An Update from the AMS Advantage Steering Committee Chair

The Forum has come and gone and what a great Forum it was! Congratulations to everyone for making the sessions, the networking opportunities and the entire event a resounding success. Thanks to everyone from CGI, the client speakers and sponsors for making it a memorable as well as valuable experience for all of us. One last thanks to Fran (Pinkston) for leading our AMS Advantage Steering Committee over the past year.

Each year the Steering Committee Chair sets their initiatives for the year. My goal for this year is to further develop initiatives implemented by previous Chairs. First, we are forming a Procurement Discussion Group to expand on Fran's initiative from last year. While there have been many enhancements to the procurement functionality, some are "bigger than a bread basket," so now seems like the perfect time to provide feedback as planning for AMS Advantage 4 begins. The goal of this Discussion Group will be to provide information to CGI on how to enhance procurement functionality long term.

David Hay will be working with us, as well as several other procurement specialists from CGI, including Pat Thomson, Susan Capstack and Kelly Pace who have already signed up. The group is open to anyone who has an opinion on how any of the procurement functionality can be enhanced, so if you are interested in joining, please contact me. Information about this Discussion Group is available on the Discussion Gateway under "Focus Groups and Special Interest Topics: Procurement Discussion Group."

The Discussion Gateway, an initiative of Kathie Still from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is another focus for this year. If you have not already done so, please go to the Advantage Customer Support site (https://support.cgi-ams.com/advantage/) today, sign-up and participate in your discussions/forums of interest.

We also hope to expand on focus groups, the smaller groups of clients who discuss very specific topics, such as user interface and easier upgrades, an initiative of Radcliffe Brown, Palm Beach County, Florida.

I look forward to serving as your Chair this year and to a productive year. Together we can help advance the AMS Advantage products to be even more effective and efficient for all of us.

Meet your 2009 Steering Committee Back row, from left to right: Robert Davis, Los Angeles County, CA (HR – Technical); Trucynda Hawkins, City of Tucson, AZ (Budget); Kathie Still, Commonwealth of Massachusetts (FM – Functional) Middle row, from left to right: Mason Campbell, City of Roanoke, VA (infoAdvantage); Robin Morgan, Southwest Florida Water Management District, FL (Materials Management); Lori McClannahan, State of Iowa (Application Administration); Leslie Randall, Baltimore County Public Schools, MD (Payroll – Functional); Jerry Gearheart, State of Utah (FM – Functional, Vice Chair) Front row, from left to right: Janet Laszlo, City of Anaheim, CA (Employee Benefits); Jackie Holland, Columbus Consolidated Government, GA (FM – Technical); JuneMarie Perkowski, Baltimore County, MD (HR – Functional) Missing from picture: Fran Pinkston, Commonwealth of Kentucky (Procurement) If you have any questions, comments or concerns throughout the year, please do not hesitate to contact Lori at Lori.Mcclannahan@iowa.gov or at (515) 281-3206.