Kansas Department of Administration 2006 Annual Report.pdf

Replacing STARS: the Financial Management
System (FMS) project
In 200 1, the State contracted with Accenture Company to provide a report on the possible
need to implement a new Financial Management System (FMS). Accenture recommended
replacement ofthe current system, STARS, as it was nearing 15 years old and was no
longer supported by a vendor.
In 2006, the State revisited the issue and asked Salvaggio, Teal and Associates (ST A) of
Austin, Texas to provide an updated Needs Assessment Study. A project team made up of
five representatives from D of A (three from A&R) worked with STA on the study. A
Project Steering Committee was also created with representatives from 13 different
agencies to oversee the progress ofthe study.
To receive input from agencies regarding their own needs, focus groups were created.
Over 200 individuals participated, representing 25 large agencies and outreach meetings 27
other agency representatives who may not have taken part in the meetings. Also, system
requirements were posted on the FMS project Web site for all agencies to review and
provide comments.
As a result of the study, ST A recommended the State pursue the acquisition and
implementation of an FMS for the following reasons:
• STARS is nearly 20 years old and without vendor support
• Need to move from an environment that focuses primarily on processing financial
transactions to one that also focuses on providing management information to
policymakers for use in making critical decisions about allocating the scarce
resources available for constituent programs and services
• Agencies have difficulty getting meaningful and historical reports from STARS.
As a result, many agencies have created "shadow systems" primarily for tracking
and reporting needed information all at an additional cost to the agency
• A new FMS will be Web-based and integrate all agencies regarding key financial
modules, which would include Accounts Payable, General Ledger, Purchasing and
Asset Management
• A FMS would also replace the current procurement system (Procurement Manager
Plus) and offer "eProcurement" which would include, among other functionality,
enabling State personnel to order goods/services from the negotiated State contracts
by shopping via a Web browser; also would enable vendors to be notified
electronically of bid opportunities for goods/services the vendor has registered with
the State as providing
• A FMS would also provide for a "Data Warehouse" that agencies could use to store
information and create ad hoc reports for their own needs
• With an integrated FMS agencies will be able to process information and
transactions more quickly and with less paperwork and redundancy of effort
• Agencies will be able to respond more quickly and with greater accuracy to
Legislators' requests for information to make decisions
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