Financial Management System Hosting Review of Strategic Business Options

Logapps delivered a Business Case Analysis for a financial management system

Introduction

The client is currently using CGI Momentum as its financial management system of choice at its headquarters (HQ) as well as its offices across the country. The client aims to combine these multiple financial applications in order to create a single financial management system that brings greater efficiency and accuracy to the recording and reporting of financial information. On October 1, 2007, the client’s headquarters implemented the Momentum financial system to replace its legacy Central Accounting System (CAS). This system is a web-based commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) product supported by CGI, and acts as the client’s accounting system of record. Other offices of the client use the same Momentum financial COTS package, which acts as their financial accounting system. The system records, manages, and reports on respective financial transactions.

Challenge

While the client routinely pushed upgrades and patched out to each of its offices, each office decides whether or not to install the latest software release, eventually resulting in a variety of versions of the financial application across all offices. Multiple instances of the application raised major configuration and server management issues. The client faced increasing demands to reconcile multiple versions and manage the accuracy and reliability of its data. Given the high costs and configuration issues with maintaining multiple instances, the client was ready for a proactive, centralized approach to managing its financial and accounting operations.

Approach

Logapps first conducted an open literature review to gain a baseline understanding of industry and federal best practices as well as the market structure for hosting services. Logapps then conducted federal agency research, visiting and holding discussions with the finance divisions of several agencies that use CGI Momentum: Department of Justice (DOJ), General Services Administration (GSA), and Department of State. The outreach to various agencies allowed Logapps to characterize the service levels received from the different agencies, as well as understand the lessons learned at each agency. Lastly, Logapps conducted market research by requesting quotes based on current legacy technical architecture and JIFMS target architecture.

Impact

Three alternatives were considered in the development of the Business Case Analysis, which was based on research, interviews, and data collection. The analysis team concluded that the client’s best path forward was to host the financial system in a cloud environment and use the current vendor for Tier I and II services. This alternative provided the lowest cost, lowest risk, and overall best value. Logapps based these findings on cost, hosting in a cloud environment is more cost-efficient than other alternatives. Logapps also found that reliability, availability, and security were found to meet or exceed national and organizational standards. Lastly, the risk of implementation and immediate availability made the alternative the most suitable option.

Logapps assisted the client with the construction and implementation of the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and played a critical part in teaching the importance of making SLAs a mandatory practice across the organization. Additionally, Logapps made a significant impact on vendor negotiations, saving the client over $18M in contract costs.

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