Specifications include, but are not limited to: ERP Project Overview The County is following a formal process using a structured approach to determine future business process requirements and define the supporting Information Technology (IT) and software requirements. The project is structured to align the ERP project goals with the business vision and goals of the County to create business-driven criteria for the selection of an enterprise solution. Considering current business capabilities, the project has defined the future processes and enabling tools that are critical for delivering lasting business value. The project has defined business and software requirements, and the County is now seeking a proponent and software solution with the capabilities to support those requirements. The County's solution selection decision will be based on several factors, beginning with percentage of functional fit. Other factors to be considered include proponent viability, proponent capability, proponent references, willingness to work cooperatively, requirements for process and organization changes associated with the solution, cost of ownership, return on investment and implementation approach. Major drivers for Enterprise Resource Planning The County has a several drivers for the ERP modernization project. These are both in terms of driving benefit and resolving existing challenges. Through this transformative initiative, the County expects to: • Improve service delivery efficiency and effectiveness through data driven decision making • Increase the County’s reputation and citizen satisfaction through improved service delivery • Provide transparency to citizens on County activities • Improve the staff’s efficiency and effectiveness through automation and intuitive technology • Improve capability and efficiency for the assessment and collection of property taxes • Drive cost savings and innovation opportunities The County operates in an environment of largely unintegrated disparate systems, some of which are unsupported and lack reporting capabilities. The County operates through a significant amount of manual interaction from users across the entire organization. The current core ERP solution is not well positioned to support local government activities causing many customizations to be made to meet needs. As expectations from the business and residents increase, the absence of a single source of truth is emerging as a major challenge. Multiple systems of record, along with other departments’ local solutions, create an operating environment rampant with inefficiency and manual activity that can inhibit process effectiveness. An accurate picture of the operations is expected to play a pivotal role in supporting the long term sustainability, rising community expectations, and continuous improvement of services at the County. To support the County’s strategic direction, a solution must have the ability to produce efficient and timely reports to internal and external stakeholders, to integrate business processes, and to provide consistent corporate data across various users in multiple departments. Challenges are many and include the following: • Manual processes and lack of visibility into disparate systems creating inconsistent information. • Time-consuming data reconciliation processes and lack of visibility into disparate systems, creating inconsistent answers to the same questions • The inability to make data-driven business decisions due to the absence of aggregate data from a single integrated, reliable set of information • Increased resource effort spent on non-value-added functions (e.g., re-keying, data validation, tracing transactions) • Individual departments operating with different systems, which contribute to a lack of coordination and cohesion between the departments • Heavily customized aging solutions carrying risk as the internal knowledge of capability is tied to few individuals • A recognition that operationally, the existing tools are a barrier to scalability and future operations
