Driven by technology, vPC-GR adding 'Dashboard' Published Nov. 12, 2007 By Senior Master Sgt. Kelly Mazezka Air Reserve Personnel Center Public Affairs DENVER, Co. -- An enhancement to the virtual Personnel Center - Guard and Reserve scheduled to launch in December will put Airmen in the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve in the driver's seat of their personnel transactions. The new vPC-GR Dashboard will streamline the way they manage their vPC-GR account profiles, submit new requests, check the status and coordinate on existing transactions. "We're trying to make vPC-GR more efficient for everyone," said Lt. Col. Doug Ottinger, director of the Air Reserve Personnel Center's directorate of future operations and integration. "The Dashboard will allow people to complete all their coordination actions at once, with one log on." Since 2006, vPC-GR has enabled more than 25,000 online transactions for retirements and decorations to be routed through coordinators, reviewers or approving officials. In the past, coordinators would receive an e-mail for every transaction requiring their review and would have to log in and log out for each. The Dashboard, on the other hand, enables the coordinators, reviewers and approving officials to process a transaction, monitor its progress, attach related documents, develop reports and initiate any additional transactions under one logon. The vPC-GR Dashboard also will reduce the number of e-mail notifications needed to complete the coordination process. Coordinator, reviewers and approval officials will have the ability to choose to receive one e-mail a day or none. "With the old system, commanders coming in for their UTA [unit training assembly] weekend could be faced with hundreds of e-mails just for vPC-GR transactions," Colonel Ottinger said. "Many of our customers found the number of e-mails generated by every request excessive. Now they decide how many they receive. That's good news." When an Airman sets up a vPC-GR account profile, the system will default to send a notification e-mail to the member when he or she has pending actions. Airmen who don't want to receive the e-mail notification can uncheck the appropriate box. Those who select the option are responsible for checking their Dashboard frequently for pending actions. Another Dashboard feature allows Airmen to eliminate processing delays by delegating that responsibility or role to someone else in their organization. If a primary person has delegated his or her role to another, it cannot be further delegated to someone else. The primary can release the delegated role by designating an expiration date or deleting it after returning to duty. For example, if a first sergeant must attend a class, go on an extended temporary duty assignment or deploy, he or she can delegate the first sergeant role to another responsible Airman in the unit. The Dashboard structure will affect coordination on existing vPC-GR retirements and applications for awards and decorations. Reservists can learn more about these changes and future applications by going to the Air Reserve Personnel Center, Personnel Services Delivery Transformation Web page at http://www.arpc.afrc.af.mil/library/PSD/ (Air Force Reserve Command News Service)