About the ABT Program

King County is in the process of adopting a new business model that will deliver efficiencies within the county and more effective services to county residents. The Accountable Business Transformation Program (ABT Program) is developing this model that offers new business processes for financial, human resources, payroll, benefits and budget operations. This model is comprised of industry best operating practices from public and private organizations nationwide and will provide county staff with improved access to timely, accurate and useful information to deliver better services to the public.

Current situation

The county currently uses two accounting and financial systems, and two human resource/payroll systems. These four separate systems perform the central financial and human resource functions for the county, but they are not integrated and do not work together efficiently. 

County departments and agencies follow divergent policies and procedures, use inconsistent business processes and support multiple computing software systems. This results in poor integration, redundant data entry, time-wasting reconciliation, and high system maintenance, staff support and upgrade costs.

Looking to the future

In June 2003, the elected leadership of King County endorsed a vision statement for a newly integrated, countywide financial and human resource system:

“King County’s financial, human resources and budget management
functions are fully integrated, efficient and effective, and enhance
the county’s ability to provide essential services to its customers.”

The lessons learned from an earlier integration project known as the Financial System Replacement Project (FSRP) has helped structure the ABT Program to successfully meet the county’s need for best business practices.

The differences between the two programs are substantial with the ABT Program having three key focus areas that were not adequately addressed by the previous effort:

• ABT Program focuses on business model transformation not only a technology system change;
• ABT Program focuses on understanding and managing high risk factors through a phased approach; and
• ABT Program focuses on program metrics: costs, benefits, return on investment (ROI), and key performance indicators.

Learn about the differences between the ABT Program and FSRP.

The ABT Program is a multi-year program to introduce industry best practices as well as standardize and modernize the county’s financial, human resources, payroll, benefits, and budget business practices. This will result in:

• The use of the same financial software (Oracle) and human resources/payroll software (PeopleSoft) by all county agencies, and
• Implementation of a new operating and capital budget software system for all county agencies.

The county’s elected leadership adopted nine guiding principles in June 2003 to provide direction for the ABT Program:

1. Ensure effective leadership, comprehensive stakeholder agreement and alignment with county goals.
2. Apply the Technology Governance direction for future project efforts.
3. Standardize and streamline operations and business practices to adopt best practices.
4. Consolidate and integrate the computing infrastructure to eliminate redundancy.
5. Reduce computer maintenance, management and service costs.
6. Improve customer service, decision support, and reporting capabilities.
7. Enhance existing service levels and capabilities.
8. Ensure the privacy and security of financial, human resources, and budget information.
9. Commitment to organizational and “county cultural” change must be accepted and effectively implemented.

The ABT Program Charter adopted by the Council on October, 2006, established a comprehensive governance structure to ensure requirements and milestone are met.

ABT Program timeline

The ABT Program Timeline offers an overview of the various timeframe and stages for the financial, human resources, payroll, benefits and budget system.

To illustrate the process and timeline for the finance, human resources and payroll/benefits sections, the ABT Program Process Overview and Timeline diagram details accomplishments at each stage.