“The Coast Guard’s rollout of its financial system modernization was described by its leadership as ‘the beginning of a new era.’ It certainly started in a different time, or more accurately about 20 years ago. Since USCG’s transition to the Department of Homeland Security in 2002, administrations have needed to standardize business practices and modernize financial systems. But putting all of the department’s organizations under one system failed, according to Craig Bennett, USCG’s deputy assistant commandant for Resources and deputy chief financial officer...” “USCG was customized and not compliant with federal accounting standards or cyber standards. As their authority to operate approached, Bennet said they wondered how much longer they could stay on the mil.gov network. The modernization was not without frustration. During the cutover period, USCG had to shut off the legacy system because the authority to operate, the functionality and the cybersecurity were lacking. The period last three months instead of the planned two, during which time Bennet’s team performed 20,000 manual transactions and spent about $1 billion to keep worldwide operations going...” “Aside from the financial system modernization, the Coast Guard is trying to embrace a more commercial mindset in software development. Chief Information Officer Rear Adm. David Dermanelian said the service is moving forward with a couple large, omnibus contracts to leverage industry IT expertise. That will allow the service’s IT technicians and managers to perform higher level functions versus a more commodity function, which he said are highly important to service members’ ability to do their work...” Read the full article here. Source: Out of the woods with financial system, Coast Guard can turn attention to industry – By Amelia Brust, April 13, 2022. Federal News Network.