WASHINGTON - The U.S. Office of Personnel Management announced today that the Interior Department's National Business Center (NBC) has been selected as one of five Federal Human Resources (HR) Shared Service Centers.

"We are eager to be given this opportunity to build on our cross-servicing experience and our commitment to excellence to help other federal agencies improve HR services and reduce costs to the tax payer," said NBC Director Doug Bourgeois. The NBC has been a shared service center for federal agencies for more than 25 years and provides all of the initial "core" HR services required by the OPM, which include personnel action processing, payroll, benefits administration, time and attendance reporting options, and labor cost reporting.

"The NBC is well positioned to meet the Administration's objectives for further consolidating HR functions in a timely, efficient, and cost-effective manner," Bourgeois noted. The NBC currently provides core HR functionality to all bureaus and offices within Interior, as well as 36 other federal agencies and is considering additional agencies. The other HR Shared Service Centers are the Departments of Agriculture (through its National Finance Center), Defense, Health and Human Services and Treasury.

Bourgeois says that NBC has a strategy for the evolution of its world-class HR systems and services offerings to the full range of HR functions envisioned by the OPM. These offerings include Applicant Intake and Recruiting, Position Classification, Vacancy Tracking, Pre-employment (medical testing, drug testing, etc.), Security Clearance Management, and more. These solutions will be implemented using new technology, including a Service-Oriented Architecture that includes a portal and an Enterprise Service Bus.

In 2002 OPM chose the NBC as one of the four payroll providers for the Executive Branch. Through this e-Payroll Initiative, the NBC has implemented its Federal Personnel Payroll System and payroll operational services for a number of agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Transportation (DOT). The NBC will complete its portion of the e-Payroll Initiative when it completes implementation of the DOT, including the Federal Aviation Administration, by the end of 2005.