ERP Implementations Lessons Learned

Transcription

1 ERP Implementations Lessons Learned Wednesday, September 23, :05 4:45 MN GFOA Conference Alexandria, MN Kari Carlson City of Bloomington Noel Graczyk City of Chaska Shelly Peterson City of Fridley

2 City of Bloomington Old financial/payroll software SunGard HTE/NaviLine (20+ years) RFP released: July 2013 Vendor Proposal Analysis and Demos: August November 2013 Signed contract with Tyler Technologies for Munis ERP Software: December 2013 Munis Implementation Phase 1 : February 2014 December 2014 Went live with 14 modules: January 2015 General Ledger, Payroll, Budget, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Grant Management, Project Accounting, Work Orders, Inventory, Purchasing, Human Resources Management, Cashiering, Fixed Assets, and Employee Self Service Munis Implementation Phase 2 : July 2015 August 2015 Went live with 3 additional modules: September 2015 Travel Request & Reimbursement, Contract Management, and Vendor Self Service

3 City of Chaska PACE financial/payroll and GT UB utility billing software in place since 1998 both Tyler Technologies products Additional nonintegrated solutions across the City No Hotspot recovery solution in place RFP for new ERP solutions released in October, 2012 Munis ERP Solution based on SaaS from Tyler Technologies selected and under contract as of February 2013 Went live with Financial modules: November 2013 Went live with Payroll and HR modules: January 2014 Will go live with Work Orders and Inventory: December 2015 Will go live with Utility Billing: February 2016

4 City of Fridley Old financial/payroll software SunGard HTE/NaviLine (30 years) RFP released: August 2013 Selection and signed contract with Tyler Technologies for Incode ERP Software: May 2014 Went live with 3 modules: June 2015 General Ledger, Accounts Payable, and Cashiering Went live with 5 modules: July 2015 Payroll, Employee Self Service, Fixed Assets, Purchasing, and Project Accounting Went live with Utility Billing: August 2015 Went live with Accounts Receivable: September 2015

5 Lessons Learned Contract Negotiations and Statement of Work (SOW) Project Management Change Management / Communication Staff Resources Kick Off Event Analysis Sessions Configuration Data Conversion Testing Training Go Live Software as a Service (SaaS)

6 Contract Negotiations Read the fine print (consider using a professional consultant outside your entity) Make sure you have ability to approve of the vendor s implementation consultants and request a new one if necessary

7 Project Management Project Management Software (Sharepoint, One Note, Microsoft Project) Can also use Excel Spreadsheets, Outlook Calendar, and giant paper calendars) Outside Consultant for Project Oversight Stay Organized

8 Change Management / Communication Employee news letters City wide s Updates to Excecutive Staff and City Council Communicate change multiple times

9 Staff Resources Dedicated Project Manager (or two Project Managers) Dedicated Functional Leads Success is a team effort Consider budget increases for overtime and/or temporary or part time services Make sure you have enough staff to maintain current system and implement/learn the new one

10 Kick Off Event Introduce vendor and implementation consultants to City Outline of Project Plan and expectations

11 Analysis Sessions Very time consuming, but important This is the chance to make business processes more efficient and make changes Chance to blow up old chart of accounts and start over Consider making needed organizational and procedural changes prior to implementing new ERP solutions Involve key day to day users

12 Configuration Experienced, knowledgeable implementation consultants are critical to setting up system correctly the first time Take advantage of consultants expertise Helpful to contact other cites, site visits

13 Data Conversion Bringing over several years of data may be expensive and not necessary Extremely important to double and triple check often the vendor s data conversion team does NOT have an accounting background Evaluate benefits of data conversion and required data proofing instead of loading new data

14 Testing Involve actual end users in testing Do parallel payroll(s) months in advance Document test cases, and results Plan on doing more testing than vendor has scheduled

15 Training Key Users get educated early (take on line classes and read up) If possible, use a TEST data set to provide users a copy of live data End User Training right before Go Live, as well as several refresher training sessions going forward Helpful to film training sessions for access on City s website for later access Consider attending the Vendor s annual conference to get ideas of how you want to set up system and get ideas from other cities Good to have Functional Leads conduct training and write manuals ( Snipping Tool and Paint very helpful)

16 Go Live Try to schedule staff vacations around go live so key staff are available all hands on deck! (Communicate these expectations early) Insist that vendor staff are on site for assistance First week Hold Open Lab hours in a conference room or training room for people to drop in for assistance Take the time to celebrate after a couple of weeks. Go Live Event with cake and coffee after a couple of weeks after official go live date

17 Software as a Service (SaaS) Alternative to providing and maintaining a single site of data servers Alternative to managing data backup Can provide redundant servers, data center sites (24 hour failure cutover) and dual Internet connectivity Cost comparisons must include cost for redundant Hotspot site as provided by SaaS

18 Questions???