Managing enterprise financial system projects: the city of Detroit's experience.

• Author: Fontayne-Mack, K. Nicole

This article describes project management strategies that the City of Detroit has used to implement an enterprise system.

In 1994, a new mayor was elected in Detroit. The mayor's vision was to transform Detroit into a world-class city by initiating projects and initiatives to promote the city's rebirth. Detroit's new mayor recognized that the existing technology infrastructure would not fulfill the vision. Therefore, in the midst of budgetary challenges, the mayor authorized a $50 million technology improvement contract to revamp city processes - the Detroit Resource Management System or DRMS (pronounced "dreams") Project.

DRMS is consistent with the four cornerstones of the city's overall strategy: 1) affirm Detroit as a safe city, 2) restore financial solvency, 3) encourage and promote business expansion and growth, and 4) provide essential, efficient, and user-friendly service. The project concept evolved from work completed early on in the administration from employee input on the mayor's "turnaround teams." Staff also reviewed previous stalled efforts to replace Detroit's critical information systems.

DRMS focuses on the core administrative processes associated with managing the city's human, financial, and physical resources. All 43 agencies and 18,000 employees are impacted. The city's new enterprise financial system will be implemented using a phased approach spanning three years.

The financial system implementation includes state-of-the-art applications and a new communication network infrastructure required for improving operational efficiency and serving as a foundation for electronic business. At the same time employees will be able to provide better service to the citizens as many administrative tasks are streamlined and improved. The city initiated this project because legacy systems and processes have reached the end of their useful life. They fail to provide critical information on a timely basis and require many manual processes to support decision-making. Citizens, employees, and vendors are demanding improvements in services.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems by their nature are catalysts for tremendous organizational upheaval. In order to be effective, they must encompass large numbers of people and processes. Much has been written about the failure of projects of this size and complexity. There are ways to keep the projects moving forward and realize success. This article describes eight ideas that have helped Detroit keep the project focused and on track.

Establish Business Goals

Organizations seeking order of magnitude improvement should focus on the three levels of an organization - processes, people, and technology. Typically, the centerpiece of ERP project focus is new technology. This is a flaw of many projects. While new technology is an important enabler, the project concept and scope must include efforts to reengineer or improve business processes, and support the organization's most important resource - its people - through the change effort. The success of any project is dependent on the ability of its project-management team to challenge the status quo and develop new practices using each one of the levers.

The leadership coalition (steering committee) establishes the case for change and clearly defines business goals in the project charter. The benefits to the users must be the rallying point of the project. These statements serve as the guide for establishing project scope, balancing priorities and maintaining focus during the difficult times. Projects that focus only on new technology are likely to fail.

Build Top Leadership and Support

The hallmark of a successful project is a leadership coalition at the top sometimes called the steering committee. Department heads from the process owner to central staff and customer agencies should jointly establish the project's charter and monitor process. They must remain engaged throughout the project to prevent floundering. As the project's champions, they should be relentless and creative in seeking broad participation from employees from all levels of the organization, understanding that their participation is an essential ingredient for success. The leadership coalition should exemplify the case for...