SDCExec.com |

Fairfax, VA – May 28, 2009 – As funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) begin to flow to states, infrastructure projects, such as road and bridge repair, will likely receive significant investments. However, state departments of transportation (DOTs) must also meet more stringent reporting requirements and demonstrate greater accountability for each dollar spent on these projects.

CGI Group Inc., a global provider of information technology (IT) and business process services, has unveiled a process management framework designed to help DOTs better meet ARRA transparency requirements standards, as well as reorganize processes to better predict project costs, manage expenditures and track mission-critical information.  

"State transportation departments today confront a number of challenges at a time when budgets and funding sources are unpredictable," said Caroline Rapking, vice president of CGI' U.S. State and Local Government Industry Group. "Managing cost projections and expenditures with the highest levels of transparency and accountability will be critical as states rapidly deploy recovery funds to drive high-impact infrastructure projects."

To provide DOTs with the information needed to make difficult planning and prioritization decisions, CGI said it developed a customizable five-step process that includes strategic planning to define a DOT's goals, detailed data integrity analysis, business process realignment, management dashboard report development, and the implementation of internal accountability metrics and performance scorecards.

Within three months of implementation, the State of Indiana's Department of Transportation (INDOT) achieved a reduction in overall cost variability between project cost projections and project budget allocations (through 2015) of $670 million. In addition, CGI was able to identify $7 million in additional available funding across 200 inactive purchase orders.

CGI said it also helped INDOT generate additional soft-dollar savings from increased staff efficiency and performance, and streamlined business rules.