DRAS 2 Offers More COTS Sales Opportunities

By Rick Antonucci, Analyst

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) is soliciting a replacement to its outdated Defense Retiree Annuitant Service (DRAS) program. This will offer opportunities for COTS vendors to sell into DFAS.

DRAS is responsible for maintaining military pay account for the military’s retirees as well as former spouses and
survivor beneficiaries, but is in dire need of replacement. The Performance Work Statement states “DRAS is built on
antiquated mainframe technology dating back to 1980 that has exceeded the end of its planned lifecycle. The system is highly complex and many of the pay calculations and computations are difficult to understand and implement. DRAS consists of 2.3 million lines of custom COBOL code, 40 internal interfaces between subcomponents for data file transfers and over 220 external interfaces…”

Right now DRAS has several problems, and it is clear that the system is in dire need of replacement. DRAS handles duplicative data that is managed by other systems and is unnecessarily complex. In addition to that, this program is using outdated hardware and software language. In order to update DRAS to DRAS 2, DFAS is soliciting for integration and software services for modernization, as well as maximizing COTS solutions to improve effectiveness and lower costs, risks, and deployment time.

The solicitation for DRAS 2 means that there will be opportunities for manufacturers to provide COTS solutions to DFAS. Keep in mind that due to budget cuts you will have to demonstrate how your solution will provide the best efficiency, while costing less than what DFAS is currently spending on DRAS 1. Make sure to illustrate how you can solve the problems listed above at a cheaper price, as DFAS experienced a 6% cut in IT budget in the FY15 request.