IFSpi Strategic Planning Session: Phase 2 Action Items

August 22, 2014

On Friday, August 22nd, 2014, the JIC Committee met to begin Phase 2 of the Strategic Planning Session for IFSpi. We reviewed the report from our April 11th Strategic Planning Session (attachment 1) and we also reviewed the results of the survey sent to all users requesting input on both new enhancements for IFSpi and the priority of those enhancements (attachment 2).

In our facilitated discussion, we asked the question…

What actions can JIC take to begin working on our wishlist for IFS? And, what would those actions look like?

Again, individually all participants listed their thoughts and selected their top3. Then we worked in small groups to share ideas. Each small group then brought 5 – 7 action items back to the full group. We had 25 people representing 19 counties/agencies. We also prioritized the action items and assigned interim chairs to move of the items. The action items are listing in highest priority first.

1. Form a Committee to Work on Contract that expires on December 31, 2015. a. Interim Chair: Lisa Meredith b. Include Legal Discussions as part of the contract committee, such as what do we need

for an ongoing Legal Committee. 2. Form Committees – Define the Process of JIC

a. Form Training & Communication Committee to Create Training & Communication Plan i. Interim Chair: OPEN

ii. Training to include: Knowledge Forum; User Friendly Documentation; Support Tools, Documentation and Where they are housed; 1 -2 Times per Year Host an ALL IFS Users One Day Conference; and Monthly “Brown Bag” over the lunch hour short training topics presented by users (Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)).

iii. Communication to include: Manuals, Design Enhancements, and Create a Listserv.

b. Form an IT Advisory Committee i. Interim Chair: Jon Eckel

ii. Address Technical Issues iii. Advise on Security and Software Updates

c. Form Best Practices Committee to Create Application & Business Process Standards i. Interim Chair: OPEN

ii. Find ways to improve budget and workflows from counties iii. Research Scan/Electronic Document Management Solutions

iv. Work with TriMin on Enhancements (best options/process) v. Develop process for spending enhancement monies

vi. Figure out the scope of IFSpi – what all is included? d. Form Reports Committee

i. Interim Chair: OPEN ii. Research Ad Hoc Reporting Tools

3. MCCC to Distribute adopted Project Life Cycle Policy & Review at Next JIC Meeting a. Interim Chair: Lisa Meredith (to distribute policy to JIC) b. Use Project Life Cycle with IFSpi (on all projects)

i. Set/Define Project Goals ii. Determine High Level Requirements with Subcommittees

iii. Determine High Level Budget 4. Create Working Committee to Review Wishlist and Bring Back to JIC

a. Interim Chair: Lynn Boraas b. Committee Members: Shirl Boelter, Fran Windschitl, and Mike Disher c. Prioritize Wishlist based on user feedback d. Identify “must do’s” (“needs”) versus “wishlist items” (“wants”) and prioritize e. Plan, prioritize, and create a timeline

NEXT STEPS… Interim Chairs to report back at the next JIC Meeting on October 24th at 9:30 at Eagle Trace in Clearwater.

~Report submitted by Lisa C. Meredith acting facilitator for the meeting.

ATTACHMENT 1

IFSpi Strategic Planning Session

April 11, 2014

Where will IFSpi be in Five Years? On Friday, April 11th, 2014 the JIC Committee and several guests met at Eagle Trace in Clearwater, Minnesota to discuss where we want to go next with IFSpi. IFSpi is a financial software program owned and managed by 78 Minnesota counties. The JIC Committee is made up of elected members from three auditor/treasurer cooperative groups – MCCC’s Finance & General Government User Group, MSCC, and MCIS – plus the CMHS Group. The JIC Committee is an Advisory Committee under MCCC. In early 2014, we will complete the rollout of our most recent release and upgrade of IFS, now named IFSpi, which will make the system a dual platform system able to run on both an iSeries and a SQL server.

At the meeting on April 11th, we had a facilitated discussion with 25 participants. Lisa Meredith acted as the facilitator for the discussion. We had individual time to think about what each of us wanted to see in the system in the next five years. Then, small groups met to compare their lists. Finally, we rejoined as a full group to create a complete list of ideas then categorize the ideas into lists. This meeting was the first step in our strategic process.

