On February 1, 2006, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) formed an Agency Implementation Team (AIT), becoming the 40th AIT for the Ohio Administrative Knowledge System (OAKS) project. The new team will work in partnership with other members of the OAKS project to prepare OHFA for use of the state's new computer system.

On February 1, 2005, Governor Bob Taft signed Amended Substitute House Bill 431 making the Ohio Housing Finance Agency an independent entity effective July 1, 2005. As an independent agency, OHFA will have the opportunity to institute cost-saving measures and achieve efficiencies to better serve the long-term affordable housing needs of Ohioans.

OHFA joins 39 existing AITs and multiple Agency Implementation Teams known as M-AITs established to help their organizations prepare for the changes OAKS represents. These teams play a critical role in project activities including educating stakeholders, facilitating process improvement projects, guiding workforce development efforts, authenticating technical infrastructure for deployment, and coordinating training. The composition of each team varies based on agency size, number of potential end users, and the business processes impacted by the OAKS software.

Each AIT has a team lead known as the team's Agency Liaison. The Agency Liaison develops an agency-specific implementation plan consistent with the OAKS overall schedule and timeframes. This team member also plays a critical role in establishing the AIT by recruiting and training new team members. Barbara Creech, director of administration at OHFA, will serve as the Agency Liaison for her agency.

"The Ohio Housing Finance Agency staff is excited to be a part of OAKS and to begin working with the innovative human resources and payroll system," stated Ms. Creech. "This system will improve all of our human resources processes and will allow us to better serve our customers."

Another aspect of the Agency Liaison's role in managing team activities includes assigning responsibilities to individual team members based on eight areas of cultural and technical change readiness. These areas include communication and change facilitation, process improvement, workforce transition, end user training, information systems and security, business information, data conversion, and subject matter expert coordination.

Most agencies formed AITs in spring 2005. However, some teams have been in existence since 2004 when the AIT program was piloted with three departments: Insurance, Natural Resources, and Job and Family Services. Since their inception, members of AITs have participated in several events to help agencies plan for the OAKS implementation including agency commitment events, AIT All Hands Meetings, and a series of four workshops designed for AIT members.

The purpose of the OAKS project is to implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the administrative processes of the State of Ohio. The first of four scheduled implementations will occur on December 18, 2006 and will include software functionality for the state's human resource processes. Completion of the entire system is set for July 2008.

For further information contact:
OAKS Communications at OAKS.Communications@oaks.state.oh.us