Cumberland County government streamlines finance, human resources and procurement
Miami, FL — July 1, 2003 — Answerthink Inc. has been selected by Pennsylvania's Cumberland County government to provide consulting services in support of the county's migration to the Lawson software suite, as well as implement best practices in finance, human resources, procurement and other areas.
Using its Best Practices Implementation (BPI) approach and tools, Answerthink said it would work with the county to configure Lawson Series 8.0.3, streamline work processes and implement best practices from The Hackett Group.
"We knew from the start that we wanted to make some major improvements in county operations," explained Terry Kline, Cumberland County ERP project manager. "Answerthink presented us with a customized plan that took into account our needs and showed an understanding of the complexity of our situation. They also have an exceptional track record helping government organizations like ours."
In 2002, Kline said Cumberland County set out to improve its business processes and productivity. After nearly two decades of use, the county's accounting package was outdated and ill-equipped to handle the complexities that come with managing the county's $111 million annual budget. To do their planning and budgeting, Kline said county government officials have had to offload data from the legacy "green screen" system and create hundreds of individual spreadsheets. This approach was time-intensive, and it meant that the numbers with which they were working quickly became outdated.
New Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) regulations for 2003 also required the county to improve the way it reported financial information to the federal government. Finally, Cumberland County needed a way to interface with a new financial system implemented by the state of Pennsylvania. To accomplish all this, Cumberland County needed a system that enabled it to analyze real-time data and make more intelligent financial decisions.
With more than 1,250 employees working everywhere from county offices to local prisons and nursing homes, Cumberland County also needed a way to streamline its human resources capabilities. Another priority of county officials was to improve the ability of more than 215,000 county residents to access critical services and information via the Internet.
"Cumberland County takes its responsibility to its citizens quite seriously, and that's a wonderful thing. We're proud that they've chosen Answerthink and Lawson to help them make this change in their operations," said Answerthink President Allan Frank.
