From Statewise, Winter 2010
ProjectONE Half-time Report
Management evaluates strategy and makes necessary adjustments
In the game of football, coaches design their playbooks and carefully analyze the effectiveness of each play. Was it successful? Can it be duplicated? What will the results be next time? They continually plan, execute, measure and adjust. We at ProjectONE use a similar approach. Recently, our ProjectONE coaches took a time out to look back at our performance thus far and determine what worked, what we can adjust for the next quarter, how to maintain our momentum and, ultimately, win the game.
What is ProjectONE? Formerly known as Texas ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), ProjectONE (Our New Enterprise) is the state’s groundbreaking effort that will create the foundation for a single set of books for Texas government. We have played a great game so far — now we need to keep our heads in the game and our eyes on the ball.
Key players
ProjectONE will integrate the Financial and Human Resource (HR)/Payroll systems on a more user-friendly Web-based system. On the Financials side, Deloitte was selected as the implementation vendor in December 2009 and continues as the vendor to implement the Financials system.
The Department of Information Resources (DIR) and the Central Texas Turnpike System at the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) are on track to implement Financials in September 2011. Financials for TxDOT and additional customizations for DIR are scheduled for September 2012. Now that the implementation dates are finalized, the team is advancing downfield and ready to tackle any obstacles that get in the way.
Touchdown
ProjectONE milestones one through eight have been delivered on schedule, a significant accomplishment for a project of this scope. Milestone eight was accepted and completed in September 2010, and included business process design documents, the data conversion plan and all test plans.
ProjectONE has identified over 5,400 HR requirements and over 2,400 financial requirements. The result of this compilation is now the most comprehensive list of statewide requirements ever compiled for the state. This represents a key step in developing a system that multiple agencies can deploy.
And The Winner Is…
Announcing the new name for the Texas ERP system: CAPPS.
CAPPS stands for Centralized Accounting and Payroll/Personnel System. (ProjectONE is the name of the project responsible for developing CAPPS.) Thanks to Paul Garza of the Statewide Human Resource Payroll Assistance team within the Fiscal Management Division of the Comptroller’s office for his winning idea!
Change of possession
With DIR and TxDOT running with the ball on Financials, the ProjectONE Steering Committee decided the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) should take the lead in upgrading the base HR/Payroll system. Once the upgrade is completed, further development of the HR/Payroll piece will continue with a separate timeline. Details will be provided on the ProjectONE website once the scope of work and timeline are approved.
ProjectONE Business Manager Sandra Woodruff says, “One benefit of the Steering Committee’s decision is that it gives us more time. This will help ensure that the participating agencies are fully prepared and ready to take advantage of the functionality in the new system.”
Advancing down the field
ProjectONE’s HR/Payroll and Financial teams are currently writing the functional design specifications. Functional specifications state what the proposed system is to do. Technical design then determines how the system is to be constructed to meet the functional specification. Both teams are currently conducting walk-throughs with participating agencies to review and approve the specifications before they are passed to the ProjectONE change control boards for final approval.
HR/Payroll Team Lead Sona Watson says, “There are 217 HR/Payroll functional design specifications to be approved. They have been prioritized by the HR/Payroll Change Control Board and we are working with the ProjectONE implementing agencies to receive approval as quickly as possible.”
Nearly 185 functional design specifications are to be approved for Financials by the end of December 2010.
Special teams
Agencies currently have more than one option for a financial system. Of those options, the Integrated Statewide Administrative System (ISAS) — a multifunction public sector accounting system — is the most logical choice for agencies to consider prior to implementing ProjectONE. There are currently 10 agencies using ISAS. One of the 10, the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI), converted from its previous system to ISAS on Sept. 1 and is already experiencing increased efficiencies.
TDI Chief Financial Officer Jacque Canady says, “Our previous systems were not integrated, so there was a great deal of manual interaction between the separate systems. For example, encumbering was a manual process requiring multiple steps. Now, once purchase orders are awarded, ISAS generates an encumbrance, saving us a great deal of time and increasing our productivity. We also expect to improve response time to our customers with the ability to provide real-time reporting.”
Redshirt freshman hopes to play in seasons to come
The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), a new and upcoming agency, saw great potential in being part of the ProjectONE team. However, with only four full-time employees on board in fiscal 2010, DMV first and foremost faced the challenge of creating a new agency. DMV leaders recognized the high level of participation required to be a part of ProjectONE’s development and opted to defer implementation until the agency has greater bandwidth to manage such a significant project.
DMV Executive Director Ed Serna says, “As an agency, we are charged with managing the technological and logistical demands of handling 21 million vehicle registrations and 5.4 million titles each year. We don’t want to lose sight of our core business functions, and decided it was in everyone’s best interests to postpone ProjectONE participation until we are fully staffed.”
DMV has submitted a legislative appropriation request for the upcoming legislative session requesting it be included in the next phase of ProjectONE. The ProjectONE team looks forward to the possibility of having this redshirt freshman on the field next season.
Scouting future players
As the current ProjectONE agencies work toward their implementation dates, we look forward to working with more agencies as they join the project. The goal is for all Texas agencies to upgrade to ProjectONE over the next decade. The ProjectONE team has been working extremely hard, and we know there is still a lot of hard work ahead of us. As Coach Lou Holtz once said, “Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity.”
