teams taking on a large part of it. ”

The implementation team has already sponsored focus groups and interviews with NAVAIR leaders and Sigma users across the command, gathering information to assess how ready the command is for the change and the steps needed to ensure NAVAIR personnel are ready.

To further assist in preparation and transition, the NAVAIR team broadened the Sigma web site to support the transition. The site includes up-to-the-minute information – from facts to presentations to videos – on NAVAIR preparation and transition activities, such as accounts and role mapping for system users, training, data conversion and data “cleansing,” local site points of contact, and useful links. The site also provides a ‘feedback’ button for questions. The goal of the war room staff members is to respond with information within one working day of receiving a question or request.

For more information on NAVAIR’s transition to Navy ERP and to find a list of site points of contact, visit https://sigma.navair.navy.mil or call the national war room, 301-995-7803.