Our complete list…

AUDITS & STANDARDS

• User Security – State Auditors • Summary Human Services Data to GL – Protected Health PHP (HIPAA) • Perform a full industry standard security audit of the software to include (but not limited to)

injection attacks, packet sniffing for plain text passwords, directed attacks, etc. • Complete documentation of application from a technical standpoint • Development tools and methodologies done to current financial institution industry standards • Formal change management plan for application to include Alpha and Beta testing standards • Any protected or restricted data needs to be encrypted to FIPS 140-2 standards. (This includes

communications to Microsoft AD). This requirement is also driven by the requirement to protect client data for the Human Services user side. User security must also be addressed as it applies to end users and client information in IFSpi.

• File transfers, for example when a payroll file is exported out of the payroll system and then imported to IFSpi, the data needs to be encrypted with a key that is held by the two systems, not known to the user

MISCELLANEOUS

• Know if Trimin/JIC plans to sell IFS software to non-county vendors • Mobile Solutions • Integration with Other Systems • Improved Enhancement/Development Process • Study what other systems do to get ideas • Advanced Search Ability (*key word in description) • Support vendor needs to have a clear understanding of Microsoft networking standards

IT PROCESS (TECHNOLOGY)

• Replace Web/App Server (move away from IBM websphere) • Browser Issues (expand?) – (internet explorer vs. firefox vs. Mozilla, vs. ???) • Better Install Process • County Installable Releases

• Use stored procedures – this would increase performance of the application and reports • Fully document AD integration, currently IFS has little to none. This makes it very difficult to

impossible to maintain this option as application is moved to new hardware or counties want to turn this feature on

• Move away from IBM WEB Sphere – this is a very expensive software platform that does not provide any real benefit for counties running IFS on a Microsoft platform. The software platform should be what most counties are using in the Microsoft networks, no one off different ones

• All counties (at least those on the same platform) should be on the same release level (maybe + or – one), all releases should be documented and be packaged so county IT can install them.

MS Office

• MS Office – In and Out of IFSpi • Better Integration with MS Office • Revisit Excel Downloads (format?) – Committee to study? • Improve download reports to excel • Create all reports in Excel format so data can be manipulated and reported on in different

methods, not locked down to a PDF report that cannot be changed

PROJECTS

• Project Reporting • Contract/Project Tracking

LASER CHECK PRINTING

CAPITAL ASSETS

A/P

• PO & Workflow into AP • Scan Documents Ability – scan receipts, checks, invoices to uploads • Vendor Payments (front end) Workflow • Scanning Vouchers/Checks/Invoices • E-Invoice • Electronic Invoices, Approvals, etc.

TRAINING

• Non-Vendor Improved Training • More User Training (web) and County Collaboration/Participation/Feedback (surveys?)

Social Welfare Fund

• Set Up Separate Non-County Funds

BUDGETING

• Budget Documentation

• Real Time Budget Reports • Monthly Budgeting • Budgeting Module (with reporting) • Improved Budgeting

CASH DRAWER

• Cashiering County-wide (improvements) • Cash Register Up to Industry Standards & Integrations • Cash Drawer – plus • Cash Drawer – Rounded Out • Cash Drawer (continue to work on solutions/system)

REPORTS

• Reports for Public/Charts • New Report Writer (vs. Crystal) • Robust Reports

o Name Reports o Vendor Reports

• Customize Reports by User • Data Dictionary for Custom Reports • Complete Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) of the SQL database – this would help in

understanding the relationship between tables and assist in creating ad-hoc queries based on user requests

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE MODULE

TREASURERS’ FINANCIAL

• Treasurers’ Financial • Bank Reconciliation • Investments Tracking

NEXT STEPS… This complete list will be sent out to all users for review. Users will be requested to identify their top 3 to top 5 priority items from the list as well as add any items they feel may be missing. This information will be collected using SurveyMonkey.

This report and the results of the survey will be reviewed at the next JIC Meeting on Monday, June 2nd at the MCCC Conference. We anticipate forming some working committees at the June meeting to start work on some of the higher priority items.

~Report submitted by Lisa C. Meredith acting facilitator for the meeting.

