Roadmap News

TLLD Feasibility Study Complete

August 26, 2009 – The Departments of Natural Resources (DNR) and Transportation (WSDOT) jointly prepared, in collaboration with the Office of Financial Management (OFM), and the Department of Personnel (DOP), detailed system requirements and a feasibility study for a new Time, Leave, and Labor Distribution (TLLD) application. In addition, two Management and Oversight of Strategic Technologies (MOST) consultants from the Department of Information Services (DIS) participated in the effort. The project team also sought and implemented valuable input from 11 other agencies.

While initially focusing on meeting the needs of DNR and WSDOT, the new TLLD application is intended to be designed with the flexibility to adapt the new TLLD application to become the enterprise timekeeping and labor distribution solution for Washington state agencies.

The feasibility study and detailed system requirements documents are now available to view below.

TLLD Feasibility Study
TLLD Detailed System Requirements

For more information on the TLLD project, contact Tim Vessey at Tim.Vessey@ofm.wa.gov or 360.664.7882.

IT Expenditure Coding Requirements

Please see the Roadmap Home page for the most current information on this topic.

April 13, 2009–The IT Expenditure Coding Requirements project started with the Legislature’s request to improve the administration and coordination of state information technology.

As a result of this request:

The Roadmap Team has been leading the coding requirements effort since mid-2008 in conjunction with other subgroup members.

To date, the subgroup has conducted five meetings on this topic in which the group identified specific needs of the Legislature, and then explored ways to standardize IT expenditures in AFRS before proposing, and agreeing upon, a solution that can use our existing enterprise systems.

AGENCY COMMUNICATION

Once the solution to use AFRS Project coding was identified and agreed upon by the IT subgroup, agency communication included the following:

PROGRESS TO DATE

Additional work has been undertaken including creating, testing and adding the necessary IT coding changes into AFRS.

NEXT STEPS

The ultimate goal of this project is to map expenditure sub-object codes in AFRS to the reporting of IT costs to DIS. Automating this would greatly simplify the level of effort currently required to compile and report IT costs.

Work to achieve this goal includes aligning definitions for IT categories on the Portfolio report to the definitions in the SAAM policy manual.

If you have questions, please contact Sadie Rodriguez-Hawkins at 360.725.0179 or Sadie.Hawkins@ofm.wa.gov or the accounting consultant assigned to your agency.

Enterprise Data Definition/Chart of Accounts Phase 1 Report Released!

October 6, 2008–The Enterprise Data Definitions/Chart of Accounts project, a Roadmap positioning activity, today released its Phase 1 Report to the Roadmap Steering Committee. The report comes on the heels of months of surveys, interviews and research into other similar studies to provide an analysis of enterprise data needs across Washington State government.

The report includes expert findings and recommendations intended to help Roadmap Executive Sponsors make decisions on the future of the state’s financial and administrative business policies, processes, data and systems. The report contributes greatly to informing our knowledge and is one of many sources of guidance that will be considered as the state moves toward modernizing its core financial systems.

Click here to view the report.

ISB Action Clears the Way for Single Location for All Procurement Notifications

August 12, 2008 - At its July 10 meeting, the Information Services Board (ISB) approved an update to its Information Technology Investment Standards changing the current requirement that agencies advertise IT procurements above a certain threshold in three separate locations to providing notifications at a single location.

The Washington Electronic Business Solution (WEBS) system, managed by the Department of General Administration, currently provides notification of procurements for non-IT goods and services. The update to the ISB IT Investments Standards adds IT procurement notifications to WEBS beginning on November 1, 2008.

This action is part of a plan to facilitate statewide implementation of a new Roadmap Procurement Reform Policy of identifying and requiring a single location for registering and notifying vendors of all state procurement opportunities. The Roadmap policy, also effective November 1, 2008, applies when state rules require advertising of procurements for goods and services under GA, ISB, OFM and/or State Printer purchasing authorities. Though not mandatory, agencies will be encouraged to apply the policy when conducting procurements that don’t require advertising.

Several steps are in process between now and November 1 to facilitate a smooth transition to WEBS, including updating the system’s commodity codes to better support IT procurements, implementing a communications plan to notify agencies and vendors of the change to WEBS, designing a training program for new users and adding GA help desk resources to support agency and vendor users. WEBS was already updated to comply with ISB security standards.

Click here to find more detailed information on the ISB. Click here to find out more about the Procurement Reform effort.

CASII Stakeholder Report Complete

August 12, 2008 - In February 2007, the Roadmap Project published the Roadmap Core Financial Systems Feasibility Study.  The study recommends twelve “positioning activities” to help reduce risk and increase the usefulness of whatever future financial and administrative solution/approach the state may select.  The Central Accounting System Interface Inventory (CASII) project is one of these “positioning activities.”  The CASII project team presented the final stakeholder report to both the Roadmap Director and Executive Sponsors in late July. The final report yielded valuable information relating to the extent and importance of agency interfaces to statewide financial systems.   

