Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)Below are general questions about the ABT Program to help you understand what the program’s objectives and goals are.
What is the ABT Program?
A: The Accountable Business Transformation Program (ABT Program) will streamline, standardize and integrate business processes and enable the county to access timely, accurate and useful information. This new business model will transform budget, financial, human resources, payroll and benefits business processes and use contemporary tools and systems.
The ABT Program will bring more effective services to the county’s customers and make county government more efficient by reducing duplication of work and increasing access to information.
Why is the ABT Program necessary?
A: The county operates two accounting and financial reporting systems and two human resource/payroll systems. These four separate systems are neither coordinated nor integrated.
As a result, the day-to-day county business operations suffer from poor integration, redundant data entry, time-wasting reconciliation and high cost for system maintenance and staff support.
By reducing the number of systems from four to two and by providing better access to timely, accurate and useful information through an integrated solution, the county will be more efficient and offer better services.
What is the timeframe for this program?
A: The ABT Program
is a complex multi-year effort and will be implemented in phases. The five phases are:
- Quantifiable Business Case (QBC) — completed, 5/05 – 10/06
- High Level Business Plan (HLBP) — completed, 10/06 – 9/07
- High Level Business Design (HLBD) — completed, 10/07 – 3/08
- Detailed Implementation Plan (DIP) & Pre-implementation Work — 11/08 – 1/09
- Implementation and Migration — began in 2/2009 and targeted to end in early 2012
What is the Implementation and Migration schedule?
A: The ABT Program’s implementation and migration plan is for one countywide human resource system implementation, one countywide financial system implementation and three semimonthly to biweekly payroll migrations. The “Go Live” dates are:
- Countywide human resources processes will be moved to a single PeopleSoft system in early 2010. Existing biweekly payroll agencies using PeopleSoft payroll will continue to do payroll in PeopleSoft
- For financials, all agencies will be moved to Oracle E-Business Suite Financials in January 2011
- There will be two payroll migration groupings that will be moved from semimonthly to a biweekly pay cycle:
- January 2011
- January 2012
- For budget, all agencies will be moved to the new Capital and Operating budget system in April 2012
When should each department/division expect to be moved to a new business process model?
A: A schedule of which agencies and departments/divisions will be migrating to the new business model will be completed later this year.
The order and listing of the groups will be determined upon review of each group meeting a criteria and an evaluation that will include Labor Relations status and organizational information before being listed into a “date specific” phasing group
The grouping criteria include:
- Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiation schedule
- Number of Staff
- Overall Complexity
- Impact of Business Process Changes
- Payroll Issues/Complexity
- Automation Level
- Number of Locations
Who will be impacted?
A: This project will impact countywide budget, finance, human resources, payroll and benefits business processes. Employees and external customers — county residents and the state and federal agencies that conduct business with the county — may be impacted as we improve the delivery of county services through changed processes and integrated systems.
Some county employees will be moving from a semimonthly payroll cycle to a biweekly payroll cycle. While there is language in collective bargaining agreements allowing for this change, the county will work collaboratively with the labor unions to address the effects of this move on its employees.
Will there be job changes?
A: There may be changes to a job and/or tasks that an employee is currently performing. At this time, we do not know the full impact to the staff because the ABT Program is looking at how specific tasks are accomplished by each department/division and section.
Some of the tasks employees currently perform in the areas of budget, finance, human resources, payroll and benefits may be altered in the process of streamlining and standardizing the county’s business processes and introducing new tools and systems.
King County will coordinate changes in conformance with our policies and collective bargaining agreements and work collaboratively with labor unions that represent our employees.
Will employees receive training on the new system and business processes in their current position?
A: Yes, training will be offered on the new business processes and supporting systems. Attendees for these training sessions will be determined once the new business model has been finalized.
How is this program different than the previous project known as Financial System Replacement Project (FSRP)?
A: King County’s elected leadership has taken the lessons learned from an earlier project known as the Financial System Replacement Project (FSRP) and structured the ABT Program to successfully meet the county’s need for best business practices.
The differences between these 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 process transformation, not just a technology system change
- ABT Program focuses on understanding and managing high risk factors through a phased approach
- ABT Program focuses on program metrics: costs, benefits, return on investment (ROI) and key performance indicators
Why couldn’t this project move faster and be done sooner?
A: Based on lessons learned from an earlier project, the ABT Program is a phased implementation to manage high risk factors.
The phased approach includes significant planning in advance of the business process change and system migration. This approach includes change management activities to ensure alignment throughout all branches of government.
The approach calls for:
- Spending significantly more time up front to obtain high-level countywide policy endorsements for key decisions and to manage change. The ABT Program will continue to assess how well the government has internalized the adopted vision and goals and the readiness and ability to accept change
- Undertaking a comprehensive planning process that included developing a High Level Business Plan, High Level Business Design and a Detailed Implementation Plan with the ABT Program governance committees’ review and approval of each plan before the ABT Program moves to the next phase
- Using a phased countywide implementation and migration approach to lower risks and minimize disruption
What is the total estimated cost for the ABT Program?
A: The proposed budget for the ABT Program’s Implementation and Migration phase is $64.6 million with a 30 percent contingency due to the size and complexity of this effort, resulting in a total cost of $84 million.
The County Council has appropriated $8.9 million to the ABT Program for preplanning work that’s produced the High Level Business Plan, the High Level Business Design, the Detailed Implementation Plan and a Cost Benefit Analysis. This preplanning work is the basis for the next phase, the ABT Program’s Implementation and Migration phase.
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