FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill -- The Defense Acquisition Board on Jan. 10 approved the Defense Enterprise Accounting and Management System's entry into the engineering and manufacturing development phase, otherwise known in acquisition terms as Milestone B.

The DAB is the Defense Department's senior-level forum for advising the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics on critical decisions concerning acquisition programs. Chaired by the Milestone Decision Authority, the DAB is responsible for deciding whether a program meets the milestone criteria and may proceed to the next phase of the acquisition process.

Col. Brian Parker, Director of the Enterprise Financial Systems Division, Electronic Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, announced the decision to dozens of members of the DEAMS functional and program management offices during a conference call shortly after the decision was announced.

"This is a great day for the DEAMS team and the Air Force," Parker said. "Now that we have approval to proceed we need to focus on executing the strategy and providing this much-needed capability to the user on time, on cost, and with the expected performance."

"This was a great team effort," Russ Mielke, DEAMS functional manager for U.S. Transportation Command, said after the call. "We, the functional management office, program management office, our partners in the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, and our end users have worked very hard to get this far and look forward to deploying DEAMS throughout the Air Force and USTRANSCOM. This decision is the catalyst we need to move us forward."

Brig. Gen. Craig Olson, Program Executive Officer for Business and Enterprise Systems, and Director of the Enterprise Information Systems Directorate, Maxwell Air Force Base- Gunter Annex, Ala., said that the positive outcome of the board "captured well the incredible shared journey" of a multi-disciplined team of FMO, DFAS and PMO individuals.

"Central to the success of that journey were the relationships built between members of the team as they learned to trust and depend on each other's expertise," Olson said. "Yes, the team went through many trials, but their shared perseverance led to the successful execution of the program that built the confidence needed for a successful DAB. I truly applaud the skills and character of the DEAMS team and congratulate them for reaching this milestone."

The Milestone B decision enables DEAMS to execute the acquisition strategy following system stabilization at Scott AFB in April 2012. Once a successful operational assessment is accomplished, the DEAMS capability will be deployed throughout the Air Force with an ultimate goal of meeting Congressional requirements for a fully auditable system by 2017.

More information about DEAMS is available at www.ustranscom.mil/deams.