Harnessing the power of business intelligence.

• Author: Jackson, Jeff
• Position: Solutions

Harris County, Texas, won a Government Finance Officers Association Award for Excellence in 2012 for A Unique Approach: Enhancing and Streamlining Reporting and Analysis in Harris County.

Financial and operational complexities and ever-increasing financial reporting requirements led the Harris County, Texas, auditor's office to create a more innovative and efficient approach to reporting, analysis, and forecasting. The county particularly needed to automate and streamline the preparation of its comprehensive annual financial report, associated audit schedules, and the office's monthly reporting. The manual process previously in use was repetitive and time consuming, and also increased the risk of clerical error. The same process weaknesses also existed in budgeting, forecasting, and other financial analysis activities. To address these issues, the auditor's office implemented business intelligence software solution known as online analytical processing.

SELECTING A SOLUTION

The county's CAFR reporting process was not in line with the auditor's mission of being a progressive organization or the office's vision of creating and maintaining efficient financial operations. Reports were run from the county's enterprise resource planning system and then manually keyed into spreadsheet schedules, which were updated manually--and often--during the year-end CAFR process. Preparing cash flow projections, performing revenue forecasting and analysis, and estimating available resources (an annual statutory requirement) also relied heavily on manual querying from the ERP system and manual input into spreadsheet schedules. Ad hoc querying and reporting was cumbersome and time consuming, as well.

A needs assessment determined that online analytical processing technology would be the most robust means of meeting Harris County's analytical and financial reporting challenges. A request for proposals was prepared, using input from areas of expertise including the county attorney's office, Information Technology, and Purchasing. After receiving and evaluating several proposals, the auditor's office did an initial evaluation based on cost, ease of implementation, level of reliance on internal IT resources, alignment with the current ERP system, and other relevant factors. The primary contenders presented their product solution to an evaluation committee that included representatives from the auditor's office, IT, and Purchasing. The online analytical processing...