The project team was tasked with creating a more detailed understanding of all the interfaces into, and out of, the central financial and administrative systems (i.e., Agency Financial Reporting System, Agency Data Distribution System, Disbursement Reporting System, Time Management System, and Enterprise Reporting).  To accomplish this, the CASII project team interviewed 119 agencies. Information from the interviews was used to produce statistical data on topics such as the number of agency interfaces to statewide financial systems, agency-unique accounting systems, frequency and volume of interface transmissions, type of users supported and interface complexity.
Report findings are important because they will help OFM provide better inventory management and greater capacity to determine the impact of changes on agencies, and prove useful in getting to a decision on the recommended approach and sequence for completing and modernizing WA State’s core financial systems.   

Click here to view detailed results of the report.

Time/Leave Collection and Labor Distribution Systems Survey Results

August 8, 2008 - A recent survey of state agencies revealed a clearer picture of current and planned investments in time/leave collection and labor distribution systems.

In June, Roadmap Program staff invited agency fiscal officers, payroll officers, CIO’s and Roadmap agency advisory group members to complete the survey, which yielded 102 responses from 68 agencies. The intent of the survey was to gather data about agencies’ investments in these systems and their need for an enterprise time/leave and/or labor distribution solution. The survey also asked agencies about current activities supporting internal time/leave and labor systems; and future plans to purchase, develop or acquire new time/leave and labor distribution systems to meet their business needs. Information from the survey will prove useful in getting to a decision on the recommended approach and sequence for completing and modernizing WA State’s core financial systems.   
Survey results indicate that 42 agencies reported using some form of internal time and leave collection system, and 21 agencies are using some form of internal labor distribution system. Eighteen agencies said they are working on internal time/leave and/or labor distribution projects this biennium. Many agencies demonstrated a need for both a time/leave collection and labor distribution system and are interested in partnering on an enterprise solution.

Click here to view complete survey results. 

Expanded Roadmap Steering Committee Membership Announced!

July 21, 2008—The Roadmap program is excited to announce new appointments to the membership of its steering committee this week! The changes are the result of suggestions from executive sponsors, OFM staff and advisory board members. They expressed strong support for a group small enough to make decisions, but large enough to more specifically represent the diverse services and businesses of state government.

The appointment of dedicated and enthusiastic committee members is essential to the success of the Roadmap program. In addition to fulfilling the roles and responsibilities of the steering committee as a group, members also have the unique opportunity as individuals to champion specific financial and administrative business initiatives consistent with the Roadmap program, and to communicate on a regular basis with other organizations who are not members of the steering committee that share common business interests.

The current committee membership follows:

Executive Sponsors and Permanent Steering Committee Members
Director, Department of Information Services (vacant)
Deputy Director, Office of Financial Management (vacant)

Steering Committee Members
Linda Bremer, Department of General Administration
Denise Doty, Department of Corrections
Bill Ford, Department of Transportation
Marcus Glasper, Department of Revenue
Pat Kohler, Liquor Control Board
Stan Marshburn, Department of Social and Health Services
Viji Murali, Washington State University
Eva Santos, Department of Personnel
Bill Wegeleben, Office of the Governor

The Roadmap charter was updated and includes roles and responsibilities of the steering committee. Check out the revised charter.

Congratulations and welcome to our new committee members!

New Roadmap Website Unveiled!

June 6, 2008—The Roadmap program proudly unveiled its newly designed website today. The new layout provides a vastly improved browsing experience over the previous design by upgrading to a more logical structure for locating relevant information. Also contributing to a more user-friendly design are new features, including a Roadmap News tab to help you keep current on program activities, a front page Top Story, and the opportunity to join a ListServ to receive regular updates and other information from the Roadmap program.

Check out the new site and give us feedback. 

Roadmap Welcomes New Advisory Group Members

May 19, 2008—Roadmap director Sadie Rodriguez-Hawkins recently invited seventeen agencies to participate in the Roadmap Agency Advisory Group to provide broader perspective and guidance to the program. Representatives from eleven of the seventeen invited agencies participated in a new member briefing on May 19. The two-hour orientation gave new group members background information on the program, outlined their roles and responsibilities as members, provided an introduction of where the program has been and where it’s going, and gave them an opportunity to ask questions.

Agencies new to the group include: Administrative Office of the Courts, Attorney General’s Office, Department of Natural Resources, Department of Health, Department of Ecology, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, State Auditor’s Office, Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program Committee, Department of Licensing, Department of Fish & Wildlife and Department of Parks & Recreation.