Rapid ERP implementation: the Tuolumne County, California experience.

AuthorJacob, Gregg

One of the major barriers to the diffusion of ERP technology in small and mid-size governments is the cost of system implementation. Although many of the leading ERP vendors provide special software licensing programs for this market, governments have been unable to take advantage of them because an affordable license alone does not make an ERP project feasible. Lengthy implementations are expensive - sometimes as much as five times the cost of the software license. Finance officers often wonder "If ERP packages are truly off-the-shelf solutions, why is the implementation costs so high?" In response to the problem of high implementation costs, many software and systems integration firms have devised "rapid" approaches to system implementation that seek to reduce the cost of an ERP project. This article describes how Tuolumne (pronounced 'too-all-um-knee') County implemented a leading ERP package within a year.

Background

Tuolumne County is a serene and natural setting that one would expect from the county that contains Yosemite National Park. With rolling foothills surrounded by the Sierra Nevada, Tuolumne is located in California's Central Sierra Gold Country. While the county boundaries enclose 1.4 million acres, most of it is exclusively used for the Stanislaus National Forest, Yosemite National Park, Big Trees state park, various large reservoirs, plus land preserved for timber' and ranching. The remaining space, slightly less than 100,000 acres, is private land subject to development.

The population of Tuolumne County is 52,800 and growing. Sonora, the only city in Tuolumne County, is the largest of 15 towns and has a population of 4,220. Traditionally strong in timber, ranching and mining, the county's workforce of 20,190 now supports industries related to tourism. Approximately 20 percent of the workforce represent the jobs related to the large government land use and schools. A quarter of the workforce commutes out of county. The county offices are in the city of Sonora. The county employs a staff of almost 1,200 full time and seasonal employees, runs a county hospital, and manages a $66 million general fund.

In the spring of 1998 the county was confronted with a Y2K challenge. The major issue was with the county hospital's information system for admitting and billing patients. This problem was likely to occur one year early on January 1, 1999. To make matters worse, the hospital's financial system also ran on the legacy system spreading the threat of Y2K non-compliance.

Another factor motivating action was the issue of integration between the hospital and county with a countywide financials (general ledger, purchasing, accounts payable) and Human Resource Management System (HRMS) replacement structure. The integration project would include development of a new Chart of Accounts (COA) that would allow the hospital detail to roll up into the county's reporting structure. The desire for integration and problems posed by Y2K formed the case for action.

Project Requirements

Before beginning the financials and HRMS replacement project, the county had to tackle their hardware environment. Information System Services tasks included rebuilding a technical infrastructure with a countywide LAN and installing a database management system to support whatever system would replace the backbone of the office operations including purchasing, accounts payable, payroll, and hospital operations functions.

Because of the looming Year 2000 deadline, the two projects were tackled in parallel. Vendor demonstrations were conducted to view the latest...

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