Case Studies: Port of Seattle, Hampton Roads Transit, State of Delaware Office of Pensions, Lucas County, City of Pasadena, Department of Veterans Affairs Office of ITO
CherryRoad has a long history of ERP successes with public sector clients, including state and local governments and agencies, transportation organizations, and K-12 public school systems. Our numerous public sector clients include the State of Vermont, the State of Delaware Pension Office, Niagara County in New York, Lucas County in Ohio, the City of Pasadena, the Port of Seattle, the Delaware Transit Corporation, Metro-North Railroad, Philadelphia Housing Authority, and Newark and Pittsburgh Public School Systems.
CherryRoad has a deep understanding of the particular challenges public sector organizations face, including tough financial constraints, the need to “do more with less,” homeland security concerns, special union and pension considerations, and employee resistance to change. Additionally, public sector organizations must satisfy unique and extensive reporting requirements as well as the public’s right to know.
We can help you rise to these challenges with a proven approach, based on best practices and tailored to your specific needs. With CherryRoad, you’ll achieve dramatic efficiency improvements, enabling you to reduce costs and do more with limited resources. Our expertise spans all aspects of financial performance measurement. This includes maximizing commitment control on budget expenditures; streamlining procurement processes; enabling employee, manager, or customer self-service applications; helping employees understand and embrace technology and process changes; and much more.
From connecting administrative offices with schools on disparate systems to addressing nuances like 10-month pay scales, our consultants deliver comprehensive K-12 solutions. In fact, our commitment to supporting school systems can be seen in our active participation in the Council of the Great City Schools. As a supporter of that important organization, we advise its members on how to effectively adopt technology best practices.
Our work with Newark Public Schools is one example of our proof of performance with K-12 school systems. Most recently, we upgraded this client’s Human Resources system. This upgrade set the stage for deployment of a whole slate of internet-enabled self-service initiatives that will change the way the district interacts with its employees and applicants. Our first engagement with Newark Public Schools was several years earlier, when we performed a Financials implementation after replacing another implementation partner who did not meet the district’s requirements for its Human Resources system project. Newark Public Schools was pleased with the many measurable benefits that our project achieved. For example, our implementation of the Payroll reconciliation process enabled the school district to produce W-2s error-free for the first time – eliminating triple reprints for 9,000 employees. And, after we integrated a third-party application with the Payroll module, the client was able to eliminate manual key entry of over 4,000 transactions per month.
Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) also selected CherryRoad as its implementation partner. After proving our capabilities during the successful implementation of its Human Resources system, the school district – comprised of almost 100 schools – brought CherryRoad back in to implement its Financials system. Our Phase 1 included General Ledger with Commitment Control, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Purchasing and also entailed some special process and programming customizations. For example, to accommodate each school’s June-to-July budgetary timeframe with the district’s calendar-year timeframe, CherryRoad seamlessly combined delivered functionality with several custom processes. And, because of our expertise, PPS can re-name and re-size their state-mandated chart of accounts to better meet their needs. In addition, CherryRoad helped the district optimize their complex requisition approval process. We look forward to our long-term relationship with PPS continuing. In fact, we recently implemented an Asset Management application for them.
Unique and complex reporting requirements – it’s just one of many reasons why state and local governments seek an ERP partner with relevant experience. Knowledge of budgetary commitment control, GASB 34 and CAFR reporting, fund accounting, and other unique governmental requirements enables CherryRoad to deliver systems that help state and local government clients meet their statutory obligations.
The State of Delaware Office of Pensions is a good example. The first time they hired CherryRoad, the Office of Pensions was managing $5 billion in pensions spread over 10 different funds as well as serving 35,000 active employees and 17,000 retirees. And, they were attempting to do so with a 20-year-old mainframe system and data scattered throughout four different databases. CherryRoad’s deep knowledge of both ERP and state-and-local organizations enabled us to immediately get to work on Human Resources and Payroll system implementations. Then, after implementing and customizing the Pension Administration module to meet the client’s specific needs, we seamlessly integrated the three applications. (In fact, we were one of the first firms to successfully implement an ERP solution for a state pension system.) As a result, the Office of Pensions has easy and fast access to real-time information for internal and external reporting. In addition, the system has automated and streamlined numerous time-consuming, manual processes. These and other efficiency improvements enable Delaware’s Office of Pensions to not only accomplish more with the same resources, but to also deliver world-class customer service. In fact, they were so pleased with the results that they called us back to upgrade all three applications.
Our proven performance with state and local governments and agencies is also evident in our work with Niagara County. The County first engaged CherryRoad to perform an upgrade of their Human Resources and Payroll applications . We subsequently upgraded the County’s Financials applications. A key benefit Niagara County has gained from CherryRoad’s work is improved reporting, which has resulted in more informed decision making. Prior to engaging us, the County had worked with three other implementation firms. CherryRoad was the first implementation partner to deliver services that met or exceeded the County’s expectations.
To get the most from their ERP applications, transit and transportation agencies need a partner who can successfully implement Financial and Human Resources solutions and integrate them with other maintenance systems to meet the agency’s operational requirements. Whether the issue is maintaining rolling rail stock, buses, or highways, CherryRoad can deliver an integrated solution. We implement core financial accounting functions working in concert with supply chain solutions that deliver goods and services when and where they are needed, ensuring the agency can provide uninterrupted services to its customers.
For example, CherryRoad has worked extensively with the Delaware Transit Corporation (DTC), an operating agency of the Delaware Department of Transportation, on a variety of initiatives. They first engaged CherryRoad in 2000, when they were encountering difficulties closing their books and valuing inventory using the Financials systems implemented by another firm. Our experienced consultants quickly identified the source of those problems and resolved them. Since then, we’ve helped the DTC with the upgrade of their Financials suite as well as the upgrade of the HR, Payroll, and Benefits Administration applications to the latest web-based versions. This client appreciates our true understanding of their business as well as our ability to exceed expectations on time and on budget.
Our transportation experience also includes several successful engagements with the Port of Seattle, which has operations spanning numerous facilities. When it was time to upgrade their HR functions to the most advanced versions as part of a major e-Business initiative, they called CherryRoad. We added ERP web functionality with an upgrade that included Human Resources, Payroll, Benefits Administration, and Time and Labor. Port of Seattle was very pleased with the results – just as they were on prior engagements with CherryRoad. We had already performed smooth and problem-free implementations of earlier versions of these modules, which entailed complexities like 25 different unions – each with their own earnings codes, shift differentials, and benefits programs. And, we had provided ongoing support to several special projects including a Financials Impact Analysis and Business Process Improvement services. CherryRoad is in the process of upgrading the Port’s Financials system. We’ve proven to Port of Seattle time and again that CherryRoad delivers what we promise – on time and on budget.