More than 350 state employees from more than 90 state agencies participated in an All Hands Meeting for the Ohio Administrative Knowledge System (OAKS) project. The session provided project updates, stressed the importance of communication and collaboration and described many of the challenges on a project the size and scope of OAKS. Participants attended a general session followed by four separate breakout meetings.

State of Ohio CIO Mary F. Carroll describes the important role agency implementation teams have in preparing their agencies for OAKS.

The general session featured Executive Program Manager David White, Accenture Project Manager Rick Hegwood, Director of the Ohio Office of Information Technology and OAKS Executive Sponsor Mary F. Carroll, keynote speaker Jan Eckert, and OAKS Assistant Program Manager Brian Welch.

Last spring the state's agency liaisons for the project were asked to begin forming teams that would help their agencies prepare for OAKS. Since then 39 agency implementation teams (AITs) representing 100 state agencies, boards and commissions have been established. Although the OAKS program management office has conducted similar meetings in the past for agency liaisons, this was the first all-hands gathering for implementation team members, team sponsors and advisory committees.

Keynote speaker Jan Eckert is the Unit Liaison Coordinator for the Office of the University of Michigan Administrative Information Services (MAIS). Ms. Eckert helped lead a successful Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system known as MAIS, which is similar to the OAKS project. Her presentation, titled "Agency Liaisons: A Critical Success Factor for Implementing Change," addressed the importance of agency participation when implementing a new computer system.

Jan Eckert, Unit Liaison Coordinator, University of Michigan, responds to questions during a breakout session at the Fall 2005 AIT All Hands Meeting.

"For a successful implementation, you need to tame the devil in the details," stated Ms. Eckert. "You will think about the big things but it's the attention to detail that can really make or break it."

The goal of the OAKS project is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of many of the state's core business processes. OAKS will replace several aging and outdated central computing systems with software acquired from PeopleSoft. By leveraging the best business practices inherent in the PeopleSoft software, OAKS will streamline and modernize basic administrative functions for state agencies and their employees. The first of four scheduled implementations will occur in December 2006 and will include software functionality for the state's core human resource processes.

To view the Fall 2005 AIT All Hands Meeting Presentations, see: http://www.oaks.ohio.gov/oaks/Presentation.asp

For further information, visit the OAKS Web site (www.oaks.ohio.gov) or contact:
OAKS Communications at OAKS.Communications@oaks.state.oh.us