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A Plan for the Implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for the State of Texas

Exhibit A: ERP Workgroup Reports – Summary

In February 2008, information gathering workgroups were formed with representatives from all interested Sstate agencies and institutions of higher education. The purpose of forming workgroups was to begin researching topics in areas included in HB 3106 regarding enterprise resource planning (ERP) and to report findings and recommendations to the ERP Advisory Council for use in preparing a report for the legislature. Over 185 employees representing 48 state agencies and institutions of higher education participated in five ERP workgroups. Participants spent numerous hours researching issues and contributing to the workgroup reports. Each participant is commended for their contributions to the ERP initiative. The full reports are on this website as well as the names of all workgroup participants.

The first four workgroups completed their reports in May and presented their findings and recommendations to the Advisory Council on May 28th. Two of the original workgroups continued on with a second phase and updated their reports in August/September. A fifth workgroup was created and also completed its report in September. These workgroups presented their findings and recommendations to the Advisory Council on Sept. 25th. Highlights from all five workgroup reports include the following:

Inventory & Asset Management Workgroup

The Inventory and Asset Management Workgroup was established to identify statewide and agency-specific business needs for inventory and asset management. The workgroup was led by Duane Sullivan of the Texas Department of Transportation and was comprised of 36 participants representing 26 state agencies and institutions of higher education.

Highlights of the Findings include:

  • Some agencies have no need to track consumable inventories while others maintain inventories of up to $190 million. Currently there is no statewide system to track consumable inventories;
  • SPA is the statewide system for maintaining an inventory of personal property, but users have additional needs beyond the capabilities of SPA. These include tracking inventories, accumulating the costs of owning, operating, and maintaining personal property and distributing those costs to projects, grants, and programs; tracking funding information; reporting IT asset information to the Department of Information Resources (DIR); and accounting for the differences in financial planning and reporting requirements and state budgeting;
  • Desired features of an ERP solution include robust ad hoc reporting capabilities, Web-based cataloging, stock management, bar coding technology including hand-held devices, and the ability to meet unique and security sensitive reporting and monitoring requirements; and
  • Although core fields are captured within the Statewide Property Accounting System, reporting needs within each user vary extensively.

Highlights of the Short Term Recommendations include:

  • Forming new user groups to deal with common concerns such as fleet management and consumable inventories management, including pharmaceuticals;
  • Making SPA information available on the Comptroller’s FM Query tool; and
  • Maintaining SPA end-of-month datasets in order to provide historical information related to depreciation. Highlights of the Long Term Recommendations include:
  • Consideration of legislative changes to consolidate and standardize the requirements for reporting real property,
  • Creating a multi-agency workgroup to develop a list of core and non-core asset-managementsystem data elements and requirements, and
  • Incorporating enhancements to SPA to address current system deficiencies.

Accounts Payable Workgroup

The Accounts Payable Workgroup was established to design an electronic travel voucher for use by employees of state agencies and institutions of higher education. Additionally, the workgroup considered the needs of the Texas Procurement and Support Services Division of the Comptroller’s office as well as those of the traveler agencies. The workgroup was led by Machelle Pharr of the Texas Department of State Health Services and was comprised of 40 participants, representing 23 state agencies and institutions of higher education. Highlights of the Findings include:

  • The current travel expense reimbursement process is a manual process for most agencies. This process is slow and the traveler is unable to determine the status of their reimbursement request. As a result, considerable time is spent responding to phone calls and e-mail messages regarding the status of travel reimbursements; and
  • The workgroup determined that the existing automated systems were designed to meet individual agency needs and may not be flexible enough to accommodate varying requirements of the state agencies and higher education.

Highlights of the Short Term Recommendations include:

  • Designing a Web-based travel system that meets the needs of travelers, state agencies and institutions of higher education, and
  • Including workgroup agencies in the development of system requirements and end user testing.

Highlights of the Long Term Recommendations include:

  • Proposed resolutions to address legislative and rule changes that will improve the travel reimbursement workflow, and
  • Additional phases of work that will allow for the booking of travel and approval of travel through the travel voucher system, as well as incorporating the reconciliation of travel advances.

During its second phase, the Accounts Payable workgroup produced detailed system requirements for a Web based travel voucher system.

Statewide Considerations Workgroup

The Statewide Considerations Workgroup was established to study and make recommendations concerning the format and use of a Texas unique business identifier (UBID) for individuals and entities receiving payments and/or doing business with Texas state agencies and institutuions of higher education in order to stop using social security numbers and federal identification numbers as the primary key. The workgroup was led by Kay Rhodes of the Texas Tech University System and was comprised of 34 participants, representing 20 state agencies and institutions of higher education.

