The Military Personnel Data System (MilPDS)

The Military Personnel Data System (MilPDS) The Military Personnel Data System (MilPDS) is the Human Resource (HR) system that comprises each active duty Air Force, Guard and Reserve member’s personnel record as well as retirees. MilPDS is an Air Force wide military system constituting one of the world's largest Oracle HR implementations, comprising over 100 military subsystems. MilPDS is used to process pay transactions, track accountability and strength data, update promotions, assignments, reenlistments and extensions (Gildea, 2013). This paper will cover the characteristics of the users of MilPDS, features and usage of MilPDS, and the impact MilPDS has on Air Force personnel.
Characteristics of the Users of the System The Air Force Personnel career field and their government employed civilians use MilPDS. The Personnel career field is equivalent to the Human Resources career in the civilian sector. Personnelist are employed within each unit on an Air Force base as well as headquarters located in San Antonio, TX. They also have their own unit on the base which is the Military Personnel Flight (MPF). Personnelist employed within units only have access to records in MilPDS for their assigned members, Personnelist who work at the MPF have access to everyone’s record assigned to the base and Personnelist assigned to Headquarters have access to everyone’s record in the Air Force and retired. All military service branches have the same capability to update information on their members but the systems are different. There is some friendly rivalry between the services and of course the Air Force feels there way and things are better. This would be a form of strategic positioning since the same activity is being performed just in a different way (Gallaugher, 2012).
Features and Usage of the System
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