ABT Program Fact sheet

Overview

King County is moving to a new business model that will deliver more efficient and effective services to county residents. The county’s Accountable Business Transformation Program (ABT Program) will streamline, standardize and integrate business processes with countywide practices and systems.

This will transform and unify the county’s budget, finance, human resources, payroll and employee benefits systems. The contemporary tools and processes will allow King County to operate as one government, rather than using the different practices and systems that were in effect prior to the King County Metro merger.

King County will see many benefits from implementing best business operating practices. The ABT Program will enhance the county’s ability to provide services to customers and make county government more efficient by reducing duplication of work and increasing information access.

ABT Program benefits

The ABT Program is a multi-year effort to standardize and modernize the county’s financial, human resources, payroll, benefits, and budget processes. All King County residents will benefit from an efficient government with streamlined human resources and financial systems and budgeting that is easier to understand and execute.

• King County residents will receive more efficient services, by enabling staff to easily access cross-agency information and use modern Web-enabled capabilities.
• Redundant data entry, transcription and reconciliation activities will be eliminated.
• A single, unified system of finance, human resources, payroll, employee benefits and budget system solutions will be created and used by all county agencies.
• System maintenance and management costs will be reduced.

Current situation

The county operates two parallel accounting and financial reporting systems, and two parallel human resource and payroll systems. These four separate systems are neither coordinated nor integrated.

Along with the disconnect among these systems, county agencies follow divergent policies and procedures, use inconsistent business processes and multiple computer software systems. As a result, the day-to-day business operations of county government suffer from poor integration, redundant data entry, and high costs for system maintenance and staff support.

Program status

The ABT Program phases and timeline are documented in the following graph:

In 2003, the King County Council approved the vision and goals for the ABT Program, and work began in earnest to plan the new business model when the program charter was approved by the council in 2006. The ABT Program has completed the planning stages and recommends a phased migration plan.

This recommendation has been approved by the ABT governance committees in the form of a Detailed Implementation Plan (DIP), Cost Benefit Comparison Study, Cost Benefit Analysis and a Budget System Recommendation, and has been transmitted to the King County Council with an appropriation request of $84 million, which includes a 30% contingency.

Governance

The ABT Program has benefited from full countywide participation and elected leadership support to make important planning decisions.

Finance

The ABT Program is a long-term solution to the problem of not having ready access to data for better management of King County. The county will continue to need access to this information to make management and budget decisions. Implementation of the ABT Program will provide better information gathering, resulting in better decision making.

An appropriation request of $84 million, which includes a 30% contingency, has been transmitted to the County Council for the ABT Program’s implementation phase. To finance this, King County will issue bond anticipation notes until the ABT Program completes migration in 2012. In 2012, bonds will replace the notes, at which time debt payments will begin. The county will distribute the debt to agencies based on expected use. Actual ABT Program debt allocation will be determined by a formula that takes into account not only use, but also by the benefits received by each county agency.

The implications for the King County budget from instituting the ABT Program are mitigated by this financing approach.

Timeline

The ABT Program will implement efficient and effective financial, human resource and budget business processes countywide through a series of phased deployments spanning from 2008 - 2012. The proposed target is September 2009 for PeopleSoft 9.0 to become the Human Resource system for the entire county followed by the implementation of Oracle Enterprise Business Systems (EBS) financial system in January 2011. County agencies will migrate from the legacy payroll system to PeopleSoft in three groups: January 2011, July 2011 and January 2012. In the spring of 2012 the new Budget System will be implemented in time for the preparation of 2013 capital and operating budgets, followed later in 2012 by the implementation of Budget performance management reporting system.

Proposed milestones and dates

Looking to the future

The King County staff, with the support of elected officials and the guidance of its governance committees, has completed the ABT Program planning phase. This produced a comprehensive plan to transition King County to common business practices and to move from multiple and inefficient legacy systems to a fully functional system that will integrate finance, human resources and budget systems countywide.

The implementation of the ABT Program is an investment in the continued efficient operation of King County government. The county has sought continuously to provide its citizens with high quality, cost-effective services and to operate in a manner that is transparent, responsive and accountable. Continuing to achieve those objectives, while managing the increasing breadth and complexity of county government and the services it provides, demands significant transformations to systems that inform, facilitate and guide King County government.

ABT Program sponsors and executives

• Ron Sims, Executive Sponsor
• Jim Buck, Program Sponsor
• Caroline Whalen, Deputy Program Sponsor
• Manny Ovena, ABT Program Manager

Contact:

Fay Lim — Communications Manager, ABT Program
Phone: 206-296-4578
E-mail: media.abtprogram@kingcounty.gov