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NEW ORLEANS – Shelves full of books used for logging drill hours and muster attendance folders are becoming a thing of the past as the Marine Corps Reserve makes technological advancements.
In continuing the trend of completing administration needs electronically, Marine Forces Reserve Marines are preparing to carry out a final transition to leave paperwork behind. The Reserve’s bookkeeping needs will now be done fully by utilizing a web-based software system, called Daily Media Manager.
Marine Administrative Message 245/12 directed the mandatory migration to the DMM from the Unit Diary-Marine Corps Total Force Systems, as the old system’s Reserve functions will become inactive in the up-and-coming months, said Robin Porche, a MARFORRES assistant operations officer, who took part in development of the new software.
Starting June 30, all the Reserve additional paid duty requests, such as additional training periods, readiness management periods, and additional flight training periods, will have to be submitted through the new software instead of Unit Diary. No later than Sept. 30, all other Reserve functions will need to be performed through the DMM.
“The DMM takes care of drill processing for Individual Mobilization Augmentees and Selected Marine Corps Reserve Marines,” said Selena Gardner, a personnel chief at the Marine Corps Individual Reserve Support Activity here. Gardner utilizes the program to export all the mustering and payment data for nearly 3,000 IMAs.
Gardner stated that Unit Diary, which was a labor-intensive and heavily paper-based process, took up to two weeks to process a Marine’s drill payment. That timeframe was cut drastically with the new and modernized software.
“Marines can see the payment in their bank account in as little as 72 hours,” said Gardner, a native of Maurepas, La. The average processing time now takes three to five days.
Marines seeking to become users have to register on the Manpower and Reserve affairs website. Once the proper certificates and permissions have been obtained, they can log on to DMM through the Marine Online website.
One of the program’s users, Cpl. Sebastian Bator, an administration clerk with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, discussed the benefits of the software as he started using it. He said he is very fond of the program.
“You don’t have to wait until the following week to enter all the information,” said Bator, a native of Prospect Heights, Ill. “The program lets you utilize it and enter the data on Saturdays and Sundays during the drill weekends.”
The module itself takes care of several drilling processes to include scheduling, mustering, reporting, drill tracking and management, said Porche, a native of Terrytown, La. Additional management capabilities and improvements are planned for the future as the program becomes the main tool for the Reserve’s bookkeeping.
As monthly improvement meetings occur and feedback with recommended enhancements flows in, the development team plans to include things such as having access to billeting assignments or Marine Corps Medical Entitlements Data Systems, which is used to request, review, approve, and track medical benefits for all Reservists placed on medical hold or line of duty benefits.
Porche called DMM groundbreaking as it is the first software in the Department of Defense to support all of the Reserve accounting needs. According to her, the DMM has already processed 406,000 drill transactions this year without utilizing Unit Diary to pay the Marines. Many more will occur as many new users begin the switch to the new software and find it user-friendly.
“It’s a great program and it makes helping out each individual Marine much easier and less timely,” Gardner concluded.
Registration to use DMM is available on the M&RA website at manpower.usmc.mil.
DMM is available to log on through MOL at mol.usmc.mil.
Recommended upgrades/enhancements can be submitted by reaching the DMM service desk at 866-944-9881 or email support at dm.support@inforeliance.com.
Unit Diary-MCTFS will remain operational and the Reserve features and functions can be activated if the DMM was to crash and become unavailable.
| Date Taken: | 05.23.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 05.23.2012 11:47 |
| Story ID: | 88882 |
| Location: | NEW ORLEANS, LA, US |
| Hometown: | MAUREPAS, 80, FR |
| Hometown: | PROSPECT HEIGHTS, IL, US |
| Hometown: | TERRYTOWN, LA, US |
| Web Views: | 110 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, New system expedites Reservist pay, eases accounting procedures, by GySgt Marcin Platek, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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