The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) board announced $20.7 million in funding for NewPay, a Federal-wide project for commercial payroll and scheduling software-as-a-service (SaaS) managed by the General Services Administration (GSA).
The “NewPay” project will use existing commercial SaaS products in a shared services model to support agency modernization of payroll, scheduling, and leave management systems.
“Without this funding, GSA would need to delay establishing the cloud-enabled SaaS solution until a future year when dedicated upfront funding could be secured from the current user base or other sources instead of paying for the investment over a period of years. However, with the support from the TMF the project can be conducted in FY 2019 as a single effort to stand up the initial payroll and WSLM capabilities with current customers, with completion in two years,” the TMF website notes.
“The TMF was created to invest in modern commercial solutions and drive faster adoption of shared services. We are pleased to support a project that will accelerate the journey to make available modern payroll services for all agencies and drive efficiency across government,” said Federal CIO Suzette Kent in a statement.
The project is TMF’s largest award to date, joining six existing projects from GSA and the Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Energy, Agriculture (USDA), and Labor.
“The adoption of commercial payroll capabilities will enable the government to function more efficiently and effectively,” said Margaret Weichert, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). “This project clearly aligns to the President’s Management Agenda, particularly around our efforts to modernize technology and expedite towards shared services.”
The project brings the total disbursement by the TMF board to nearly $90 million, leaving around $10 million in the fund’s remaining budget. Negotiations around remaining portions of the FY 2019 budget remain uncertain but point to about $25 million of new for TMF.
However, the TMF board is not done evaluating proposals, and said it “continues to accept and evaluate high impact, high return on investment projects from agencies.”