Customer Spotlight: CGI Government ERP Customers Recognized For Peak Effectiveness In Finance Operations
By Sean Wdowiak, Consultant, AMS Advantage ERP Program

CGI congratulates Colorado, Massachusetts and Mississippi, three government organizations using CGI’s Government ERP solutions, for receiving the first-ever Performance Achievement Awards during the National Association of State Comptrollers (NASC) Annual Conference.

The three states received this prestigious award for achieving top-quartile effectiveness in finance operations as measured through NASACT’s Benchmarking Program. A total of 19 benchmarks in 9 states have been performed or are underway since the program was launched in 2005 by NASACT in conjunction with The Hackett Group and Accenture.

Colorado, Massachusetts and Mississippi achieved levels of finance effectiveness that place them in the top 25 percent of Hackett’s database of performance metrics. Hackett’s benchmarks in finance and other back-office areas are designed to measure both efficiency and effectiveness and look at performance in key areas such as: overall quality, information access and strategic alignment.

Colorado has been using CGI’s government financial solution since 1993. According to Colorado State Controller Leslie M. Shenefelt, "This award makes us feel great about our organization. We thought we were doing well, and had good processes and people in place. But this benchmark has confirmed it, and will also help us focus on areas that need improvement. We're just beginning the process of considering how to move our legacy accounting system to the latest technology, and with these results we better understand what our needs are, and are in a position to build a stronger business case."

Massachusetts is a current CGI client that has been using AMS Advantage 3 since 2004. Comptroller Martin Benison said, "We consider ourselves a very forward-thinking government agency, and it's great to see that the initiatives we've focused on, including CGI’s web-based finance system, put us in the peak effectiveness bracket by Hackett's standards. There's a lot more we feel we can learn. In our partnership with CGI we're now taking a deeper dive into our practices for both payables and receivables, to identify strategies to improve both effectiveness and efficiency."

Mississippi has been using CGI’s government financial solution since 1989. The state plans to use the benchmark results for the continued refinement of the State's business processes. The Hackett benchmarks have provided Mississippi with valuable baseline data on their operational efficiency and effectiveness. The benchmarks were also performed on IT, HR and Procurement practices and the results have given Mississippi insight into their entire organization wide performance; they are now able to confirm what they need to work on, identify new issues, and quantify their success. The award ultimately supports Mississippi’s efforts to increase the value of their services to the citizens of the State of Mississippi.

"We applaud the accomplishments of these three states and are honored to have them as our customers," said Heidi Green, vice president CGI Government ERP Group. "These awards demonstrate the commitment to excellence and dedication to finance best practices of our public sector partners. The systems in Colorado, Massachusetts and Mississippi are delivering organizational efficiency, streamlining processes, improving workforce productivity and enabling access to information at all levels of government for strategic decision making.

From cities, counties, and states to schools and universities, AMS Advantage® ERP works for government at all levels and is currently used by more than 190 public sector clients, 55 of which have committed to upgrading to our new web-based solution AMS Advantage 3. Designed specifically for government, the solution incorporates CGI’s 30 years of government expertise and experience in the public sector market, and the integrated functionality, workflow and configurable processes government requires for significantly increasing efficiency, improving access to information and reducing total cost of ownership to help clients achieve the highest level of accountability and enhance services to their constituents.

For more information:
George Stasiw
Director, Sales and Marketing
george.stasiw@cgi.com
703-267-5103