| | MAY 201919CIOReviewERP: DRIVING EFFICIENCIES ACROSS THE STATE By Hardik Bhatt, CIO and Secretary, Innovation & Technology and Kevin O Toole, Chief of Transformation Applications and Digital Officer, State of IllinoisExecutive SummaryAcross governments, there is an increasing need to meet agency demands and enhance delivery, while also improving productivity. This is an enormous challenge complicated by highly fragmented technology landscapes, disparate business processes and decentralized governance. The State of Illinois is currently facing many such administrative challenges. This is not unexpected since it has operated for decades with antiquated systems that lack reporting and analytical capabilities. Agencies have historically operated in silos, with a lack of interoperability. This disparate IT environment consists of over 400 solutions that create duplicative process es hindering the efficiency of the State.In order to better address these challenges and meet the increasing needs of the State of Illinois, Governor Bruce Rauner made IT modernization a priority. The Enterprise Resource Program (ERP) was established in 2015 to improve the State's ability to streamline administrative processes across finance and human capital management. The goal of the ERP program is to create transparency into the State financials and drive efficiencies across all the State; additionally, the Program will streamline all core human capital functions, and establish the organizational structure required to support the delivery.What is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)?The readers of this magazine are very likely familiar with ERP. For those who are not, Enterprise Resource Planning is an integrated system that provides IT enablement for the core operations and financial processes of an enterprise or government organization.The benefits of implementing an ERP include:1. Improved financial reporting and transparency: Transparency generated by a singular, up-to-date data base coupled with prompt reporting for planning2. Increased compliance with regulations, both internal and external: Integration of processes facilitates increased transparency and greater compliance with internal and external controls3. Improved budget forecasting: Data consistency and granularity across functional areas4. Enhanced data-based decision making: Greater visibility into data facilitates more informed decision makingAs with any large system implementation, the launch of an ERP system comes with its share of challenges. 1. ERP systems cover different business processes with many stakeholders across multiple areas of a government organization2. Systems involve high complexity due to breadth and depth of provided functionalities 3. Implementation of the system involves legacy integration, heavy customization and modificationsWhy is the State Implementing ERP?The State of Illinois and its agencies are unable to perform many basic administrative functions including generating timely and accurate financial statements. Illinois has ranked several Hardik Bhatt
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