Government ERP - Understanding the Components
So what are the top components of a government E R P solution?
Modules & Components
Typically, you want your e r P system to automate all processes end to end, be it in one system or multiple systems. And no, there is no one solution that we know of that can do it all for you. There are solutions that play well with each other and there are that don't. So to begin with, let's take inventory of what you need in an E R P system. E R P systems are first created for financial processes. All they did was accounting and financial planning and reporting. Then they moved on to purchasing and automating things like work order management, inventory management accounts, payables, receivables, and now they cover everything from end-to-end. So if you were to go down a list, the most important component of an E R P solution is your financial module. Everything to do with accounts receivables, general leisure, accounts payables, budgeting in inventory control, they all fit within the financials module.
That is your central repository of everything you do within an E R P solution. The next most important module is your purchasing module, cuz this ties really closely with your financial module. Every time you run a requisition and automated modern system should be able to check the acquisition against your budget line items to make sure that you're not wasting time at the very end to see whether or not you have the budget to buy a certain thing. Purchasing modules also automate the routing of your acquisitions. So anytime I make a acquisition to buy a laptop or computer, it goes to my management. The management has the power to decide whether or not to approve it. It then goes to the directors and eventually the way you set up your approval processes is how your system will work. The third most important module tends to be HR and payroll, because that's your repository for employee information for payroll information, how much you're paying, whom benefits, very critical, very sensitive information that needs to be handled efficiently.
A modern E r P solution allows you to have one source of truth for all your employee information that ties into your payroll modules and that ties into if your processes allow for it. A time and attendance module, work order management, and inventory control. Also, a very important component, especially if you're running a utilities department or a highway department that needs to keep track of every nut and bolt and every piece of rock that you've bought. Work order management systems, traditionally were on paper. Then they move to excel to some green screen systems and modernize today with software as a service and hosted solutions that are really automated and can really enhance workflows for your department. So work order management, inventory control, tied closely to time and attendance and payroll can really automate the system for how you manage your assets, how you manage your fleets, how you manage your highways and roads, and how all of that ties up into your financial general ledger.
The next important module is community development, also referred to as land management. Today. This is the module that allows you to automate your permitting and zoning processes. If I'm a citizen of your city or county and want to build a new house, the last thing I want is to line up at the courthouse to get a form that I then have to send in and it takes months to finish that process. Modern E r P systems and modern permitting systems allow me as a citizen to be at my desk, at my house or my office and apply for a building permit, track it online, see where the process is if I need to, any pay, any fees, if I need to give any more documentation. All of that happens seamlessly on a modern land management process. So that is a very important component and again, it ties into your gis, it ties into your financials, and all of that rolls up to your reporting on the gl.
Document management is another component that traditionally is not considered part of a true E R p, but modern E r P systems now come bundled up with document management systems that allows you to take an invoice that a vendor sends you through the vendor portal. If you have it set up directly into your payable system and all through the process, you can see the invoice on a digital format, you can see where it's headed. You can see he was approved, that if there is a approved budget for this invoice and you can approve payments through this. That's just one example of a document management system. What's traditionally considered a scanning process where you're taking all documents and putting them into a computer. It's really handled by what's referred to as an electronic document management system, which could be a standalone system or part of your E R P system.
That system allows you to go paperless as much as possible. It lets you scan in documents. It lets you tag them efficiently so that at the very end you can find the pieces of information you're looking for, and based on your state or county's retention records, retention laws, you can then get rid of your paper solutions. All of these solutions and all of these modules working together make up a modern E R P system that automates processes for governments that makes things more transparent and that allows reporting to happen ad hoc and without having to create special requests with it to create crystal reports and paper records. The components of an E R P solution are very similar for all government clients. Cities, counties, states, public housing agencies, public transit agencies, utility companies and utility organizations all have very similar modules that can be used.
Niches
However, it specializes when it comes down to very niche quasi-government agencies. For example, a public housing authority may have a housing management module within an E R P solution and the GL is modified to take in specific housing authority type information. For a transit agency, you might need to tie it in very closely with your transit management systems, with your its solutions with your fair management systems that can allow the financial modules of the E R P to take in information from your various systems. And the same thing with utilities. Very specialized processes sometimes need very specialized systems and modules. All of that is available in the market today and can be part of your E R P modernization efforts. If you need more information on all the modules that an E R P encompasses, please go to our website and contact us for more information.