On Tuesday, March 27, 2007, the Ohio Administrative Knowledge System (OAKS) successfully deployed its second of six implementations, Human Capital Management (HCM) Release 2.  OAKS, a web-based PeopleSoft application, is replacing the State government’s numerous decaying and fragmented computer systems with a single integrated system for performing the State's business processing functions.  One hundred three State employees on loan from their home agencies and 152 private consultants are heading this program under the guidance of a team of executive sponsors from the Department of Administrative Services, the Office of Information Technology and the Office of Budget Management.

The first release in December 2006, converted the State’s business process functions in the areas of human resources, benefits, payroll and time and labor from the HR2K “legacy” system to the OAKS system.   The March 27 release now allows all State agency Benefits users to process benefits automatically online, including COBRA, and allows State employees to register for benefits electronically during the state’s Open Enrollment period.

David L. White, OAKS executive program manager, remarked shortly after the implementation, “I had the utmost confidence in our HCM team and the other OAKS professionals who led the Release 2 effort, and they did not disappoint.  The hard work and long hours they put in over the course of the last several months have paid off and State employees have already begun reaping the benefits in terms of increased productivity and greater access to information.  This project has launched Ohio far into the 21st century.” 

The approximately 1100 State employees whose work was impacted by Release 2 received comprehensive web-based and instructor-led training over the course of the last two months and availed themselves of an electronic practice environment, digital course simulations, practice labs and job aids.  While end users were undergoing training, the OAKS HCM Application team performed rigorous data validation activities in preparation for conversion to OAKS.

OAKS leadership is pleased with the March 27 implementation and says the transition between the old system and the new system happened smoothly, on schedule and without incident.  Feedback from end users has been positive and there was no spike in the number of Help Desk calls or emails related to the release.   eBenefits, the user-friendly, self-service portion of this release will be ready for State employees to use during the April 25-May 9 Benefits Open Enrollment period.  Offline paper Open Enrollment forms are still available this year, as well. 

The next OAKS release is scheduled for July 2007 and will be the first release of financial (FIN) modules.  It will include Purchasing, General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, eProcurement, a Data Warehouse and others.

The OAKS system is an online enterprise resource planning application similar to many used by large private sector companies, to consolidate their business operations for efficiency and cost-savings.  For the State of Ohio, the OAKS system will replace numerous outdated and fragile computer systems which have been in use for 30 years or more.  

For more information about OAKS contact: OAKS.Communications@oaks.state.oh.us