JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas – A team from Patrick Space Force Base, Florida, won first place in a Shark Tank-style competition May 27 for having the best idea to solve a Department of the Air Force financial management problem.
The trio of Tech. Sgt. Abraham Sackor, Senior Airman Gavin Etson and Airman 1st Class Tess Penry of the 45th Comptroller Squadron pitched their “Power Automate Workflow for a Paperless Air Force” proposal May 11 here as one of four finalist teams from across the Department of the Air Force in the inaugural Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center FM Innovation Rodeo.
Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller, the Honorable Dave Weinberg, announced the 45th CPTS team as the winner during Air Force Service Day activities at a Defense Financial Management Institute conference in Orlando.
“Innovation is what FM does,” he said. “I’m excited about the fact you are always out there trying to make things better for our Air Force and FM warfighters. It was fierce competition by all. The teams demonstrated exceptional vision and technical skill, proving once again the talent (in the FM community).”
Hosted by AFIMSC in collaboration with SAF/FM, the goal of the rodeo was to improve FM programs and processes by fielding solutions to problems that save time, money and resources by making CPTS operations more efficient. Twenty-four FM teams from across the DAF entered, and 34 FM subject matter experts narrowed the field to four finalists in early April. Teams from comptroller squadrons at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, and Travis AFB, California, were the other finalists.
Chief Master Sgt. Leah Anderson, SAF/FM executive for enlisted matters and FM career field manager, served as one of eight subject matter experts who judged the May 11 finals. She said she was impressed with all four finalist teams’ forward thinking, thorough approach to the problem set and ability to convey their proposals in a convincing manner.
“It was absolutely amazing! I am constantly in awe of what our Airmen and Guardians, including our civilians and officers, do daily to attack some of the overarching issues we see across our career field enterprise,” the top enlisted FMer said.
Power Automate Workflows is a fully digital military pay cycle management system that uses Microsoft Lists, Power Automate, SharePoint and Teams software that is resident on standard desktop configurations, making it zero product cost to the Air Force, according to the team’s entry form. Leveraging those platforms to process military pay cycles eliminates the need to print, physically route, file, store and eventually shred paper packets.
Automated flows move folders between status stages, post real-time notifications to Teams and flag stalled actions before they become problems. FM leaders and technicians can see the status of every product without having to search through paper products or contact offices in the routing chain.
“The problem it solves is one that exists at virtually every FM operations flight across the force,” Sackor said. “Despite (Defense Finance and Accounting Service) operating digital document management at the enterprise level and (federal policy) mandating electronic recordkeeping across the government, base-level FM flights still default to printing and filing paper cycles, because no enterprise solution has been provided for this workflow.”
He said that results in thousands of dollars per base annually in paper, toner, storage and shredding costs and significant manhours lost to manual filing, physical routing, and digging through old reports for quality assurance reviews or debt investigations.
“The tools to fix this already exist in every unit's Microsoft 365 environment,” Sackor continued. “What was missing is a standardized framework, and this system provides that framework.”
Etson said they’ve been using the system at Patrick as they test capabilities and it not only provides accurate accountability of the work and steps in the process, but it also requires just a few steps to accomplish what used to be laborious.
In his role as a certifier, he said when it flows to him, “I can just upload the documents and then with a couple clicks certify it and push it down to the inputter.”
For a junior enlisted member like Airman 1st Class Penry, the experience of being involved in pitching a base-level innovation to some of the most senior members in her career field gave her confidence that leaders care and she can contribute.
“It makes me feel like I'm supported,” she said. “Doing this (rodeo presentation) with my team let me know I have a voice (in the innovation process).”
After hoisting the silver boot winner’s trophy in Orlando, the Patrick team will now work with SMEs to further develop the Power Automate Workflows innovation ahead of field testing and implementing it DAF wide.