Article
Overcoming setbacks and achieving Oracle Cloud success in Lake County with Baker Tilly
Feb. 6, 2025 · Authored by Jeffrey Haynes
Lake County joined Baker Tilly to share insights from a rocky beginning in their Oracle Cloud journey, to a complete turnaround driving success, positivity, and growth in a recent webinar. Understand how Lake County achieved Oracle Cloud success with Baker Tilly and watch the webinar recording here.
Located in the northwest of Indiana and a part of the Chicago Metropolitan area, Lake County stands as a significant industrial and historical hub. Lake County is notable for producing 25% of the United States’ steel. The County houses British Petroleum’s Whiting Oil refinery, which processes nearly 500,000 barrels daily. In a recent webinar, Scott Schmal, Director of Finance, Lake County alongside Baker Tilly’s Jeff Haynes, Director; Ben Penick, Program Manager and Dan Hedden, Principal shared insights into the County’s challenging Oracle Cloud implementation and its subsequent turnaround with Baker Tilly.
Lake County’s Oracle Cloud journey began when the County decided to upgrade from its legacy system. The initial implementation, handled by a different system integrator, commenced in 2021 with a planned go-live date of January 2022. The implementation included ERP, EPM and HCM modules but faced critical issues:
- Knowledge transfer gaps: The County staff lacked an understanding of fundamental processes, focusing instead on basic button-pushing operations.
- Data migration issues: The implementation approach resulted in transferring data without proper cleansing or validation, leading to data integrity problems.
- Inadequate reporting: Custom reports merely replicated old formats without leveraging Oracle’s advanced capabilities, containing many inaccuracies.
- User adoption challenges: Training sessions were plagued by system errors and failures, which led to increased resistance to change and reduced user confidence.
The breaking point
The situation reached a crisis point when the Indiana State Board of Accounts declared Lake County’s 2022 books not auditable. Recognizing the need for immediate action, Lake County sought a new implementation partner. After evaluating a dozen potential integrators, they selected Baker Tilly based on their strong municipal advisory capabilities and experience in successful Oracle Cloud implementations. The County also recognized Baker Tilly’s expertise in Indiana State audit practices and budgeting procedures.
