HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-11-18 City Council (3)City
City of Palo Alto
Manager’s Report
TO:HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL
ATTN:FINANCE COMMITTEE
FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT: ADMINISTRATIVE
SERVICES
DATE:NOVEMBER 18, 2003 CMR: 502:03
SUBJECT:QUARTERLY UPDATE ON
RESOURCE PLANNING
IMPLEMENTATION
THE SAP ENTERPRISE
(ERP)SYSTEM
This is an informational report and no Council action is required.
BACKGROUND
At its July 22, 2002 meeting, Council directed staff to proceed with the project for a new
Resource and Financial Tracking System (RAFTS). This included approval of: the
purchase of a software license and services agreement with SAP, Inc; a professional
services agreement with ea Consulting, Inc. to conduct the sofa~are implementation; and
an agreement with the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) to assist with
implementation oversight. Council requested that staff provide quarterly reports on the
status of the project. This is the fifth status report, which contains an update on work
completed since early July 2003, Phase I implementations, and a plan update for Phase II.
DISCUSSION
The RAFTS project will be implemented over two phases in an 18-month period. Phase I
went live on July 1, 2003 and included the following functions: financials, project
management, procurement and inventory management, and service and work orders.
Phase II includes payroll and human resources (HR), and will go live on December 13,
2003.
Since the last report to the Finance Committee, staff completed several milestones
including minor adjustments to Phase I functions. For the most part, the desired results
have been better than expected. Accomplishments for the period include:
CMR:502:03 Page 1 of 4
Phase I Work
¯Over 400 employees have access to the new SAP system. Ongoing training
continues with some refresher training included.
¯The processing of purchase requests and the printing of accounts payable
checks are back to normal schedules. Minor adjustments were made to the
system and training manuals were updated.
¯Staff started the review of system reports with live data and is making
modifications as necessary. Some of the reports being reviewed and modified
are the budget-to-actual, purchasing request status, and purchasing requests by
commodity type.
¯Business process change verification has been an ongoing task. The majority
of the modules had. some minor adjustments made to account for unique
variations to the typical transaction. For example, purchasing and accounts
payable processes have been adjusted with follow-up training sessions.
¯The City Auditor conducted follow-up review of system controls and
authorizations and found them in compliance.
¯In October 2003, staff prepared the first quarterly financial report to the
Finance Committee using the SAP system. This included a live demonstration
of the budget-to-actual report.
Phase II Work
¯Basic system configuration for HRiPayroll was completed.
¯The time keeping program and timecard design was completed.
¯An Employee Self-Service (ESS) program will allow employees to access
certain personal information such as emergency contact, benefit information,
and leave balances. The configuration is done, but the roll-out and training will
not occur until early 2004, to allow for sufficient training on timekeeping.
¯Employee training scheduler program completed.
¯Master data conversion programming commenced and is near completion.
¯Unit testing of the various functions in HR!Payroll commenced, with team
members testing and adjusting based on various scenarios
¯HR/Payroll and Technology staff continued SAP system training at SAP
facilities.
¯A system integration test plan was developed with various business scenarios
involving various modules so that staff could determine if the information
would process as expected.
¯Timekeepers and approver roles/authorization tables were developed and the
project team is in the process of testing the configurations.
CMR:502:03 Page 2 of 4
¯Developed a training plan for Phase II and identified additional Super Users to
assist with system testing and end-user training/support.
¯Super User training for timekeepers and coordinators commenced, with over
40 staff members being trained to assist in end user training arid support.
Items to be Accomplished in the Next Quarter
¯Conduct the month-end closing process for financials.
¯Training materials will be prepared and printed for formal end user classroom
and mass audience training. They include manuals and user guides as well as
data for classroom exercises for reinforcement of the lessons.
¯End-user training - during the months of November and December over 800
employees will be trained on online timecard entry as part of the train-the-
trainer program, with additional ongoing training and open lab hours as
refreshers.
¯Citywide sessions will be held to update all staff on the project profess and to
demonstrate the timekeeping system.
The RAFTS Phase II status chart (Attachment A) provides a picture of the completed
steps from project start to date.
This major undertaking is taking place with the cooperation of every department in the
organization. There will be approximately 50 Super Users with at least one from each
department involved in the initial rollout, training and support of Phase II. Staff will
continue to work on a plan for the remaining employees not entering their own individual
timecards, with the goal that the great majority enters their personal timecards by the start
of the next fiscal year.
RESOURCE IMPACT
Staff has included a budget-to-actual report for the project (Attachment B). The project
continues to be on time and on budget. The project expenditures to date total $3.9 million
from a $5.2 million project budget.
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
Approval of this agreement does not constitute a project under the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); therefore, no environmental assessment is required.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A:Phase II status chart
CMR:502:03 Page 3 of 4
PREPARED BY:
LALO PER£Zi~- J- \,
Assi,~ant Director, ASD
~ON FONG
l~Ianager, Information Technology
DEPARTMENTAL HEAD APPROVAL:
CITY MANAGER APPROVAL:
Director,/kdministrative Services
EMILY HARRISON
Assistant City Manager
CMR:502:03 Page 4 of 4
Attachment A
SAP Phase II Progress Chart
PROGRESS TO DATE
PROGRESS TO DATE