Federal agency modernizes existing processes to reduce costs

Client background

The company is a federal agency employing more than 8,000 employees with a domestic and global presence.

The business challenge

The agency wanted to modernize their procure-to-pay and ERP solutions to reduce the total cost of providing services across the operation. This was a significant challenge because the legacy system was custom-built over many years to serve their unique and highly secure environment.

The primary challenge the agency faced was the customized nature of existing solutions in ERP, the complexity and regulatory requirements of their supply chain, and a sophisticated technical architecture that integrates data between classified and unclassified applications on premise and in the cloud.

Strategy and solution

The agency utilized Oracle EBS and a classified custom on-premise application to support their existing processes. Baker Tilly partnered with the agency and a prime contractor to jointly execute the Oracle Cloud project.

Baker Tilly’s work focused on business process reengineering and functional design and configuration of the Oracle Cloud Finance and Supply Chain modules. We managed the execution for the design, build, testing and deployment. The seamless integration of the client and contractor teams were integral to overall delivery success and communicating as one voice. This was accomplished by regular call cadences and transparent communication to ensure consistent alignment.

The agency realized that successful adoption of a modernized ERP system would also require a thoughtful and strategic approach to prepare the workforce for the significant changes ahead to capitalize on the advantages of the updated system. Through this transformation, the organization sought to leverage change management to smoothly transition employees to the new innovative financial and supply chain processes.

• The change management program was led by Baker Tilly with input from the functional and technical teams, and the client stakeholders, ensuring seamless integration and alignment to the project plan.
• The change team was comprised of one change manager from Baker Tilly, one change manager from the client and three additional supporting team members, who reported into the client’s project leadership team.
• Baker Tilly’s change manager served as a coach to the client’s change team and worked in tandem with the project team, participating in essential planning, execution and PMO meetings.
• All the acting members of the change team were SMEs representing each of the core areas of the business; none had prior change management experience.
• The collective change team conducted regular working sessions, held weekly status updates for project managers and presented progress updates to the core team weekly.

Through an integrated project management and change management approach, the regular exchange of information and collaborative planning efforts resulted in a highly effective program where the change activities worked in direct support of each project phase, ensuring the right stakeholders were engaged at the right time and with the right level of knowledge.

As a result of these efforts key stakeholder groups transitioned along the change continuum to plan and are well positioned for a successful deployment.