Accelerating DoD Auditability Through Legacy System Divestiture: A Field Perspective by Erika Del Valle

While technology modernization efforts across the Department of Defense (DoD) are often viewed through a technology-first lens, Congress has rightly identified aged systems as a critical barrier to improving business operations—not just within DoD, but across the federal government. At cBEYONData, we’ve been at the forefront of tackling this challenge, bringing a practical and mission-driven approach to legacy system divestiture that prioritizes auditability, data integrity, and operational continuity.

The Elephant in the Room: Legacy Systems and Clean Audits

The DoD will continue to struggle to achieve a clean audit if legacy systems remain in place. Yet, significant effort continues to be spent defending non-auditable systems rather than acknowledging the reality: some of these systems are underpinned by bad code and outdated architecture that has gone unaddressed for decades.

Consider the Standard Operations Maintenance Research and Development System (SOMARDS). Developed over 40 years ago, it connects to equally aged systems like Centralized Integrated System for International Logistics (CISIL), Program Budget Accounting System (PBAS), Mechanization of Contract Administration Services (MOCAS), and Operational Data Store (ODS). In one case, a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customer had to manually reconcile data on cases by comparing, funding, contracts, and expenditures to determine the true obligation amounts to move to the new target system. The result? None of the legacy systems matched the reconciled amounts. SOMARDS alone was off by nearly $700 million, with other systems reporting additional multi-million-dollar discrepancies.

The root cause? Decades-old poorly developed code, failed interfaces, and a lack of system interoperability. And yet, during audits, commands are still being asked to explain why these discrepancies occurred—rather than being empowered to move forward with better systems and clean data.

Leading the Way in US Army System Divestiture

Our team has played a critical role in the divestiture of key legacy systems for the US Army, including SOMARDS, and is currently engaged with Standard Finance System (STANFINS) and Secure Payment System (SPS)—systems specifically mentioned in recent discussions on DoD IT modernization. In total, we are supporting 25 concurrent Army divestiture efforts, leading the vast majority of them.

We’ve developed a scalable, repeatable methodology that ensures the divestiture process itself is auditable—not just efficient. This distinction is critical. Where other agencies have focused on pure financial divestiture approaches, we’ve learned that skipping contract modifications creates field-level disruption. This approach has been independently validated affirming that our methodology minimizes the impact on Army Commands and, most importantly, supports the warfighter.

Our Approach to Accelerating Modernization and Auditability

At cBEYONData, we take a holistic approach to legacy divestiture that doesn’t just check the compliance box—it supports long-term modernization and audit success. Here’s how:

• Deep Expertise: Our teams understand policy, process, enterprise architecture, and most critically, the data. This allows us to retire legacy systems while enabling the rapid deployment of future-state solutions.
• Scalable Methodology: Our divestiture framework is repeatable, auditable, and designed to adapt across all system types and Army Commands.
• Data Analytics: We employ advanced data tools to facilitate reconciliation and identify inconsistencies before they impact the mission.
• Robotic Process Automation (RPA): We use RPAs to automate transaction posting and data extraction, increasing speed and reducing error.
• Emerging Technologies: We’re exploring AI-powered tools to help analyze legacy systems, map dependencies, and support intelligent divestiture decisions.

Immediate, Real-World Impact

During the SOMARDS divestiture, we released nearly $10 billion simply by developing a report that compared contract period of performance, completion percentages, and remaining obligations. Many vendors had not submitted final bills, or left contracts marked open for just a few dollars—tying up critical resources.

We’re also working on tools that connect the dots across contracting, logistics, and finance, enabling true end-to-end visibility. It’s worth noting that even data warehouses like the Virtual Contracting Enterprise (VCE) (feeding ADVANA) didn’t align with contracting systems of record—sometimes due to manual overrides at the policy level.

Looking Beyond the Enterprise

While divestiture conversations often focus on enterprise-level systems, there’s enormous opportunity at the Army Command level. Many subordinate offices use redundant or legacy systems that are not addressed by HQ financial system modernization efforts. By identifying and consolidating these systems, we can reduce costs, standardize processes, and create a more agile and resilient digital infrastructure supporting and reducing the cost of audits and paving the way for a clean audit opinion.

Final Thoughts

Legacy system divestiture isn’t just a technical exercise, it’s a strategic enabler of financial system modernization, business process reengineering, audit readiness, and mission success. At cBEYONData, we’re proud to lead this effort in partnership with the US Army and look forward to continuing to deliver practical, scalable, and audit-friendly solutions across the federal landscape.