An ERP transformation for Spokane County
Guidehouse is helping county leaders navigate the journey to financial and human capital management efficiency through upgraded systems.
Challenge
The government of Spokane County—home to the second largest city in Washington State and some 540,000 residents—identified a need to replace its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Nearing the end of its useful life, the system no longer supported business processes in an efficient way. It was hard to integrate with newer applications and required cumbersome workarounds to meet the county’s increasingly complex financial and human resources needs.
The county’s finance function presented numerous challenges. Its general ledger structure was complex and managed by multiple departments, and financial reports used by county management teams were often generated outside of the ERP system. Purchase requisitions were reviewed and approved outside of it as well, and, because many processes had no formalized documentation, staff had to turn to the IT department when they encountered problems.
Leaders knew the county needed a cloud-based platform that could harmonize complex financial and human capital processes and functions across departments and offices. They sought a single solution that could bring people, finances, and data together while helping them redesign and improve business processes, decentralize data entry, expand business intelligence capabilities through real-time dashboards, and be more agile in meeting evolving demands.
They turned to Guidehouse for support with Workday implementation, tapping into our deep public sector expertise and our experience as a trusted Workday Services Partner. Primary project goals were to phase out the old platform, implement a unified Workday solution while ensuring the transition wouldn’t interrupt government business and services, and achieve significant improvements in operational efficiency, data accuracy, and strategic decision-making.
Approach
We adopted a phased approach that started with an implementation plan for Workday Financial Management. Using templates, methods, and scripts specifically designed for public sector deployments, we adapted them for Spokane County’s specific needs and meshed our own methodology with established Workday processes. The plan was broken down into five stages:
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Base camp: Through workshops on process discovery, technology proficiency, and organizational readiness, we documented how the county’s existing processes aligned with the latest public sector ERP best practices. Our experts also helped county management identify and onboard change champions to serve as internal leaders during and after the transition to the new system.
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Planning: Meeting with project stakeholders, our team articulated oversight structure, project goals, and a deployment timeline. We also conducted a readiness review, organized team trainings, helped establish key performance indicators, and developed a governance structure that included a decision-authority matrix to codify decision points and escalation processes.
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Architecture and configuration: In this stage, we focused on business requirements and processes, as well as the new ERP’s configuration design. Critical activities included data extraction, establishing a testing strategy, building a reporting dashboard, and conducting a change impact assessment that visualized in detail how the Workday deployment would affect the county workforce.
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Testing: In collaboration with the county, we conducted successive tests to ensure that the Workday configuration would satisfy specific day-to-day requirements. Each test delineated a set of conditions that had to be met for the project to continue advancing toward go-live. To assess usability, county managers and employees were asked to experiment with the new Workday processes in real time.
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Deployment: Once testing was complete, our team led the final data conversion and loading and assisted with final end-user training in preparation for go-live. Upon deployment, we worked with the county to integrate other applications into the new ERP, develop and streamline reporting functions, and provide additional onsite post-deployment support.
Impact
With Phase 1 implementation of Workday Financial Management complete, we’ve been able to help county departments realize immediate progress by helping solve some of their major challenges. Processes and practices have been established and documented, with improved access to grants, projects, and financial data for reporting and analytics purposes. With greater visibility into what’s going on across departments, the county is poised to improve decision-making using data consolidated in Workday.
By moving Spokane County away from outdated systems to a modern, integrated ERP platform in alignment with leading practices, the implementation is helping to:
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Institute tighter controls
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Reduce manual processes and approvals through automated workflows
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Enhance contract visibility
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Improve data accuracy
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Streamline subaward management
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Increase financial and workforce planning efficiency
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Support better strategic decision-making
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Make county services more transparent and responsive to residents
With our assistance, Spokane County is poised for success using Workday Financial Management and is prepared to transition to Workday Human Capital Management and Payroll in the project’s second phase. Over the long term, this will support Spokane County’s ability to integrate new solutions as needed and smooth the way for upgrading other legacy systems in the future.