| News release 25th February 2011 |
For immediate release |
MOD AGENCY WINS MAJOR U.S. AWARD FOR ITS JOINT PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM FOR THE UK ARMED FORCES
The Service Personnel and Veterans Agency (SPVA) has won a major award at the prestigious 2011 ‘Human Capital Management in Defence’ (HCMD) awards held in Arlington, Virginia USA. SPVA was the only organisation nominated from outside the USA and went on to win the main award for its implementation of the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) System for the United Kingdom’s Armed Forces.
SPVA came top in the ‘Best Implementation of an Enterprise Technology System’ category. This recognises the best program implementation of a human resources IT system aimed at streamlining a specific HR process in order to drive down costs and improve efficiency and productivity.
The award recognises the success of the outsourcing relationship within SPVA between the UK Ministry of Defence and HP Enterprise Services that started in November 1997, and included the successful introduction of JPA in 2006. JPA has revolutionised Armed Forces’ pay and personnel functions in the UK, bringing together the Royal Navy, Army and RAF onto one system, allowing users to update details themselves and providing one dedicated contact centre for help and support. It has delivered savings to the MOD in excess of £200 million in its first three years of operation.
SPVA Chief Executive Kathy Barnes said:
“I am very proud of what the staff in SPVA have achieved and this is external recognition for everyone in the Agency - MOD Civil Servants, Military Personnel and HP staff and the way we have all adapted and worked together over the last few years. It reflects the success of our partnering relationship with HP and reinforces the value of our internal ‘One Team’ approach to working across different sites and organisations to deliver excellent customer service to our many customers – the UK’s Armed Forces personnel, veterans and their dependents.”
HP Account Executive Paul Couch, said:
“The award highlights the strength of our partnering relationship with the MOD, and our deep knowledge of Armed Forces HR. It reinforces the innovation and experience that HP brings to the table to improve service, generate savings and implement value for money solutions. With SPVA and through JPA, we have demonstrated what can be achieved in the shared services arena and are looking to use this as a foundation for helping the Government to achieve similar benefits in other areas.”
This is the fifth year of the HCMD Awards. Originally established to honour, recognise, and promote successful human capital initiatives implemented throughout the US Department of Defense and Federal Government, nominations are now accepted from overseas.
For the second year in a row, the HCMD awards received over 35 nominations. "The judges really had their work cut out for them this year," commented Lisa Ringlen, executive director of the HCMD program. "There were so many strong programs nominated in each category."
In addition to SPVA from the UK, nominations came from offices and programs from across the US Federal Government, representing the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, the IRS, Dept. of Energy, the National Park Service and the US Postal Service.
This success follows two other impressive awards received last year by SPVA and HP. At the 'Shared Services Outsourcing Network (SSON) 2010 Industry Awards, in Edinburgh during May, SPVA first won the 'Best Mature Outsourced Services Delivery' award and then went on to beat organisations from across Europe, the Middle-East and Africa to win the highest accolade of the night -the 'Winner of Winners' award.
Notes to editors
About SPVA
The Service Personnel and Veterans Agency is an Agency of the UK Ministry of Defence and provides essential support functions to the Armed Forces and veterans communities. These include forces pay and HR, issue of all medals, casualty repatriation and compassionate services, pensions, injury/bereavement compensation and veterans welfare support. The Agency operates from four main UK sites at Glasgow, Norcross near Blackpool, Imjin Barracks near Gloucester and HMS Sultan, Gosport
About HP
HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.
About HCMD and the awards
Approximately three million people work for the US Department of Defense, making it the largest employer in the USA. The Human Capital Management for Defence (HCMD) Conference brings together, over four days, stakeholders from throughout the Defence and Intelligence Communities from strategic-level policy makers to the operational-level HR managers to discuss best practice. The awards ceremony took place on 16 February and more information can be found at HCMD Awards.
Panel of Judges
Colonel Steve Johnson, Director of Personnel (J1), US Special Operations Command
Ms. Kimberly Powell, Director, Office of Workforce Performance and Development, Library of Congress
Mr. Vic Karcher, Enterprise Human Resources Integration, Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
Ms. Pamela L. Spearow, Director, Civilian Personnel Programs, US Naval Facilities Engineering Command HQ
Mr. Donald Copley, Director of Training and Proponency, US Army Recruiting and Retention School
For Further Information
For further information, please contact the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency Press Office: Laurie Manton on 07795 970407 or David Johnson on 07717 882014.
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