ATTACHMENT 2

IFS Survey Wishlist After distributing our Strategic Planning Session Report, we surveyed all IFS Users asking for their input. The following are the results of our survey. Please note this is a summary of all responses as entered (with the exception of correction of a few typos). There is no priority assigned and duplicates have not been removed.

After you have read the IFS Strategic Planning Session Report, is there anything you think is missing from the list of future projects? Please list up to 7.

• Documentation for training new workers • We use several softwares to satisfy our needs. There is a high demand for one software

that will serve all of our needs instead of "piecing together" several different softwares. • One Contract per county • The Accounts Receivable module should have an electronic customer interface to

provide for online billing and payments. • SWS - Laser Check Printing with signature embedded. • I think there are still some glitches in new IFSpi that should be taken care of so they

work properly. • Search options to find reports/options (is that under reports & inquiries or

miscellaneous?) • Strategy for including more counties in the IFSpi discussion (maybe more meetings in St

Paul) - meeting locations are limiting • Reports - Create reports to complete standardized DHS quarterly reports ( 2895 and

2550) • Full integration for ACH payments so eventually we can stop issuing paper checks • Improved service from vendors like CPUI • Bank reconciliation • Ability to email reports directly to any email address - not just those with IFS sign ons • Better budgeting with the "what if" capability • The ability to "drill down" on reports • Electronic Invoicing • User group consolidation- improve communication • ACH payments to vendors/employees...although this might be an option our county has

but just isn't using. • Some reports still don't have all the information or parameter options that were

available in old IFS.

• Ability to access how-to's, tips, Q&As, best practices, etc. • more fields so have space for an invoice number and a contract number so contract

payments can be tracked easier • Encumbrance and purchase order system • Better Reports • Develop a mentor program to reduce county costs and free up additional vendor time • An electronic copy of the user manual • Formal process to strategically coordinate with software vendors for programs that

integrate with IFS: payroll, einvoice, budgeting, etc. • Ability to email reports directly to anyone (not just a current user) • Ability to set up reports to automatically go to users (x, y, & z go to A, x goes to B, etc.)

on a given basis (monthly, quarterly, etc.)

Based on the list provided plus your added items, what are the top 5-7 priority items for you and your office?

• Accounts receivable options • We use several softwares to satisfy our needs. There is a high demand for one software

that will serve all of our needs instead of "piecing together" several different softwares. • Budgeting Module with Reporting capabilites monthly, quarterly and annually • Treasurer's Financial • Improved budgeting • Cash Drawer • Accounts receivable module and customer interface. This might be part of the Cash

Drawer process. • Better Integration with MS Office. • Advanced Search Ability (*key word in description) • Better Install process/County Installable releases • Make sure all the current operations/reports are working properly before starting other

big projects • Ability to email reports directly to anyone (not just a current user) • Laser Check Printing - imperative that we have an option of using blank check stock with

electronic signatures (replace separately purchased software) • Improve download report to Excel • Integration with other Systems • Get cash drawer module fully functional and issue free for iSeries deployments • ability to process electronic invoices so we no longer are processing paper invoices • Capital Assets should be in IFS, not a separate program • better security • security

• All AP Items • Cash Drawer • Accounts receivable module • Social Welfare-get it off of the AS/400 • Cash drawer system • Bank Reconciliation • Fully document AD integration • Improved reporting to excel • Better budgeting with the "what if" capability • Robust Reports • Accounts Receivable Module • Reports • E-Invoice • Accounts receivable module • Better reporting by being able to name saved reports for future use and to integrate

IFSpi data into Excel reports so we don't have to export and rebuild the report each time.

• Move away from IBM WEB Sphere. • User Security • Treasurer's Financial • Are you talking incorporating Social Welfare into IFS? • Improved reporting to/from and integration with Microsoft Office for Excel and Word.

