HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002-09-24 City Council (2)City of Palo Alto
C ty Manager’s Report
TO:HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL
ATTENTION:FINANCE COMMITTEE
FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT: ADMINISTRATIVE
SERVICES
DATE:SEPTEMBER 24~ 2002 CMR: 389:02
SUBJECT:QUARTERLY UPDATE ON THE ENTERPRISE RESOURCE
PLANNING SYSTEM (ERP) IMPLEMENTATION -
PROJECT RAFTS (RESOURCE AND FINANCIAL
TRACKING SYSTEM)
This is an informational report and no Council action is required.
BACKGROUND
On July 22, 2002, Council directed staffto proceed with the purchase of:
a software license and services agreement with SAP, Inc;
a professional services agreement with ea consulting, inc. to conduct the software
implementation;
an agreement with the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) to
assist with the implementation; and,
a lease agreement for the 300 Hamilton Avenue space to house the ERP team and
other technology (City) staff.
As discussed in the Information Technology Strategic Plan, the City currently has
disparate business systems, which must be customized with interfaces between systems.
Because of a multi-vendor environment, the City incurs ongoing additional expenses for
upgrade and retrofit costs, which result in delays in City services. The information kept
on most of the City’s systems is sometimes unavailable or difficult to retrieve for
statistical and financial analysis. The Enterprise Resource Planning system will
consolidate and convert this data into useful information that will benefit the City,
improve service to the residents and businesses of Palo Alto, and provide information
exchange with other government agencies. The new system will provide opportunities to
reengineer and automate processes, such as timekeeping, and project management, which
will result in additional information being readily available.
CMR:389:01 Page 1 of 4
This project will replace the existing financial system for Accounting, Budget,
Purchasing (IFAS) and Payroll/Human Resources (Lawson). It will also deliver much-
needed new applications for document management and imaging, work order
management, project management, workflow, reporting and data warehousing. All of
these applications will be fully integrated into a citywide web-enabled suite, utilizing, the
same database platform and tools° The re-engineering efforts are closely related to many
of the "Strengthening the Bottom Line" productivity and cost-cutting suggestions, as well
as resolving many outstanding issues defined in audits for Purchasing, Accounts
Payables, and Human Resources.
Council requested that staff provide quarterly reports on the progress of ERP
implementation, productivity improvements, and discuss with the Finance Committee,
the possibility of establishing community participation.
DISCUSSION
The first part of the project will be implemented in a two-phase approach. Phase I will
include financial, work order, and project applications. Phase II will implement the
human resources and payroll processes° Staff and the ERP team anticipate an 18-month
implementation period for Phases I and II.
Staff has been preparing for the official start of the project in early September 2002 by
having preparatory meetings with ea consulting and GFOA. In addition, ERP kickoff
meetings were held on August 28, 2002 to introduce the project to City staff in general,
A project naming contest was held and kickoff attendees selected RAFTS (Resource and
Financial Tracking System) as the project name. At this stage of the project, the main
focuses are:
Hardware acquisition
Installation of tools and documentation to the network System
Relocation of technology staff and ERP team
Training plan
Change management plan
Project charter and plan
Blueprint and organization of the project
Implementation standards and procedures
The installation of the SAP software and the need to increase user access to the system
required the acquisition of additional network servers. Staff worked with SAP on the
installation of tools and documentation to prepare the network for the ERP
implementation. The 300 Hamilton AvenUe space was furnished and wired for main
system connection and is occupied by ERP team members and other technology staff.
The training plan is a major implementation component and staff has identified internal
CMR:389:01 Page 2 of 4
resources to assist in developing and achieving the plan. There is pre-project training that
staff started attending during the month of August. Some of these courses include
overview of SAP software and specific module training for key users. Staff will use the
"train-the-trainer" method to lower training costs and increase ownership of the system.
The plan will be developed with ea’s and GFOA’s assistance and will encompass both
phases of implementation and future needs.
Some of the other key steps in the process are developing a change management plan;
project charter, organization and plan; blueprint of the project; and implementation
standards and procedures. GFOA and ea consulting will assist staff in designing plans
that will address issues associated with the implementation while focusing on
organizational change re-engineering. The project plan includes the identification and
involvement of key users in the organization. Staff will report on the specifics and
progress of these items in upcoming quarterly reports that will include a project matrix.
Community. Participation "
The first two phases of the project will set the architectural foundation to implement e-
Gov (electronic government or a.k.a, customer relations management). Staff
recommended that the e-Gov module be part of Phase III. Staff anticipates providing
community members with limited, secured, system access for service requests or to report
problems, such as street light bulb replacement, street potholes, tree trimming needs,
sidewalk issues, vehicle abandonment, and other such services. This implementation
approach will allow staff to analyze the type of information that can be made available to
the community. The current two phase.s will demand a heavy commitment of limited
staff resources, so staff wants to focus resources on these crucial foundation stages prior
to committing resources and time to the next, equally important stage. Council
recommended that staff consider adding community participation to the project.
Community input would be extremely valuable during Phase III due to various features
included with the modules having community online access.
In the meantime, staff will connect other online systems used by the community such as
the class registration, building permitting, and any other systems for centralization and
ease of payment/transaction recording.
RESOURCE IMPACT
Funds for this project and all other costs associated with the implememation of the new
ERP system have been included in Capital Improvement Program Project # 10216.
CMR:389:01 Page 3 of 4
PREPARED BY:
LALO
Assistant Director, Administrative Services
DEPARTMENTAL HEAD APPROVAL:
CITY MANAGER APPROVAL:
EMILY HARRISON
Assistant City Manager
CMR:389:01 Page 4 of4