Liaisons recently attended a half-day "Get Ready, Get Set…" workshop at the OAKS Program Management Office to review the next steps in forming their Agency Implementation Teams (AITs) and prepare for a variety of change management activities within their agencies.

AITs will play a critical role in preparing their agencies for the changes OAKS represents. As the OAKS project continues, teams will be responsible for:
· Providing accurate, timely and relevant information about OAKS to agency management teams
  and their staffs;
· Facilitating and monitoring process improvement and organizational change;
· Ensuring the technical infrastructure necessary for OAKS deployment;
· Coordinating end user training programs; and
· Supporting the OAKS benefits management process after software implementation.

Agencies' liaisons will lead the effort to form their AITs over the next six weeks. Implementation team size will vary from agency to agency depending on the estimated number of potential users, where users are located within an agency and the business processes impacted by the OAKS software. Agencies with a smaller number of potential OAKS users and fewer resources have begun strategizing on how to band together to form multiple agency implementation teams with shared resources. "We are looking forward to meeting with other smaller agencies to see where there might be a good match," said Joey Fanell, OAKS liaison with the Civil Rights Commission.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has served as a pilot agency for several change management initiatives since the formation of their agency implementation team in 2004. Team members are helping to create a greater awareness about the project within their agencies and will be assisting the PMO with preparations for a statewide change readiness assessment.

"Our primary focus now is with an internal outreach program," said René Weber, OAKS liaison at ODNR. "Implementation team members have already made OAKS presentations to DNR fiscal officers and HR professional staff. We have begun meeting with the Division of Forestry to initiate field staff to the OAKS project and the role of the agency's implementation team."

The Ohio Department of Insurance also serves as a pilot agency. "We are working closely with the OAKS change management team to provide input and feedback from a small agency's perspective," said Jianming Xia, OAKS liaison. "We are particularly interested in testing the new functionality being added to the OAKS extranet that will allow AITs to more easily collaborate with each other. This represents a real opportunity for agencies to easily share best practices for rolling out the project in the next few months."