  Issue 2.3, March 2022
In September 2021, at the request of the Tribal Leaders Consultation Work Group, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) paused the recruitment of Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) Indian Tribal Organizations (ITOs) for migration to the Integrated Food Management System (IFMS).
FNS is committed to our partnership with the FDPIR community to ensure that IFMS meets the needs of its users. During the pause, FNS formed the IFMS Work Group to collect feedback on IFMS. In total, 19 individuals participated, representing 17 ITOs in five FNS Regions. During weekly meetings from late October through early December 2021, members identified 32 change requests related to printing, issuance, inventory management, and general requests regarding system functionality; they also ranked them as highest, high, medium, and low priority.
Work group members also recognized the need for a regular forum for IFMS users to raise issues and propose solutions to FNS staff, leading to the creation of the IFMS User Group. In January and February 2022, the User Group discussed the following:
- Adding the address and telephone number to the issuance receipt
- Development of a shopping list generated from IFMS
- Adding USDA Foods price data to be used to calculate household claims
This group meets monthly to implement the change requests identified in the IFMS Work Group. Meetings are typically held on the fourth Tuesday of each month from 1:00pm to 2:30pm ET. During each meeting, the group discusses proposed solutions related to change request(s) and provides feedback on how these changes will be implemented. In addition to the change requests identified in the IFMS Work Group, IFMS User Group members also have the opportunity to provide new issues and requests for the group to discuss.
If you would like to participate as a member of the IFMS User Group, please send an email to Katie Clifford at katie.clifford@usda.gov.
As of March 2022, there are 74 ITOs using IFMS to conduct food distribution issuance for their communities and manage inventory and household records for FDPIR. To date, over 11 million food items have been issued to over 21 thousand households through IFMS.
 As of March 2022, IFMS is being used by 74 ITOs at 95 sites.
IFMS Activity At-a-Glance
As of March 11, 2022, IFMS activity since launch includes:
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74 ITOs deployed IFMS with 355 active users
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42,346 individuals in 21,922 households received food
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11,291,212 items issued through 147,110 order transactions
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19,169,841 items updated through 51,211 inventory transactions
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26,277 household certifications updated
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4,166 new households created
Release 1.8.0 Highlights
Release 1.8.0 went live on March 4, 2022. The following enhancements were included:
Inventory Management
- When the ITO Inventory Management Specialist performs an inventory transaction, the system will check the inventory balance upon saving the transaction so that materials do not fail processing due to low inventory.
Issuance Management
- When an inventory transaction encounters a Concurrent Issuance error, the transaction will be automatically retried until it processes.
Reporting
- IFMS users at multi-site ITOs with permissions to generate an FNS-152 Report can generate a Site Activity Report to show site-specific information formatted like the FNS-152 Report. The report will be available in both PDF and MS Excel formats.
Release Notes can be found in the IFMS Learning Academy (login required).
Hot Tips
Simultaneous Issuance Error Message
IFMS does not allow more than one issuance transaction for the same household to occur at the same time. If simultaneous issuance transactions occur, an error message displays at the top of the New Issuance section.
The message states that an issuance is already in progress and provides the name of the ITO and the user, who is currently issuing to the household. This promotes program compliance by preventing households from receiving more than their monthly food allowance.
 Fig 1 - Screenshot of Simultaneous Issuance Error Message in IFMS
ITO users can retry the issuance after a few minutes or reach out to the ITO user identified in the message to verify completion before starting another issuance transaction for the household.
Users can avoid this error from occurring by using the following guidelines while issuing:
- Do not refresh the screen.
- Do not close tabs or the browser.
- Do not backspace or hit the browser back arrow.
The issuance status will reset in the following instances:
- The user logs out of IFMS by clicking on their profile icon.
- Six minutes of inactivity on the issuance screen have elapsed.
- The user Clicks Cancel and then Leave this Page.
For more information, refer to the Issuance Manual (Section 7.4, p. 47) or the Quick Reference Guides (QRGs) for Issuing Food as a Manual (Pick and Pack) Model or Issuing Food as a Store Model in the IFMS Learning Academy (login required).
Transition Support
The IFMS Transition Team is available to provide assistance to ITOs who are preparing for IFMS and to answer questions about the transition process. Contact the Transition Manager to learn more. The transition program is designed to support ITOs, considering their unique needs, from initial planning through the Go Live event at a pace that minimizes disruption to daily operations.
The transition program includes:
- Support Specialists assigned to each ITO for the duration of the transition process
- Self-Paced e-Learning Introductory Course
- Flexible virtual training sessions
- Manuals, quick reference guides, and exercises for each functional area
- Access to the IFMS training environment to reinforce and build upon training sessions
- Discussion of ITO data needs and guidance on using IFMS reporting tools
- Post-transition support with timely response to questions or issues
- Feedback sessions for continuous improvement of transition program and system features
Additional Training Opportunities
The Post-launch Support Program offers training opportunities for the IFMS user community in the form of refreshers, updates, and advanced topics. These sessions are intended to build user skills and help improve efficiency with IFMS. Upcoming events will be announced.
Interested in other training opportunities for new and existing users? The IFMS Training Request Form, located in the IFMS Learning Academy. Upon receipt, the IFMS Training Manager will follow up to discuss scheduling and tailoring the session(s) topics to the needs of the ITO.
IFMS Public Webpage
The IFMS webpage provides announcements, general information about IFMS, and a variety of other resources for the user community and other interested parties. These include:
IFMS Learning Academy
The IFMS Learning Academy (login required) contains a variety of self-service resources for IFMS. User manuals and quick reference guides (QRGs) provide helpful instructions for a variety of common business tasks and functions as well as tips for using additional system features when needed. Other resources include release notes and guide rate information.
After selecting a topic, refer to the Details tab for a description of available materials and links to external resources, as applicable. The Related tab provides all files available to view or download.
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