The Financial Systems Division manages the planning, development, implementation, and maintenance of the Commerce Business System (CBS) throughout NOAA and supports the NOAA Community in its usage of the system. CBS consists of the Core Financial System (CFS) and various functional and administrative systems.
Jonathan Wolf
Director, Financial Systems Division
Phone: (301) 444-3705
Client Services Branch
The Client Services Branch informs, educates, and trains NOAA and external Bureaus on the use of NOAAs financial and purchasing systems, provides support for all CBS and C.Suite users, and issues written notices regarding the progress and status of CBS and C.Suite applications. The Client Services Training team develops CBS and C.Suite training plans and objectives, prepares training materials, and conducts training sessions. The branch coordinates training activities and technical support, manages the registration process, and conducts briefings and system demonstrations. The Client Services Branch also maintains the centralized Client Services Help Desk which provides support for CBS and C.Suite users nationwide. The Client Services Help Desk staff is responsible for establishing and maintaining user access; researching, analyzing, and responding to help desk inquiries related to the various CBS applications and C.Suite; tracking/monitoring these inquiries in a help desk tracking software; identifying and reporting on problem trends; reporting systems performance issues to the appropriate contacts; alerting the CBS and C.Suite communities via email of systems and/or network down times and other CBS and C.Suite announcements, etc.
Vacant
Chief, Client Services Branch
Phone:
Operations Support Branch
The Operations Support Branch ensures that NOAAs financial management systems support good financial management. The branch provides functional expertise in operating and enhancing modules of the Core Financial System (CFS). The branch supports CFS software and NOAA developed software which interfaces with CFS or extracts information from CFS. The branch ensures this software operates in compliance with Treasury accounting standards, OMB circulars, and other policies regarding federal financial management. The branch provides software and data that supports NOAAs clean audit opinion. The branch troubleshoots problems which emerge in production operations and supports the smooth operation of the system by administering key maintenance tables and ensuring that critical production processes complete successfully. The branch participates in the requirements and design phase of the development of new functionality by preparing requirements documents, and reviewing documents prepared by other organizations. The branch identifies enhancements required in existing software to meet user needs. The branch submits and prioritizes Activity Requests (ARs) for fixes or enhancements to existing software. The branch supports the NOAA community in its usage of the system. The branch works with users to identify and document business rules that take advantage of system functionality. The branch provides expert information to NOAA management through briefings, demonstrations, and other meetings. The branch provides second tier help desk support to users. The branch develops and maintains user guides and procedures for the software. The branch assists in the planning and preparation of training classes for users. The branch acts as a liaison with DOC, representing NOAA on working groups. The branch develops test scripts, participates in DOC testing efforts, and performs acceptance tests of all software deliveries. The branch coordinates and approves the promotion of software to the production environment. The branch coordinates configuration management activities.
Allison Elgin
Chief, Operations Support Branch
Phone: (301) 444-2816
Project Management Branch
The Project Management Branch coordinates, tracks, and manages financial management system projects and initiatives. The branch is responsible for coordination of software project priorities, project plans and schedules, and project issues and risks. In addition, the branch prepares level of effort estimates for initiatives in conjunction with subject matter experts and is responsible for development and maintenance of the FSD Governance plan. The branch facilitates communication among all stakeholder groups related to specific initiatives. The branch also supports the coordination and execution of customer acceptance testing. The branch closely coordinates with other FSD branches, the Finance Office, and any other stakeholders on financial systems initiatives.
Vacant
Chief, Project Management Branch
Phone:
Software Support Branch
The Software Support Branch designs, develops, unit tests, and maintains financial software developed specifically for NOAA. The branch ensures the quality of the design of interfaces and other new automated routines, verifying that this software integrates with CFS in conformance with the principles of good financial management and contributes to the smooth operation of the system. It performs reviews of design, implementation, and other documents prepared by the DOC. The branch, in conjunction with end users, identifies requirements for data warehouse reporting information. It performs acceptance testing of data warehouse software. The branch develops software that meets the functional needs of the user community, follows established standards, and interfaces properly with existing technologies. It supports the operation of deployed interfaces, reports and other automated routines by providing second tier help desk support to users and troubleshooting production processing problems. The branch provides technical expertise to division staff, assisting in the resolution of issues and the development of SQL queries against the database.
Vacant
Chief, Software Support Branch
Phone:
Technical Support Branch
The Technical Support Branch performs database, application server, portal, network load balancing and systems administration for NOAAs financial systems. The branch supports IT project planning, financial systems enterprise architecture development and support, systems and resource capacity planning, systems monitoring and troubleshooting, software promotions, systems configuration, disaster recovery planning and testing and backup and recovery activities. The branch maintains IT security by loading security patches, developing and implementing security controls and routinely monitoring the systems for attempted attacks, reporting all suspicious activities. The branch manages numerous development, test, training, and production environments, maintaining configuration management control. The branch provides technical expertise to financial management offices, closely coordinates with the Information Systems Management Office staff and Commerce Solution Center on IT initiatives, and acts as technical liaisons with DOC, representing NOAA on working groups.
Rufus Washington
Chief, Technical Support Branch
Phone: (301) 444-3744
