A “FUTURE VISION” FOR INTEGRATING SYSTEMS 

Brought to you by Barrett and Greene

Orange County, California, the sixth largest county in the United States, has a current computer system that had expanded into 21 separate systems over 30 years. Although there has been upgraded technology and functionality over those three decades, the county had “separate systems, separate screens, separate everything”, according to Orange County Auditor-Controller Andrew Hamilton.   

Interfaces were built to link the various elements, whenever more than one was needed to complete a task. Take for example, the effort to keep track of time and attendance of employees, Hamilton stated, “We do payroll every two weeks. But we had three different systems – timekeeping, reimbursement and payroll -- to do that, each with their own maintenance. Agencies were growing increasingly frustrated with this inefficient situation.” 

The auditor-controller who preceded Hamilton set to work putting together a request for proposal (RFP) for a vendor that could provide a modern ERP system hosted on the cloud as a Software as a Solution (SaaS), which would include typical ERP functions including accounting, procurement, asset management, capital project management, grants management, budgeting, payroll and human resources.  

Hamilton assumed office in January 2023 and picked up the project. He shared the almost completed RFP with Government Finance Officers Association’s (GFOA) deputy executive director Mike Mucha, and long-time GFOA manager Rob Roque (who passed away last year) and asked “How does our RFP look? Give me a grade.”  

According to Hamilton, Mucha stated, “It’s not complete. And the biggest thing you’re missing is a future vision. Where do you want to go?” 

“Well, we really couldn’t answer that,” recalls Hamilton, “We didn’t know where we wanted to go.”  

Hamilton set about following Mucha’s advice and quickly realized that one of the keys to a successful ERP system was to make certain to clearly define future requirements in the RFP, before any contracts were signed. Doing so would greatly reduce the risk of a failed implementation. In addition, Hamilton was clear that the new system would have to quantify and reduce risk to the smooth functioning of the county: including, for example, human capital, fraud, operations, and others. 

Hamilton’s extensive reworking of the RFP included collaborating with 24 county departments and bringing in GFOA as a consulting partner. The result was an RFP that reflected a future vision to incorporate all 21 existing systems into one integrated ERP system. This vision also brought in a governance, risk and compliance (GRC) module and enhanced software to automate internal controls.  “We had proposers call this the most integrated system of its type in the entire United States”, said Hamilton. 

Ten vendors submitted qualified bids which were evaluated and scored leading to five being invited to present demonstrations. Each of the five finalists had 32 hours over several days to demonstrate their solution. That much time was important, Hamilton says, because “even with 32 hours with each proposer, presentations needed to be kept on a strict time schedule to get them through the entire demo script.” 

The evaluation panel ultimately contracted with Deloitte Consulting for implementation of an Oracle cloud-based software to build an innovative enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. 

“The selected system offered the most comprehensive integrated solution, with the best assurance of a successful implementation,” said Hamilton. “What’s more, unlike some of the other software proposed, this could offer real-time insights into procurement, budgeting, capital projects, and grants while improving accountability, transparency, and data-driven decision-making.” 

Thanks to Orange County’s decision to move all 21 systems to the cloud and eliminate the cumbersome existing interfaces, the county will realize savings of approximately $45 million dollars over the next ten years. 

Many of the county’s departments had a representative on the selection panel, including budget, human resources, IT, procurement, social services, and health care. This inclusion of expert end users was intended to lead to a  user friendly solution that is also technologically advanced. “This is important to have user input, as this system will be used by each of the county’s 19,000 employees”, added Hamilton. 

Contract negotiations took three months. All parties were represented in daily face to face meetings by people who had authority for their organization. This led to quick resolution of potentially sticky issues and led to building a positive team atmosphere that continued into implementation. 

Implementation began on March 12th of this year and is expected to last nearly three years. The county has allocated approximately 34 employees to the implementation team and Deloitte and Oracle have embedded their employees in county offices to ensure an on time and on budget implementation. 

Hamilton and his colleagues realized the importance of oversight during the implementation, and GFOA continues representing the county as a quality assurance/quality control specialist. “We hired GFOA to be our independent quality assurance vendor,” says Hamilton. “I have weekly meetings with them. We have them on site. We have them monitoring the progress they helped us to write in the contract to make sure we had good deliverables. And everyone is keeping track of the timeline.”