July 12, 2007
New King County internal business processes to provide better information and services to county residents
King County is in the process of adopting a new business model that will deliver efficiencies within the county and more effective services to county residents. The Accountable Business Transformation Program (ABT Program) is developing and implementing this model that offers new business processes for financial, human resources, payroll, benefits and budget operations. The model is comprised of best operating practices from public organizations nationwide and will provide county staff with improved access to timely, accurate and useful information to deliver better services to the public.
"By changing and better integrating the county's business processes, we stand to create significant benefits," said County Executive Ron Sims, who transmitted the program's high level business plan and appropriation request to complete the planning work to the County Council for review. "From reducing the duplication of work to increasing access to information, we'll be better able to serve county residents and even the state and federal agencies that conduct business with the county."
The county currently uses two accounting and financial reporting systems, and two human resource/payroll systems. The four separate systems perform central financial and human resource functions for the county, but are not well integrated and do not work together efficiently.
ABT Program goals include adopting business processes that conform to best practices and facilitating this adoption by migrating the four systems into two integrated ones (Oracle and PeopleSoft) as well as introducing a new budget process and system.
This is a complex multi-year effort with five phases that will align and modernize the county's core business areas:
- Business case – completed;
- High Level Business Plan – recently completed and under review;
- High Level Business Design – scheduled for completion in 2007;
- Detailed Implementation Plan and Cost Benefit Analysis – scheduled for June 2008; and
- Phased implementation and migration to new processes and systems – to be determined.
The earliest the county will begin migration to the new business model is late 2008.
The County Council will now review the High Level Business Plan, along with an appropriation request of approximately $5 million to complete the ABT Program planning effort. If approved, the ABT Program team will advance to the High Level Business Design and the Detailed Implementation Plan which outlines the schedule by which agencies will begin performing new business processes and using new systems.
"In this initial planning stage, we used lessons learned from the previous effort known as the Financial System Replacement Project to better match the county's business needs with proven best practices," said Caroline Whalen, ABT Deputy Program Sponsor. "Internal and external review of our work to date indicates we're on the right track to succeed with this large scale countywide effort."
A key difference between the ABT Program and the previous effort is the multiple-layered governance structure with clear definition of responsibility and accountability.
Prior to submitting the High Level Business Plan to the council, five different governance bodies reviewed the plan and recommended moving forward to the design phase. This review included members of the ABT Program External Advisory Committee which is made up of two private and three public sector advisors with experience in implementing similar programs. They described the plan as "a good model for others to follow."
Committee members include:
- Scott Boggs, Adjunct Professor at Seattle University's Albers School of Business and Economics and former Vice President, Corporate Controller of Microsoft Corporation
- Tom Parma, Policy and Oversight Manager for the Washington State Department of Information Services
- Curt Pederson, Vice Provost for Information Services and Chief Information Officer at Oregon State University and also the Chief Information Officer for the Oregon University System
- Veronica Pessin, Senior Director of Enterprise Systems and Services in Information Technology at Infospace
- Carolyn Purcell, Director of the Internet Business Solutions Group at Cisco Systems, Inc.