Highlights of the Findings include:

  • More than 50 unique identifiers are in use by various agencies;
  • Statewide, over 100 systems/processes utilize an SSN and/or UBID;
  • Many agencies have made significant investments in ERP> systems;
  • Several agencies use SSNs as a UBID;
  • Multiple interfaces to statewide systems and other systems exist that depend on SSNs; and
  • Multiple data exchanges with entities outside the state exist.

Highlights of the Short Term Recommendations include:

  • Formalizing organizational accountability for SSNs by requiring all agencies to establish policies on the use and security of SSNs, and
  • Defining at the agency level, a plan to protect the confidentiality and integrity of SSNs including key areas such as safeguards for SSN collection and storage, and reducing the use and disclosure of SSNs.

Highlights of the Long Term Recommendations include:

  • Developing a unique business identifier (UBID) for Texas that is not based on SSNs, and will minimize the risks of SSN use, while not replicating the same paradigm that allows for identity theft,
  • Developing policies and procedures for the authentication of individuals and businesses requesting a UBID, and for minimizing or avoiding duplicate UBIDs,
  • Building central-system to agency-system crosswalks to link SSNs with the new UBIDs,
  • Generating UBIDs through a new statewide ERP system which could be used as primary identifiers, and
  • Continuing to maintain SSNs and Federal Employee Identification Numbers (FEINs) in the system as required for reporting and interfacing activities. However, the SSNs and FEINs would not be displayed on screens and reports, except to authorized users with specific business needs.

Global Data Standardization Workgroup

The Global Data Standardization Workgroup was established to identify statewide and agencyspecific business needs for coding that will be used for processing and reporting various activities related to the purchase of good and services. The workgroup was led by Clair Goldsmith of the University of Texas System and was comprised of 43 participants, representing 34 state agencies and institutions of higher education.

Highlights of the Findings include:

  • Fifty-four percent of agencies and institutions of higher education surveyed responded that their current internal accounting, purchasing or budgeting systems do not meet their current needs;
  • Seventy-eight percent of agencies and institutions of higher education surveyed responded that the current statewide systems do not meet their current needs;
  • Although USASis widely used for many state agencies, it lacks the ability to provide detail reporting and the ability to record transactions by Method of Finance;
  • ABEST lacks the capability to provide detailed reporting; and
  • SPA is not user friendly, lacks detailed reporting, and does not meet agency needs for tracking consumables inventory.

Highlights of the Short Term Recommendations include:

  • Encouraging the use of the FM Query Tool by making it available at no cost to agencies and institutions of higher education and expanding functionality to include: SIRS, ABEST, all fields in USASand SPA, and other new reports,
  • Reviewing and researching USASallocation capabilities (cost allocation module),
  • Modifying USASto include optional fields to capture an indicator for recycled goods and services as well as for emergency purchases, and
  • Modifying TINS to include HUB indicators for gender and ethnicity.

Highlights of the Long Term Recommendations include:

  • Identifying several system requirements regarding coding for goods and services, statutory and contractual processing and reporting requirements, system scalability, the flexibility to meet individual agency needs, and other system functionality requirements.

Vehicle Fleet Management Workgroup

The Vehicle Fleet Management Workgroup was established to develop system requirements for vehicle fleet management as well as analysis to determine what information is statutorily necessary and what information is necessary to assist each agency with managing their vehicle fleet. The workgroup was led by Don Lewis of the Texas Department of Transportation and was comprised of 49 participants, representing 20 state agencies and institutions of higher education.

Highlights of the Recommendations include:

  • Developing system requirements with functionality to:
  • Track new vehicle information including off-road equipment,
  • Track mileage and fuel information,
  • Track maintenance, accident and repair information,
  • Easily import and export information with little or no manual processing to help with information sharing between systems, and
  • Provide for customizable reporting.

Highlights of the Additional Considerations include:

  • If a full fleet management system is implemented, then the state must attempt to limit duplication and re-entry of common data between the fleet management system and the asset management system, and
  • The Texas Procurement and Support Services (TPASS) division within the Comptroller’s office is required to complete a biennial report to the legislature regarding the operation of each state agency’s vehicle fleet. Agencies managing large fleets tend to need more detailed vehicle fleet information than the contents of the report created by TPASS.