I got promoted on my medpro and iperms but leadership won’t pin me unless it’s from erb or end of month les. Is ERB not accessible for everyone or is there another way for me to get those without having to wait until after thanksgiving 4day.
I took a CompTIA ITF+ class on post and passed the certification test. I received points for the class, but my S1 can no longer find the certification in emilpo(or whatever they use to add it) to add the civilian cert to my ERB(IT fundamentals is no longer on the drop-down menu). S1 told me they escalated the issue but have told me that in the past without escalating it until I asked my senior leadership to step in. I will be pissed if I miss a promotion by this issue. I am going to run it through my COC this week, but I would like to have a solution before that. Has anyone ran into a problem like this? Any suggestions?
Coming to you this November (for the active duty folks): IPPS-A. From NOV to DEC legacy systems will convert to IPPS-A functions. Many previous used systems will go away completely, and some will partially go away. Others are not impacted at all. I won’t list every system, but here are some of the more common ones:
What’s going away: ASK EDAS EMILPO PPW
What is partially going away: AIM
What isn’t being impacted: DEERS iPERMS
Overtime, more systems are scheduled to be completely removed. There are currently 200 some systems between active duty, national guard, and reserves all doing similar functions. The goal of IPPS-A is to have one system for all three components.
Will this be painful? Yes. Will it have bugs? Also yes.
There will most likely be crashes. The oracle used is based off a civilian off the shelf system, which means not all the items convert as we are used to them. Terminology is changing to accommodate the new systems. You no longer take “Leave”, now it’s an “Absence”. No longer is their “PTDY”, now it’s “administrative absence”.
Leave is probably the biggest item that is going to cause issues. What should happen is you take leave and sign out and back in and the system automatically charges you. Here’s where there will be some problems:
If you work more than half a day, by regulation, you should not be charged for that day. IPPS-A does not recognize that and you will be charged. If you sign in on a non-duty day you should not be charged by regulation. IPPS-A does not recognize that and you will be charged. Pay entitlements changed depending on your leave status, no idea how that is even going to work. If you sign out late or sign in early, if your leave form is not adjusted within 3 days you will likely be charged the full time.
There is a 40 hour block of instruction for IPPS-A that your S1 should be knocking out. It’s helpful on some items, but others not so great. Additionally, it’s extremely time consuming and needs to be completed during their regular work period. This means they are more than likely clicking through it without paying attention to it. Even just clicking through it takes roughly 3 days. If you pay attention and do all the modules it’s probably closer to 60 hours.
Be prepared for headaches. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. The ERB/SRB/ORB is changing to an STP (Soldier Talent Profile). This is at least two pages. I’m not even sure how that is going to change how awards are routed. Speaking of routing:
Once IPPS-A comes online, the S1 is going to need to create workflow for all awards and actions. And as people change, so will the routing need to be updated. The good news, is you the Soldier can see where the item currently is. That means if your company, S1, or BN is sitting on it, you can see specifically where it is stuck. Bad news is, if that person doesn’t have access to IPPS-A, it can get stuck with that person.
DA 638 awards form is going away. But also not. Deployment awards are done on 638. Most garrison awards are done in IPPS-A. It’s going to be painful. But we’ll keep rolling along like we always do. Also, bitching. We’ll continue bitching like we always do. As is our right as Soldiers.
There will be times where someone is going to get confused on where something needs to be updated. Things like HT/WT can’t be done in IPPS-A, that’s only DTMS. I use that as an example as there may be other things that also have this issue, but we won’t really know until we get there. Is that a good answer? No. Is it honest? Yes. Does it suck? Also yes.
Plan to not update anything from NOV to DEC. When you come back from block leave in Jan, IPPS-A will be up. Your S1 will be confused and if they haven’t done so already, should be telling companies they need a training room clerk to complete IPPS-A training so they can get access to IPPS-A to create work flows. This is to benefit the company as not all actions need to go to S1. Like regular leave forms don’t need to come to S1 at all. The control number is automatically generated and approved by the company commander. If the company has their own rep, they can keep it 100% internal without ever having to go to S1.
21 December 2021 IPPS-A goes live. If you weren’t planning on going on leave, change your plans. Otherwise you’ll probably be the person doing training to get access for your company.
Edit: I realized I failed to even mention 4187 which is transitioning into a PAR (Personnel Action Request). There’s still a lot it can’t do. It’s supposed to replace it, but what about things like requesting to go to 75th or High School Stabilization.
To me, it’s unclear if those things will stay 4187 while others go to PAR or if all of those additional agencies will need to create new instructions for submitting those types of packets.