GCSS-Army Increment 1: Full System Deployment Nearly Completed

In November 2017, Global Combat Support System – Army (GCSS-Army) completed the majority of the Increment 1 deployment to the field, following a five-year intense fielding effort. This accomplishment makes it the largest enterprise resource planning (ERP) deployment in United States Army history. The deployment included over 100,000 users and every supply support activity, motor pool, unit supply room, property book and resource management office in the Army.

The GCSS-Army team reached their goal of reducing the logistics footprint and providing greater asset transparency. The Increment 1 deployment will migrate Army units from the legacy Standard Army Management Information Systems to GCSS-Army with an estimated value of $2.7 billion. The team also achieved the following: 

• Processing of over 12,190 Standard Army Maintenance System – Enhanced (legacy system replaced by GCSS-Army) files containing maintenance data
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• Work orders
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• Shop stock
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• Operational readiness
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• Qualification records critical to unit operations in GCSS-Army
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• Issuing of more than 800,000 certificates of training for seven GCSS-Army business areas and eight supplemental topic areas

GCSS-Army Increment 1 is an ERP solution that has innovated supply, maintenance, property accountability and associated financial management operations across the Army. GCSS-Army replaced over 40,000 antiquated, stove-piped tactical logistics and financial management systems with one integrated, web-based ERP solution. It leverages cutting-edge industry capabilities through its commercial-off-the-shelf software, SAP, which revolutionized the way the Army orchestrates tactical logistics and financial management. The logistics enterprise, with GCSS-Army as the tactical component, has propelled the Army toward its strategic goal of asset transparency, which permits the Army to rightsize unit supply levels.

Rightsizing enables "factory to foxhole" distribution, which reduces costs, avoids waste and improves readiness throughout the Army. Now, commanders have near real-time analytic-driven outcomes of their assets. With the fielding of GCSS-Army, the tactical logistics and financial management information will integrate into one system. The integration eliminates protracted conflicts and costly reconciliations between supporting activities, customers and supply sources native to the legacy systems.

The ability to access information in one location allows commanders to have an accurate picture of their logistic readiness posture to make critical battlefield decisions in real-time. Senior Army leaders and materiel managers can determine the total cost of equipment and vehicle fleets that the legacy systems did not permit. The GCSS-Army implementation ensures that leaders and managers at all levels can access "one version of the truth."

GCSS-Army has a governance structure to address resources, prioritize changes and approve implementation plans. The structure supports solutions that fall within the program's scope of operational enhancement and improvements, covering disconnected operations, live training environment and embedded performance system support among others. GCSS-Army is in the process of transitioning sustainment of the Increment 1 solution from the system integrator to the Army Shared Services Center. The transition is scheduled for completion in 2020.

GCSS-Army will coordinate with the Department of the Army G-4, the U.S. Army Combined Arms Support Command and other stakeholders to develop plans for future increments of GCSS-Army. The increments will help aviation maintenance transportation and ammunition management, and others meld into the integrated system.