To drive more efficient business operations across the enterprise, the client was preparing to jettison a multitude of out-of-date, single-purpose business systems that cost millions and replace them with a single enterprise resource planning (ERP) business management system. They needed to establish a program that would guide the process, helping them modernize and standardize financial, workforce, and supply chain management throughout the organization. The new system must also be able to produce auditable financial statements that complied with federal financial and security standards.
The Herren Associates team joined the effort in the pre-planning phase. Herren orchestrated the initial pilot system convergence; set up the program; and conducted ongoing planning, scheduling, monitoring, and control during all phases of deployment. As the program grew, Herren delivered a turnkey project management office (PMO) to enable the program to meet its challenging objectives.
Throughout the program’s initial acquisition stages, the Herren team led the development of all program materials. Herren drafted, reviewed, and prepared analyses and studies that led to a successful Milestone A/B approval, allowing the program to move forward. Working alongside program executives, Herren developed the all cost, economic analyses, affordability assessments, and program documentation required to successfully achieve Milestone C. The client immediately gained traction with an improved arsenal to draw upon – preparing them for anything from issue management with resource sponsors and Congressional inquiries to deliverable planning.
Herren’s PMO team gathered project management resources and expertise in one location, resulting in better alignment across program teams. Herren’s PMO facilitated clearer goals, faster execution, and improved success rates. During the course of development, Herren worked with a combined government-industry team to manage hundreds of business blueprint workshops, decompose thousands of product transaction workflow scenarios, and quantify the cost impact of application enhancements to the packaged ERP software system.
Because of Herren’s program management expertise, teams worked on an accelerated timeline that reduced overall time utilization by 17 percent from government forecasts. This immediately resulted in $2M in annual savings for the client. And looking forward, the program will realize additional savings by redeploying the project’s methodologies as the system successfully moves into sustainment.
For the first time in the organization’s history, finance and supply were fully integrated to provide real-time information to over 68,000 users worldwide, managing more than $50 billion in annual investments. The system delivers solutions integral to producing auditable financial statements in compliance with U.S. Department of Defense audit guidance.
- Dramatically reduced the number and cost of IT systems across the organization
- Achieved significant labor cost savings through standardized business processes
- Delivered access to a common set of secure data anywhere around the world
- Improved total asset visibility; increasing repairs and decreasing replacements
- Enhanced productivity as ERP users’ skills became transferable across the enterprise
- MReduced the cost of conducting audits
- Provided the ability to produce auditable financial statements
Public-sector executives need expert partners who bring complexity into focus with actionable insights – and deliver maximum value. Herren has been helping leaders make better decisions since 1989. We optimize investments, manage transformational change, and shake up the status quo in our determination to maximize the value of every dollar spent. Our value-driven approach is built on everyday collaboration with clients and business partners. We work side by side with leaders and make their mission, our mission. To learn more about Herren Associates, please visit us at www.jlha.com.