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CGI's Managed Advantage Solution helps Wyoming modernize operations and focus on services for their citizens
“With Managed Advantage, CGI is committed to our schedule and holds itself accountable to response times and tasks. They are dedicated to meeting our goals.”
Max Maxfield, State Auditor,
State of Wyoming
The Wyoming State Auditor's Office (SAO) serves the state's 506,000 residents by providing quality statewide accounting, human resources and financial reporting services. Through SAO, the State of Wyoming and its 9,500 employees have used the AMS Advantage® Financial Management solution, part of CGI's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suite, to manage daily operations and its $4billion-plus annual budget since 1991. In 1998, Wyoming expanded their ERP functionality to include AMS Advantage Human Resources Management. In 2002, once again they turned to CGI to consider outsourcing.
The Challenge
The state had a strong desire to enhance service to its employees and vendors through the modern technology and self-service functionality available with the Web-based AMS Advantage solution. However, they recognized their internal technical infrastructure was not prepared to support these new technologies.
CGI's Managed Advantage program offered Wyoming what they wanted: browser-based access and advanced financial and human resources processing without having to manage modern technology or add to the complexity of back-office operations.
Managed Advantage delivers full-scope technology and operations management to help organizations derive maximum value from their AMS Advantage investment. With Managed Advantage, the state sets the course and retains control of the application and the data, while CGI coordinates day-to-day operations.
Selecting a host provider, just like selecting a software and services vendor, poses a considerable challenge on a number of fronts. Wyoming selected CGI because of its knowledge of the software and the business of government. CGI's use of sound management practices would help the state focus on meeting operational and financial expectations and results. In addition, a single partner relationship would provide a single contact for issue resolution.
The Strategy
With CGI's Managed Advantage solution and team of experts, the State of Wyoming found a solid partnership built on a relationship of honest interaction, focused on client satisfaction and success. A single point of accountability for software, services and hosting from CGI meant they would have one place to turn for resolution of any issues related to their ERP business. The state also focused on value per dollar with CGI and found a host of benefits. With defined service levels based on usage, Wyoming could rely on predictable costs and better control over how they spend their technology dollars. The state would also receive additional audit compliance, proven change control procedures and a wealth of solution-driven expertise in the fields of technology and government. Moreover, Wyoming would be able to avoid the excess costs of using in-house highly specialized staff.
In upgrading the state's AMS Advantage environment, Wyoming took a dual approach, employing the Managed Advantage team to maintain continuity of existing operations, while state project staff focused on the upgrade project. CGI's Managed Advantage team hosted the prototyping environment for the upgrade during the early stages of the project.
The Technology
- Mainframe: zOS
- Client Server: AIX, Windows
- Web: Websphere, IIS
- Database: Oracle VSAM
- Languages: Versata, JAVA, COBOL, etc. Advantage ERP
The Results
Choosing Managed Advantage helped the State of Wyoming achieve their goals to modernize operations and focus more on the business of government. For example, the state can now focus on responsibilities geared toward their peers and constituents, including advanced reporting and interfaces, accomplishing more work with the same team while enhancing their technical skill sets. The state sets the direction and retains control. Weekly meetings provide a clearing house for ideas as well as status, with a clearing escalation path if needed. CGI's Managed Advantage team coordinates the day-to-day operations such as running payroll and disbursements so that paychecks, vendor payments and financial statements go out the door. Using Managed Advantage gives the state a single point of accountability for issue resolution to a dedicated team with no competing obligations that could jeopardize state goals. Said Cindy Miller, Finance and Payroll Manager at Wyoming State, "CGI has a ‘we'll handle it’ attitude." And given that everything is documented, organized and readily available, there is support for audits and other compliance activities when needed. "CGI always has readily available the documentation to support whatever compliance activities we face," added Jeanette Beman, Project Manager, State of Wyoming.
The state also benefits from widespread access to various CGI specialized staff (in software, services, hosting and hardware) and broader availability of the online applications to its end users, including employees and vendors, with less outages during core business hours. Also built in to Managed Advantage is a heightened level of security on a limited budget with an audited, state-of-the-art data center that meets industry level standards. Solution monitoring ensures instant notification of issues and the ability to respond immediately. "With Managed Advantage, CGI is committed to our schedule and holds itself accountable to response times and tasks. They are dedicated to meeting our goals," affirmed Max Maxfield, State Auditor.
The state views its partnership with CGI as a model for the future. CGI's Managed Advantage solution allows the State of Wyoming to set the course and then focus on their jobs without the worries of daily operations.
"We have a true partnership, each dependent on and vested in the success of the other. CGI tells Wyoming what is going on and CGI wants to know what is going on in Wyoming. There is a real feeling that CGI has our back," concluded Cindy Miller. |
