Flashpoint software to be used to access the Federal Financial System (FFS)

Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 08:04:14 +0000
From: "Kym Y. Elliott" <kyelliot>
Reply-To: "Kym Y Elliott, Secretary, Reston, VA" <kyelliot>
Organization: U.S. Geological Survey

To: "AO - All Administrative Officers"<distribution>
CC: Kelly Bradley <kbradley>, Jackie Johnson <jjohnson>,
        "Kym Y Elliott, Secretary, Reston, VA" 
 <kyelliot>
Subject: Memo from Kelly Bradley re: Flashpoint Software


In Reply Refer To:
Mail Stop 442:


                            Memorandum
                                            March 1, 1999

To:  Administrative Officers
       Water Resources Division

From:  Kelly L. Bradley
    Chief, Financial Operations and Reporting Section

Subject:  Flashpoint software to be used to access the Federal Financial
          System (FFS)

The U.S. Geological Survey has purchased Flashpoint software through the

Washington Administrative Service Center (WASC).  Flashpoint is desktop
software that sits on top of FFS which enables users to enter data via
Remote Data Entry (RDE) and query FFS data in a "windows" type
environment. This software runs on a NT4 Server or a NT/95 Workstation.

To alleviate costs associated with the software, the Bureau has decided
to implement the same transaction type for each Remote Data Entry
document
(i.e., instead of 3O, 4O, and 7O's, we will use “8O”). The programming
fees
associated with this approach proved to be the most efficient.

As we make the transition to the new document type “8” there will be
some duplication efforts until the old “4” documents have been expended
and/or obsolete.  We hope the benefits associated with Flashpoint will
outweigh this minimal amount of duplication.  Please be aware that once
we implement the use of “4” documents will no longer be available for
new transactions.

During the next several weeks, the Bureau will be piloting the software.

We will be piloting sites using Data General/X-terminals on NT servers
and Personal Computers (PC).  WRD's Pilot sites include Headquarters,
Pennsylvania, and Colorado Districts. These cost centers will be
installing the software, testing and commenting on a draft training
manual for implementation.

If the pilot is successful, we plan to implement the use of Flashpoint
software Bureau and Division wide.  We will be updating you as we
progress in this process.  When we are ready to implement we will send
out detailed instructions on how to download the software and an “easy
to use” instruction manual.

Currently our target date for implementation is April.