GSA retires legacy accounting IT

The General Services Administration decommissioned its National Electronic Accounting and Reporting (NEAR) system on April 4 and completed the transition from the aging financial system to a shared service provided and managed by the Agriculture Department.

The move promises $7 million in annual savings, according to GSA.

GSA CIO David Shive said in a statement that decommissioning NEAR is part of the agency's effort to modernize its outdated IT systems under the three-phase Billing and Accounts Receivable (BAAR) Project, begun in 2011 and completed in February 2016.

Pegasys, the modernized core financial system now in use at the agency, handles NEAR's accounts receivable and billing functions.

"GSA began a multiyear effort to integrate accounts receivable and billing with the modern core financial system, Pegasys," said Michael Clanton, USDA's associate chief financial officer, in GSA's April 4 statement. "The decommissioning of NEAR represents the final stage of this effort completed."

GSA said switching to the shared service is part of its plan to use secure IT in increasingly incremental and agile ways.

"GSA is committed to ensuring that our financial processes are standardized, unified and efficient and that the systems that enable these processes are delivered in the most efficient and cost-effective way," Shive said. "Decommissioning NEAR is a natural outcome of GSA's focus on replacing antiquated systems with secure, modern and customer-oriented systems."

GSA said the BAAR Project combines business process re-engineering with systems modernization by implementing standardized business processes, systems and interfaces.