USDA National Finance Center – NFC Forward Program RFI

Introduction   

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking industry responses to support the NFC Forward Program, an effort aimed at modernizing human resource and payroll system solutions for the National Finance Center (NFC) and its customers. 

Purpose of Industry Announcement and Request for Information 

USDA-NFC proposes to use the results of its rigorous NFC Forward Business Case Analysis conducted in conjunction with its customers and Government oversight agencies to inform industry of its intention and proposed associated timeline to procure a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) modernization partner. Additionally, USDA would like to identify qualified prime industry vendors (including small business, if any) that may have the capabilities and experience in performing the enterprise system integration and solutions support required for the NFC Forward Program.  

NFC Operations and Current Enterprise Architecture Background  

As a Federal shared service provider and component of the USDA Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO), NFC assists over 170 USDA and other Government and quasi-Government agencies in delivering cost-effective, standardized, and interoperable solutions that provide the functionality to support these agencies’ strategic financial management and human resource management directions. This includes processing payroll for 680,000 Federal and quasi-Federal employees.  

NFC maintains and enhances an intricate enterprise architecture containing approximately 60 mainframe and web applications built over the last 50 years. NFC operates on a mainframe platform known as the Payroll/Personnel System (PPS). PPS is a legacy system built using the COBOL programming language. PPS is designed to process large volumes of data and perform critical tasks such as payroll processing across 70 different Federal pay plans, 30 different retirement plan codes and various special employee group regulations such as law enforcement officers and firefighters. This mainframe supports a suite of highly customizable HR and payroll applications, including SaaS and web-based solutions, designed to meet specific customer needs. One of the key systems that PPS interfaces with is EmpowHR, NFC’s PeopleSoft-based front-end core HR system that handles HR administrative tasks such as personnel actions, payroll transactions, and benefits management. NFC also offers time and attendance (T&A) systems, which are integrated into its enterprise architecture, working alongside PPS and HR systems like EmpowHR. Additionally, NFC offers multiple reporting systems that provide insights from HR and payroll data, supporting decision-making across Federal agencies. Together, these systems create a robust environment for managing Federal HR processes with key components being payroll, HR, T&A, and reporting. NFC also offers additional services like Office of Personnel Management (OPM) insurance and retirement services operated through internally developed systems which work in conjunction with the mainframe. The insurance and retirement services are not in scope for the new integrated HR and payroll solution at this time, however, will need to be considered for upstream and downstream impacts as part of NFC’s overall enterprise architecture.   

Please see attached documents for additional details.