Allow all reports be downloaded to MS Office. • Cash Drawer - keep making improvements so this can be a system to replace our current

ACS system • Accounts Receivable Module • Summary Human Services Data to GL • Browser issues - Firefox, Chrome, IE versions/updates • enhancing the report function - i.e. all reports have the ability to be exported as excel

documents • Daily cash count process- daily balancing for deposits • cash drawer overall improvements • Capital Assets Module • Laser Check Printing • Bank Rec • Capital assets • Reports--all available in Excel Download and Upload • Accounts receivable system • Investment Tracking

• Use stored procedures • Training - best practices using IFSpi - to use to its full capabilities • Easy options to include Social Welfare accounting • The ability to "drill down" on reports • Ability to customize reports by User • Budgets • Create all reports in Excel format so data can be manipulated and reported on in

different formats • create all reports in excel format • Electronic document management with AP. Submission of invoices electronically with

workflow through the entire process. • County Installable Releases with a better Install Process so county IT can install them. • Scan Documents Ability-scan receipts, checks, invoices to uploads • Fixed Assets • Security audit of software, improvement if necessary • Training and/or on-demand webinars, with ability to access how-to's, tips, Q&As, etc. • Reports - better usability, downloads available, etc • Customize reports by User • Accounts Receivable • Data encryption to FIPS 140-2 • enhancing IFS's ability to improve the budget process from beginning to end • capital assets or asset management system • Documentation - Complete. Both User Documentation and Technical Documentation • Capital Assets • Capital Assets • User Security-State Auditors • User Training-we have lots of new staff in the counties-am missing the annual training

for new workers • Work flow for vendor payments • Cashiering • Move away from IBM WEB Sphere • Advanced search capability • All reports available in Excel format • Scan Documents Ability • Electronic Invoicing, approvals, etc. • A/P • Better Integration with MS Office • one contract per county

• Budgeting module with reporting and workflow to incorporate the supervisors directly into the IFSpi process...instead of using Excel.

• User Security – State Auditors. • Electronic Invoices, Approvals, etc. • Investment Tracking • Protected/restricted client data - security on need to know basis • Advanced search capabilities • A/P - scan documents ability, more of an electronic process • County Installable Releases for IFS • Laser check printing that includes signature(s) • mobility • Cash Drawer • Perform a full industry standard security audit of IFS • Capital assest system • Reports to Excel • Cash Register Up to Industry Standards & Integrations • Ability to email reports directly to any email address - not just those with IFS sign ons • Documentation for training new workers • Better Integration with MS Office • Cash Drawer • Study what other systems do to get ideas • user group consolidation-improve communication • Training modules for new employees. • Perform a full industry standard security audit of the software. • Scanning Vouchers/Checks/Invoices • Improved Enhancement/Development/testing process • Improved cash drawer and integrated Treasurer's Financial module and reconciliation

programs so leaving the County's current vendors would be more feasible • IT Process - county installable releases (and good documentation to go along with them) • Replace WebSphere • Social welfare fund supported to eliminate need for TriMin SWS • scanning receipts and vouchers • Project Tracking • Create all reports in Excel format • Move away from WEB Sphere • Budgeting Module (with reporting) • Study other Systems to get ideas • training-mentor program • Upgrade web/app server and incorporate better mobility.

• E-Invoice • Integrating or working with a recommended vendor for invoice scanning for payments • County Involvement - group needs a strategy for getting new voices involved in these

discussions (other counties) • Laser Check Printing • A/R module to eliminate need for TriMIn ACS • Electronic scanning- E-invoices • Budget Documentation • Improved budgeting • Better Install Process • Advanced Search Ability • improvement of audits and standards • Cleaner drill down capabilities that would tie to the electronic storage of AP and cash

receipts. • Mobile solutions and improved browser access (why have to use IE browser that has

been updated 1-2 times already?) • Training - definitely need a better training plan (not just a year-end training) but better

focused training maybe even put on by other counties • Improve Download Reports to Xcel • Better install process • Laser Check Printing • Customize reports by user • Project tracking/reporting • Vendor Payments (front end) Workflow

Would you be willing to work on any design or project committees for IFS to help us accomplish our objectives?

• Yes: 15 • No: 3 • Unsure: 10

Counties Responding:

• Cook County • Benton County • Carver County Social Servcies • Hubbard County • Koochiching • Nicollet • Wright County Human Services

• Human Services of Faribault & Martin Counties • Des Moines Valley Health and Human Services • Fillmore • Lyon County • Goodhue County • Benton County • Brown County • Koochiching County/Information Systems • Carver County • Yellow Medicine County • Sherburne County • Nobles County • Brown County • Brown County • Carver County • Roseau County Social Services • Rice County • Kittson County • Rice / IT • Big Stone County Auditor's Office