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(Columbus) - Governor Bob Taft thanked an enthusiastic
gathering of nearly 300 State employees and private
sector consultants on July 6th at an OAKS team
meeting held at the State Library of Ohio. OAKS
promises to revolutionize the way Ohio’s
state government conducts business by providing
synergy and increased productivity to business
processes.
"I believe this system will make the work of future
administrations easier. We are building a great
legacy for the people of Ohio – the most efficient,
effective state government in the country,”
Gov. Taft said.
Moving state support functions to an Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) system was one of Governor
Taft’s (right) earliest priority recommendations
from the Management Improvement Commission 2000
(MIC 2000) Report. The project has grown from
a handful of State employees working to streamline
dozens of old and incompatible computer systems
to a large statewide effort centered at the OAKS
Project Management Office (PMO).
Governor Taft also recognized the generosity of
the state agencies contributing staff to the project
and the spirit of collaboration that exists at the
OAKS PMO among State, Accenture, LLC and Battelle
resources facilitating the implementation. “I
want to thank all of you for rising to the challenge.
I want to encourage you to keep your focus clear.
I have no doubt that when the Human Resources system
goes ‘live’ in December, the OAKS project
will be established as the premier management improvement
tool in state government,” Governor Taft said.
The Governor’s remarks were preceded by
project updates delivered by David L. White, OAKS
executive program manager, State of Ohio (left)
and Rick Hegwood, OAKS executive project manager,
Accenture, LLC (bottom right); the firm selected
by the State to provide system integration services.
These updates noted that the OAKS Technical and
Human Capital Management (HCM) Teams have finished
configuring the first set of PeopleSoft-based
HCM modules to meet the State’s business
requirements. Testing, troubleshooting and training
will be complete this fall before the first modules
are released in December. On schedule and already
demonstrating efficiency, members of the Technical
Team reported that the OAKS conversion programs
are running
in a brief two hours.
Lending further support to the project and the
dedication shown by the staff were the OAKS Executive
Sponsors and representatives from the OAKS Business
Owners Advisory Group. Made up of key state executives
who represent the business areas impacted by the
OAKS project, these two groups are focused on
facilitating a successful OAKS implementation
and streamlining related decision-making.
OAKS Executive Sponsors are Carol Nolan Drake,
DAS Director; Mary Carroll, OIT Director; Kate
Bartter, Chief Policy Advisor to the Governor;
and Tim Keen, OBM Director.
Members of the OAKS Business Owners Advisory
Group include: Clare Long, DAS Deputy Director
of the Human Resources Division; Rick Frank, DAS
Assistant Director; Peter Coccia, DAS Deputy Director
of Finance; Jeff Westhoven, DAS Deputy Director
of the General Services
Division; Walt
Callahan, OIT Deputy Director of Investment and
Governance.
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 five 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
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